Bethesda Big Train
The Bethesda Big Train is a collegiate summer baseball team based in Bethesda, Maryland. The team is a member of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League (CRCBL), and derives its name from the nickname of Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson, who was a Bethesda resident for ten years. The Big Train plays its home games at Shirley Povich Field. As of August 2021, more than 195 Big Train alumni have played professional baseball, including 17 in the major leagues. History. The Bethesda Community Baseball Club, Inc. was founded in 1998 "to raise funds to improve the  quality of youth baseball and softball fields in Montgomery County and the District of Columbia." Proceeds from the operations of the Bethesda Big Train are used to further this mission. The Big Train commenced play in 1999 as part of the Clark Griffith Collegiate Baseball League (CGL). In 2004, they won the CGL championship. In 2005, the Big Train joined the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League (CRCBL). That first year, the team won the regular season championship and shared the league championship with the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts. In 2006 the Big Train were the regular season champions. In 2009 , the Big Train won both the regular season and league championships. In 2010, the Big Train captured their 2nd straight league championship after placing 3rd in the regular season, and in 2011 rolled to their 3rd consecutive league championship with a 36–9 overall record and were ranked the #1 summer collegiate baseball league team in the nation by Perfect Game USA. In early 2012, the Bethesda Community Base Ball Club announced that Big Train operations would come under the control of one of its longtime partners, BCC Baseball. In 2020, BCC Baseball decided to focus its business efforts on other  aspects and the Bethesda Community Base Ball Club was reconstituted with a community-based Board of Directors to re-establish the management of Big Train operations. The goal remained to support community-based activities in Montgomery County, Maryland and, to the extent that funds could be generated in excess of operating costs, to provide financial support for fixing up ballfields in Montgomery County In 2016, after a four-year title drought, Big Train captured the Cal Ripken League championship with a victory over the Baltimore Redbirds. The next year, Big Train again defeated the Redbirds in the finals to win  back-to-back league championships. That season, Big Train outfielder James Outman was named the 2017 National Summer Collegiate Player of the Year by Perfect Game after hitting .341 with 18 stolen bases and a league-best nine homers and 36 RBIs. The Big Train and Redbirds were named co-champions in 2018 due to inclement weather, and Big Train won their fourth straight league title in 2019 after defeating the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts in a three-game League Championship Series. Bethesda's 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Big Train won their fifth straight  league title in 2021 by sweeping the Alexandria Aces in two games during the League Championship Series. In addition to on-field efforts, Big Train runs a summer camp for children ages 5–12. Additional Background. In 2006, "Washington Post" columnist Marc Fisher called Big Train games at Shirley Povich Field "the ultimate small-town fantasy." In 2018, on the occasion of the 20th Big Train season, the Big Train Souvenir Program contained an article with the title "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Big Train." The article was written in the format of 20 questions and answers. Those  questions and answers are on display on the Big Train website.