The summer of 2012 will go down in Cape Cod Baseball League annals as one of the most offense-heavy seasons in the league’s wood bat history.
It will also go down as an exception.
When home runs started piling up last summer, speculation that the balls were juiced picked up steam and it was ultimately determined that there was, in fact, something different.
For a league that’s built in part on providing scouts an accurate representation of baseball talent, the offensive inflation was no small thing.
And it shouldn’t be happening again.
Commissioner Paul Galop confirmed in an email that the baseballs used this summer will be more in line with those from pre-2012 seasons.
“We had extensive baseball testing completed over the winter and the 2013 baseballs are consistent with pre-2012 baseballs,” Galop said.
I’ll miss the power show. It was exciting, but it wasn’t quite right. Someone might still break a home run record this year. But we won’t have to wonder how much the baseballs impacted that record – and that’s a good thing.
Last season was the best CCBL season ever, at least from this fan’s perspective. I’ll miss the 2012 baseballs. Now we’re going back to the Deadball Era.