Judy Walden Scarafile, now in her 22d season as president of the Cape Cod Baseball League, reveals her favorite players and why she was once thrown out by Yankee Stadium security. Her only regret is not slugging the security guard who pulled her out of the press box.
Q. It seems like you’ve done it all with the league except pitch.
A. And I’ve done that, too. I threw a ceremonial first pitch once, and I don’t need to do it again. I warmed up for 45 minutes.
Q. Were you looking good in the bullpen?
A. [Long pause] Fair. I started in 1970 as an official scorekeeper. I love to tell that story, because the man who hired me was Dick Bresciani [the longtime Red Sox PR man]. My husband and I settled here year-round in 1975, and I just got more and more involved the longer I was here. That developed into public relations, writing with the Cape Cod Times, and then secretary, vice president, and then president.
Q, You didn’t expect to become president?
A. No, I did not. I never had this as a long-term goal. I never thought about it. I was the scorekeeper at Connecticut, and Dick was at UMass, in the days of the Yankee Conference. That was a great athletic conference, with really good baseball teams. UConn and UMass were archrivals and equally matched, really. So Dick and I were cordial to each other, but very professional. I mean, we weren’t pals. Then one April he called and asked, “Would you like to be an office scorekeeper for the Cape League? I could use another person.” I knew the Cape League; I would write about the UConn players who played here for the school paper when they came back in September. I was thrilled. I said yes immediately, but I never asked my mother. It took her a while to get used to it. But it all worked out. Here I am in the middle of my 45th year with the league.
Q. No one gets paid by the league, correct?
A. We’re all volunteers. We have 200 volunteers, and we’re very proud of that. The field managers and the assistant coaches are paid, but the general managers are not. Everyone else donates their time.
Q. I’m going to put you on the spot and ask about some of your favorite players over the years.
A. I can pick three, sort of by decade: Jeff Reardon, Ron Darling, and Carlos Pena. The funny thing is, they’re all from Massachusetts, and I never thought of that before. Jeff Reardon said, “If it weren’t for the Cape League, I never would’ve been in the majors.” He was not drafted out of UMass; we made the difference. Ron Darling is probably one of the most phenomenal players I’ve ever seen here on the Cape. He was a quarterback at Yale, obviously very smart. Playing in Cotuit, he got the nickname “AW”: All-World. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. He could pitch, play first base, play outfield, and hit. He was the most well-rounded player I’ve ever seen. And Carlos Pena was like the mayor of Wareham. He was an absolutely delightful young man. I’ve stayed in touch with him. I talked to him actually in March, on the day he got cut by Arizona. All three gentlemen are in our Hall of Fame.
Q. You say you didn’t think about being a pioneer for women in the workplace.
A. I did not get involved in baseball to do this, that, and the other. I got involved because I loved it. It’s funny – that was the start of the women’s liberation movement. I supported that, but I didn’t need to jump on the bandwagon. Actually, I was the first woman thrown out of the Yankee Stadium press box, in 1970, because I was a woman. The game was the Cape Cod Baseball League All-Stars and the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball All-Stars. There were maybe 200 people in the stadium all together. There were probably three other people in the press box, which held about 50. An hour before the game, the guy next to me said, “You know, you’re causing quite a ruckus.” I’m thinking “How? There’s nobody here.” Then I was physically removed. It was so absurd. The security guard put his arm on my bicep and said, “ we gotta Come on, we’ve got to go.” Why I didn’t haul off and clock him, I don’t know.
James Sullivan can be reached at jamesgsullivan@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @sullivanjames.