Cotuit Kettleers

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Cotuit Kettleers
Team Information
League Cape Cod Baseball League
Division Western Division
Location Cotuit, MA
Ballpark Lowell Park
History
League Championships
(12)		 1963, 1964, 1972, 1973,
1974, 1975, 1977, 1981,
1984, 1985, 1995, 1999
Post-Season Division
Championships (3)		 1992, 1995, 1999
Regular Season Division
Championships (5)		 1992, 1995, 1999, 2002,
2006
Last Season 14-27-3 (31 points)
4th Western Division
Management
President Martha Johnston
General Manager Bruce Murphy
Field Manager Mike Roberts

The Cotuit Kettleers are an amateur baseball team based in the village of Cotuit, which is in the southwest corner of the town of Barnstable. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League and plays in the league's Western Division. Cotuit currently plays its home games at Lowell Park. The team has been owned and operated by the non-profit Cotuit Athletic Association since 1947 and, like other Cape League teams, are funded through merchandise sales, donations, and other fundraising efforts at games such as fifty-fifty raffles[1].

The Kettleers finished the 2007 season in fourth place in the Western Division with a total of 31 points. Cotuit has won more Cape League titles in the Modern Era than any other team in history with twelve, their last of which came in 1999.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] The Pre-Modern Era

The Cotuit Athletic Association began sponsoring the Cape League's Kettleers in 1947[2]. Cotuit won the last two Cape League titles of the Pre-Modern Era in 1961 and 1962.

[edit] The Modern Era

The Kettleers won the first two Cape League championships of the Modern Era. After finishing the regular season with an astonishing 28-4 record in 1963, Cotuit defeated the Orleans Cardinals two games to none to win the title. The next season, the Kettleers finished the year with a 31-3 record and won the Cape League championship three games to one over the Chatham Athletics.

From 1969 through 1987, Cotuit was the most consistent team in the Cape League, making the playoffs in eighteen out of the nineteen seasons. The Kettleers would reach the championship series ten times during that span and win the title a total of eight times, including winning four consecutive championships between 1972 and 1975.

The Kettleers during this period received national attention in the 2008 presidential election when a program in 1967 surfaced that identified Bill Richardson as "Drafted By K.C." Richardson who claimed on his resume that he had been drafted to play professional ball had in fact never been drafted.[3]

It would take five years for Cotuit to return to the championship series after this astounding run. In 1992, the Kettleers won the Western Division Regular Season title and then defeated the Wareham Gatemen to advance to the championship series. There, however, Cotuit was swept by Eastern Division champions Chatham two games to none.

In 1995, exactly ten years after their last title, Cotuit got revenge on Chatham, defeating the Athletics two games to one for the Cape League championship. The Kettleers would win the title again in 1999, again defeating Chatham in three games.

With all of their success from the late 1960s through the early 1980s, Cotuit is seen as the historically most prolific Cape League team of the Modern Era. The Kettleers hold the record for most league championships with twelve and most playoff appearances with 28 and is second to only Chatham with fifteen championship series appearances.[4]

[edit] Famous Alumni

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cotuit Athletic Association, Inc.. Retrieved 2007-07-04
  2. ^ Cotuit Athletic Association, Inc.. Retrieved 2007-07-04
  3. ^ [http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/35485.html Four decades later, Richardson acknowledges he wasn't drafted by pro baseball team - Associated Press - November 24, 2005 (via freenewmexican.com)
  4. ^ Cape League Championships. Retrieved 2007-07-04.

[edit] External links