They say once you get Cape Cod sand in your shoes, you’ll always come back.
For many of us, the crack of the bat has its say too. Keith Chirgwin knows the feeling. He always comes back.
And he knew, eventually, he’d be back with a camera.
Chirgwin and a small crew spent much of last summer filming for a docu-series about the Cape Cod Baseball League that has since been dubbed Cape Hope. The series follows four Cape Leaguers – Mike Montville, Tyler Horan, Dace Kime and Kurt Schluter – capturing their summers and their stories. Chirgwin is currently shopping the project to nationwide sports networks and other cable networks.
For Chirgwin, the project was a long time coming. He vacationed with his family on the Cape as a kid and his parents now have a house in Orleans. The Cape League captured his imagination.
“I think, early on, I grasped that the Cape Cod Baseball League is something really unique and special,” Chirgwin said. “You’re completely in the game – right on top of the action, the players are accessible. It’s unlike any baseball experience out there.”
Out of college, Chirgwin started working on the audio side of film and television production, climbing the ladder and doing his part on a host of successful of projects. One of those – an ESPN The Season documentary on basketball in Kentucky – planted the seed for a similar project about the Cape League.
“Working on that show really helped me formulate the idea,” Chirgwin said.
Chirgwin let it simmer for a while, keeping it on the back burner as he made a name for himself in the business.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but when I was first starting out, I was just a sound guy,” he said. “Now I feel like I’ve made the right connections in the business, and I know how to put a project in front of the right eyes and ears.”
Before the 2012 season, he decided to pull the trigger. He reached out to the league and to schools in search of players to follow. By the winter of 2012, he had a preliminary list and he kept a close eye on the college season. When June rolled around, he had settled on his four. Montville was set to come to Orleans from Maryland; Horan, a Middleboro, Mass., native was joining the Wareham Gatemen from Virginia Tech; Kime was bound for Chatham after his sophomore year at Louisville; and Schluter was headed from Stetson to Chatham.
In the meantime, Chirgwin brought cameraman Eric Scharmer on board. His resume includes the documentary Touching the Game: The Story of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Writer Scott Smith was also recruited.
Then it was time.
Chirgwin balanced his day-to-day duties with his company, Wave View Entertainment – who has partnered with New Wave Entertainment – and made treks back-and-forth from his home in Connecticut to the Cape. Together, he and Scharmer captured as much of the summer as they could.
Through the lens, they watched legendary manager John Schiffner explain the essence of a Cape summer to his players. They watched Montville hit a home run on opening night – and then struggle mightily before putting together a late resurgence. And they watched Horan deliver one of the great offensive seasons the league has ever seen on his way to a league championship with the Gatemen.
“It was a challenge but it was a blast,” Chirgwin said. “It’s hard to pick a favorite story, but following Tyler Horan to the championship was really cool.”
Chirgwin’s goal was to capture every layer of a Cape Leaguer’s experience, from the often-close relationship built with his host family to the weight of playing in front of Major League scouts every day, a future on the line.
“It’s compelling stuff,” Chirgwin said.
He also wanted to focus on the coaches, a select crew who count themselves lucky to have had their baseball lives take them to the Cape’s sandy shores.
“Kelly Nicholson from Orleans said at the First Pitch Brunch last year, ‘We have the 10 best jobs in baseball,'” Chirgwin said. “That really resonates.”
All those stories deserve the spotlight, and Chirgwin is looking hard for it. Timing has been tricky. The shopping of the project coincided with the in-between time in television budget cycles, but networks are starting to look more at 2014, and that could be Cape Hope’s window. Chirgwin has had discussions with several networks.
The goal is to get Cape Hope on the air as a multi-episode, multi-season series. Down the line, it could happen on a quick turnaround, with more filming in a future season and a broadcast happening during the same summer.
However it shakes out, hopes for Cape Hope will remain high.
“I have no idea if I’m going to succeed,” Chirgwin said. “But I’m pretty confident. I think it’s a really cool project.”
For more on the Cape Hope series, follow on Twitter @capehopeseries and Like on Facebook at facebook.com/capehopeseries