page_title: Bourne Braves
section_title: The Upper and Lower Cape League era (1946–1962)
hierarchical_section_title: Bourne Braves / History / Pre-modern era / The Upper and Lower Cape League era (1946–1962)
caption_attribution_description: English: Bob Cleary and Bill Cleary
context_page_description: The Bourne Braves are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Bourne, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League and plays in the league's West Division. The Braves play their home games at Doran Park on the campus of Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School in Bourne. The Braves are owned and operated by the non-profit Bourne Athletic Association.
  Bourne won its first and only CCBL championship of the modern era in 2009 by defeating the Cotuit Kettleers two games to none to win the best of three championship series. The Braves and the Brewster Whitecaps joined the CCBL in 1988 as expansion teams, bringing the number of teams in the league to its current ten. The team has been led since 2003 by field manager Harvey Shapiro.
context_section_description: The Cape League was revived after World War II, and the new league began play in 1946 with 11 teams playing in Upper Cape and Lower Cape divisions. The town of Bourne was represented in the Upper Cape Division by Bourne and Sagamore teams. Bourne's team would become known as the Bourne Canalmen, and Sagamore's as the Sagamore Canal Clouters, or Sagamore Clouters.
  The Canalmen played in the league until 1950, then after a decade-long hiatus, returned to the league in 1961. The Bourne team of the 1940s featured CCBL Hall of Famer Jack Sanford, a hard-throwing lefty who would go on to play with Sagamore until 1954, winning a career total of 60 games in the league, including a no-hitter in 1953.
  The Clouters played at Keith Field, just steps from the Cape Cod Canal in the shadow of the Sagamore Bridge. Keith Field had been dedicated in 1936 and named in memory of Bourne native Eben Keith, a Massachusetts state senator and head of Keith Car & Manufacturing Company, once the Cape's largest industrial plant. The field was constructed privately by the Marconi Social and Athletic Club on land previously occupied by the Keith plant.
  The Clouters were initially led by CCBL Hall of Fame manager Pat Sorenti, who later served as president and commissioner of the Cape League. CCBL Hall of Famer George Karras was Sagamore's player-manager from 1948 to 1954. Karras' teams starred CCBL Hall of Famer Tello Tontini, the team's popular infielder, who was a seven-time all-star for Sagamore from 1946 to 1952. Karras was followed by fellow CCBL Hall of Famer Manny Pena, who had played in the league for Falmouth and Sagamore from 1946 to 1955, and skippered the Clouters from 1956 to 1961.
  Sagamore was a league powerhouse throughout the decade of the 1950s. To fans, it seemed that Sagamore would reach the league championship series every season, usually to face the Lower Cape's dominant team, Orleans. The Clouters claimed league titles in 1951, 1954, 1956 and 1959. At a time when most Cape League teams generally abided by the unwritten rule of using predominantly local players, Sagamore led the way in recruiting collegiate talent, and so set the stage for the league's modern era.
  In the 1954 Cape League championship series, Games 1 and 2 against Orleans were played as a doubleheader. In a matchup of CCBL Hall of Fame hurlers, Orleans took Game 1, 4–3, with Roy Bruninghaus outdueling the Clouters' Jack Sanford. Sagamore answered in Game 2 with a 5–3 victory behind moundsman Dick Smith. The Clouters took Game 3, but Orleans knotted the series with a 10–6 Game 4 victory, setting up a decisive Game 5 to be played on the neutral Chatham field. In the finale, the Clouters held down Orleans early, leading 5–0 after seven behind a masterful performance by Sanford. Orleans rallied to score three in the eighth, and with two down in the ninth, pushed across another and put the tying run on second. With the series on the line, Sanford put Orleans batter Johnny Linnell in the hole with two quick strikes. Linnell managed to foul off the next five offerings before Sanford finally whiffed him on a high ball to claim the crown for the Clouters.
  The Clouters faced Cotuit for the 1956 Upper Cape title, and swept the Kettleers in two games. Sagamore jumped out early in Game 1 at Lowell Park with a six-run second frame, and hurler Johnny Karras made it stand up, tossing a complete game in the 7–5 win. The Clouters pasted Cotuit at Keith Field in Game 2, striking in the second once again with an eight-run frame, and riding the strong arm of Dick Smith to the 13–2 victory. The win sent Sagamore to the Cape League title series against the Lower Cape champion Dennis Clippers. Smith twirled a two-hitter in Game 1 of the title tilt, and the Clouters downed the Clippers at Dennis, 7–1. Game 2 was a tight pitcher's duel early, but Sagamore scratched out a 5–3 win to secure its third Cape League championship in six years.
  From 1956 to 1958, the Clouters featured Billy Cleary, the 1958 Upper Cape MVP, and his brother Bobby Cleary. The Clearys were Harvard ice hockey standouts 
caption: In the late 1950s, brothers Billy and Bobby Cleary played for the Sagamore Clouters. The pair went on to lead the US to Olympic gold in ice hockey in 1960.
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