Cape Cod Baseball League live-streams games while continuing baseball tradition
COTUIT — The Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League are looking back at 75 years of tradition this season while moving the franchise into the future viewing games.
The Kettleers have installed a $21,000 high-speed internet system at Lowell Park designed to enable a live-stream of all home games to fans via YouTube.com.
While the franchise has been able to broadcast games nationally in the past, the new system works at “the speed of light,” said Fran Maycock, treasurer of the board of directors of the Cotuit Athletic Association.
The quality of the live streaming is superior to the old, coaxial cable system of the past, said Barb Howell, marketing specialist at OpenCape Corporation, a Barnstable nonprofit that engineered and installed the new system.
Superior technology with higher quality images, no freezing up
“It is superior technology. There is no rendering or buffering (freezing up),” Howell said. “It’s like watching the game in real time.”
With the addition of three new high-definition cameras as part of the system, the images are clearer than the previous system, Maycock said.
“You can actually see the blades of grass on the field," he said. "That’s how hi-def it is.”
The installation of the fiber connection cost more than $4,000 with a monthly cost of $400 to $500 to stream the games, Maycock said.
But the Cotuit baseball organization said the expense is long overdue.
“Our existing stuff was outdated," Kettleers President Terry Moran said. "We wanted to take a step up, and this was the way to do it.”
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The Cape Cod Baseball League, which was founded in 1885, is a nonprofit collegiate summer league with a 40-game regular season.
Players representing all NCAA college divisions are recruited to play in the 10-team league. Teams are in Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Cotuit, Falmouth, Harwich, Hyannis, Orleans, Wareham and Yarmouth-Dennis.
At the field in Cotuit, the streaming is operated by a team
In Cotuit, the streaming system is operated by a team of six or seven interns in the press box that includes four computer screens scanning the field from behind the plate, behind first base and behind third, said Wrentham native and Hofstra University intern Tim Crowley.
“It is very much like a TV broadcast,” Crowley said.
The live-streaming system was in place for the first game of the season, on June 14, and was tested out in a pre-season scrimmage. Although the technology is new — the Kettleers have only played one home game, so far — the interns in the press box who run the system said it is working out very well.
The new feature has proven particularly popular with the parents of the players, team officials said.
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Cotuit Kettleer Caleb Lomavita is a native of Oahu, Hawaii, and plays college baseball at the University of California at Berkeley.
“I got my parents watching back home,” Lomavita said. "It’s a nice feeling to have somebody supporting you all the way.”
The Kettleers also plan to eventually stream games to the concession stand so fans can continue following play while waiting in line, Moran said.
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Brooks Baldwin is a second-year temporary player for the Kettleers who plays for the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
His father, Chuck Baldwin, played in the Cape League for the Wareham Gatemen and the then-Orleans Cardinals.
“He knows what it’s like, so he likes to watch and see what’s going on,” Brooks Baldwin said. “He’s always correcting me on stuff that he sees. And my mother is a big fan, too.”
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cotuit Kettleers add hi-def live-streaming to Cape League Baseball
