ArcaMax

Which one?

Which one will be the next baseball superstar?

We're sitting on the grass with several hundred parents and kids on a balmy summer night in Falmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod watching the Falmouth Commodores play the Orleans Firebirds.

Coming to watch the Cape Cod Baseball League -- 10 teams comprised of 350 elite college players from around the country -- is a Cape Cod tradition dating back to the 19th century, just as is vacationing on Cape Cod -- which offers more than 550 miles of spectacular coastline in Massachusetts with beaches (the Cape Cod National Seashore), historic lighthouses, clam shacks, bike trails and summer vacations like they used to be and all the more easier to reach with Jet Blue’s summer service from New York to Hyannis -- just 66 minutes.

"I've been coming to Sea Crest since I was five and I'm 43," said Kathleen Donovan, who is from Boston and was relaxing at the pool with some of her extended family at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel on Buzzard's Bay in North Falmouth. They stay there every year, she said.

The Sullivans, who were at the baseball game, come all the way from Scotland to Falmouth every summer. "Our friends don't understand why we come," said Louise Sullivan, explaining that her husband and two kids so enjoy their summer sojourn that the anticipation is nearly as much fun as the trip itself.

That includes taking in a baseball game or two, especially for 14-year-old Anders. "I only get to see this once a year," he explained.

Wherever visitors are from rooting on these players and these teams has become a top Cape Cod tourist attraction, drawing some 330,000 fans over the summer. "Nothing else draws nearly that many people on the Cape," says John Gardner, who serves as a spokesman for the league's all-volunteer organization. (Ocean Edge Resort & Golf Club has a special package that includes a two-hour session for two kids at the Brewster Whitecaps Youth Clinic and more.)

A big part of the appeal: The chance to watch future Major League players and future superstars -- for free. At this past June's Major League draft, 13 of the 18 collegiate players drafted were Cape League alumnae. There are currently 265 Major League players who spent a summer playing baseball on Cape Cod -- among them Matt Harvey playing for the N.Y. Mets; Buster Posey for the San Francisco Giants; Chris Johnson for the Atlanta Braves and Jacoby Ellsbury for the Boston Red Sox -- and the League counts 1,040 players dating back to Babe Ruth's time, including his Yankees roommate "Jumping" Joe Dugan.

That's why it is such a popular guessing game among fans and the media ("60 Minutes" filmed a segment here recently) to figure out who will be the next generation's stars. These elite college players come from around the country -- California and Nevada, Florida and Missouri, Virginia and Kentucky, and live with some 200 families who volunteer to house and feed them.

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