King of the Cape: How Steve Englert turns college kids into MLB stars

Andrew Lawrence

King of the Cape: How Steve Englert turns college kids into MLB stars image

For college baseball players with dreams of making it to the next level, there’s one place to spend the summer: Cape Cod, Mass. 

More specifically, they want to play for one of the 10 teams that compete in the Cape Cod Baseball League, regarded as the top collegiate summer league in the nation, where college coaches send their elite players to compete against the best of the best. The CCBL routinely churns outs dozens of MLB draft picks each June, so scouts flock to high school fields in towns such as Hyannis, Bourne and Brewster to try to find the next big thing.

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While the league as a whole is known as a place where good college players turn themselves into professionals, the Harwich Mariners may lay claim as the team that turns good college players into stars. Why does Harwich produce seemingly more big-name players than other teams in the league? Look no further than Mariners manager Steve Englert.

After joining the Mariners’ coaching staff in 1998 as an assistant, Englert was promoted to field manager in 2003 and has been rolling through the streets of Harwich with the windows down in his gold Cadillac ever since. He’s become somewhat of a local legend during his 19 years on the Cape — not just for his recognizable Tommy Bahama shirts or his affable personality masked by a thick Boston-accent, but because he’s managed seemingly more future superstars than anyone else in the CCBL. 

Players such as two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum, 2015 American League MVP Josh Donaldson, and former Giants All-Star and two-time world champion Brandon Belt have all called Englert coach, just to name a few. 

So, what’s his secret? Why is it that Englert-coached players seem to blossom into stars at a greater rate than anyone else?

“I don’t know about turning players into stars — they’re already pretty freaking good when they get to us,” Englert said. “We try not to screw them up, that’s all.”

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Despite his insistence that he and his staff have no real bearing on the outcome of his players’ careers, they would disagree.

“The way Coach E ran the Mariners definitely prepared me to play in the big leagues,” said Orioles starting pitcher Kevin Gausman, a former Harwich player. “He respects every player the same way. He expects every player who comes through that team to do everything they can to help the team win. ... He doesn’t sugarcoat anything and when you need a firm kick in the butt that we all need sometimes, he does it in a way that really gets his players behind him.”

In other words, Englert treats his players the way they can expect to be treated once they reach the pros. 

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“Scouts don’t come to the Cape to see the game manipulated. They want to see the players play, and we do our best to do that." (Photo courtesy of Emily Reed/Harwich Mariners) 

Managing young players like self-sufficient adults may seem like a fairly trivial and obvious tactic, but it can be a big departure from what many players experience during their college season, when nearly every minute of practices and workouts is scripted and most of their free time is planned. To counter this somewhat militaristic approach to the game, Englert manages the Mariners in accordance with three simple, yet major, tenets:

“Show up on time, pay attention to what we’re trying to teach, and play your butt off,” he said. “Give me an honest effort each and every day, and the summer will be enjoyable and productive.” 

With CCBL titles in 2008 and 2011, and Manager of the Year Awards for Englert in 2012 and 2014, getting production from players in Harwich isn't an issue. Nor is there a lack of enjoyment on the part of Englert's players. Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle put it most succinctly: “I had a lot of fun playing for him up in the Cape.”  

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If it seems like Englert's approach is simple and logical, it’s because it is. And it’s a method that has produced big leaguers for well more than a decade. 

Englert also understands what the Cape Cod Baseball League is about. While winning games is always the goal, players are there to showcase their abilities to scouts — and Englert lets that happen.

“Anytime you keep score and there’s a win to be had, be it golf, checkers, hoops, whatever, I want to win. That doesn’t change on the Cape,” he said. “However, and this is a big ‘however,' we will not sacrifice an opportunity for a player to showcase his talent [to the scouts] or abuse or overuse anyone to get a win.” 

For example, Englert said the Mariners won’t bunt until the eighth or ninth inning of a game, and maybe not even then, because they want to let their hitters hit. They let their catchers call their own games to give them practice scouting an opposing lineup. They’ll even sacrifice a potential no-hitter by pulling a pitcher because he’s hit his pitch limit. This somewhat hands-off style of in-game management is universally welcomed by his players.

“Coach E created the best atmosphere a player could ask for,” said Cubs rookie sensation and former first-round draft pick Ian Happ. “He rolled the balls out and let us play; success or failure, he was the same guy, which really prepared me for professional baseball.” 

This philosophy of “go out and play” may seem laid back, but it’s one that his players love. And it ensures that each has the best opportunity to get on the radar of any scouts in attendance.

“Scouts don’t come to the Cape to see the game manipulated,” Englert said. “They want to see the players play, and we do our best to do that. If it costs us a few losses throughout the summer, so be it. Some other [teams] have different approaches that work, but that’s our philosophy in Harwich, and it won’t change.”

Though allowing players to showcase their abilities is Englert’s primary goal during the summer, he also focuses on player development. In addition to his role as the Mariners’ field manager during the summer, he has been an assistant coach at the college level for nearly two decades, making stops at the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, Holy Cross, Boston College and Northeastern. He uses the baseball knowledge he picked up at each of these schools to connect with even the most naturally gifted players on the Cape.

“We don’t force anything on anyone, but we’ll make suggestions — ‘Hey, try this pitch this way’ — if we think it’ll help,” he said. “They‘re playing in the Cape for a reason — talent level — but we will work on something every day to help them get better: defensive work, baserunning, approach at the plate, etc.” 

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For their part, he said, the players are always receptive and eager to learn something new. And so is he. Even though he’s not on the field playing, Englert is always looking to better his craft. 

“What a great way to pick up new teaching philosophies when you have players from 25-30 different schools on your squad, and you can ask each, ‘Hey, what do you do at your school regarding this,’ or, ‘How do you handle that at your school.’ It’s awesome,” he said. “I have accrued so much baseball knowledge over the years from players and I just try to pass it on.”

All these different facets — a “professional” coaching model, the opportunity to showcase talent, and an emphasis on daily personal development through knowledge sharing — combine to help prepare Englert’s players to be stars at the next level. 

The true impact he has on his players in not measured by how many make it to the big leagues, but by how they remember the ways he helped them.

“DJ LeMaheiu drove down [to Harwich] from Boston on his day off. ... Brandon Belt leaves tickets for my family all the time,” Englert said. “You feel extremely happy for [the former players], especially when you see their work ethic first hand and it’s paid off.”

The relationships he creates with his players often go beyond their time in the dugout at Whitehouse Field in Harwich.

“Some of my best memories on the Cape were on the golf course with Coach E,” Happ said. “[We’d] talk baseball and [I] would learn from all his experience in the game.”

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This personal aspect of his coaching style cannot go overlooked. For these talented college players to accept the roadmap he offers them, they first have to know he has their best interest in mind. And he does.

“The only two things I hate about being a coach in the Cape are releasing a temporary player and only having the opportunity to coach most of these guys for one summer,” Englert said. “I have been crushed a few times when the season has ended because I know it’s the last time that team will be together.”

While some may look at Englert’s track record of sending players to the majors and assume he has some scientific process that allows them to climb to the game's highest level, he and his players know it’s much more organic than that, and truly a labor of love.

When it comes down to it, there is no secret as to why so many former Mariners become stars. Their manager cares about them, encourages them to be themselves, and instills in them the drive to continually get better. And those are lessons Englert’s players take with them long after they leave Harwich.

“I wouldn’t trade my job for anything. No way,” Englert said.

That’s good, because with the reputation he’s earned on the Cape, college players will clamor to play for him for years to come.

Sporting News correspondent Ryan Davis contributed.

Andrew Lawrence