HARWICH, Mass. -- Fans streamed through the gates on Saturday afternoon, carrying beach chairs and blankets. They came with coolers packed with dinner and snacks, and many had their lovable furry friends with them. If you didn’t know better -- or if you didn’t see the cell phones in hand -- you could be forgiven for thinking you had been transported back in time.

But no, this was the 2023 Cape Cod Baseball League’s All-Star Game. Already the preeminent summer wood bat league for college ballplayers, this contest featured the true cream of the crop and so fans braved the midsummer sun to get a glimpse at MLB’s future stars.

“It's a great atmosphere,” Andrew Lang, the president of the Cape Cod Baseball League told MLB.com before the game. “It's like going to a big picnic. There just so happens to be a baseball game going on at the picnic.”

That’s the beautiful dichotomy at the heart of Cape Cod baseball, which is celebrating its 100th year this summer. (While there were loosely organized games going back to the 1800s, the league was officially formed in 1923.) Located in the cradle of Massachusetts, where there are probably more ice cream shops and mini-golf locations than chain restaurants, the very best amateur players in the country come out to play. They stay with local host families, becoming extended family members along the way, and even get jobs during the summer at local businesses or by giving baseball lessons to children in the area.

“It’s been a crazy journey for me,” said Orleans Firebirds outfielder Jo Oyama, who is originally from Okinawa, Japan, but chose to come to the United States to play college baseball. “You know, four years ago I was a kid from Japan. I didn't speak English well, and I never thought about playing on the Cape. It’s crazy.”

“It’s different. [There's a] few more fans here -- definitely more kids in the crowd, that’s for sure,” Falmouth outfielder and Australian top prospect Travis Bazzana joked. He's rumored by some publications to be at the top of next year's Draft class, and a strong performance at the Cape could be the difference between rocketing up the draft lists or not. “There's a pretty relaxed vibe than most of the games I play in Australia.”

The league is run by baseball-hungry volunteers, who simply enjoy an evening out at the park and giving back to the community. It all combines to create a baseball atmosphere that is unlike anything else in the world.

“It’s always been this prestigious league because fans pull up in blankets and they lay them on the ground and watch the ballgame,” former Major League catcher and Bourne assistant coach Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. “Kids run around and want autographs ... All the fans appreciate that the game is here in their town. When you go to Hyannis, you have Hyannis fans. When you go to Orleans, you’ve got Orleans fans. It’s not one-sided -- it’s a battle of the city.”

Saltalamacchia is in his second season with the team, and he was drawn to the position for the same reason everyone else is: The atmosphere is incredible and the competition cannot be topped.

“Last year, we had a group of guys that literally did not want to go home. They just wanted to stay and win,” Saltalamacchia said. “They were supposed to go home weeks ago and they were like, ‘Nah, we’re gonna stay. We’re here to win, that’s what we’ll do.’ So, they stayed and we ended up winning. Seeing everyone [celebrating] on the mound, it was like, that’s what it’s all about.”

Though the league has a reputation and location that is the envy of all, they know they can’t simply assume that the very best players will always choose to play there. After 100 years in action, they want the next generation of fans and players to have the same kind of access to amazing baseball without sacrificing the things that make attending the game so special.

First, the league had former Red Sox outfielder and two-time World Series winner Jonny Gomes come to help with this year's pregame Home Run Derby. Gomes, who is also an ambassador for Baseball Cloud that provided analytics for the Derby, took the field and helped get the crowd worked up with on-field interviews with each of the participants.

“When I do stuff like this outside of competing, I'm kind of like the Swiss Army knife,” Gomes joked. “We’re bringing some data up here and throwing around the 2013 Red Sox [World Series], which plays up here a little bit. But at the end of the day, I’m just being a baseball rat surrounded by the history of the game.”

Instead of fighting it, the league embraces the new technology and data that has become increasingly important to players, coaches and teams over the years. They know that things like pitch spin and batted ball metrics are perhaps more important than a hitter's slash line when it comes to the draft room.

“We manage the relationship with the data between the coach and the player to help them understand it better and apply it better during games,” Jon Updike, the president of digital scouting and strategic initiatives for Baseball Cloud, said.

Updike was a scout in the Mets' system for over a decade and he knows how this data has changed the evaluation process in the room come draft day.

“The ‘Moneyball’ model of acquiring a player was three parts of the pie: A third of it was an area [scout’s] look, a third of it was a national look and a third of it was statistical analytics. If two-thirds of the puzzle were there, you could acquire the player. Now that model has changed over the past few years,” Updike explained. “Now, half of the player is traditional scouting, then statistical analysis. But the metrics are the fourth part now. If you don’t have that metrics and video aspect, that player on the board is only 75 percent complete.”

Gomes, who carved out his career by working harder than everyone else and providing the kind of value that doesn't show up in a box score put it succinctly:

“Data can rescue the diamond in the rough. It really can,” Gomes said. “So, the kid that can't get his slider over for a strike, but his slider is a 3,000 spin? That is elite. That 3,000 spin on a freakin’ slider is getting you drafted in the 15th round – I don't care what your ERA is.”

While the Cape may be modernizing in some ways, in others it hopes it never will. Teams still play at local community parks where a simple donation will get you in the gates. Some fields don't have lights -- and don't intend to ever add them.

“The on-field product has been around for 100 years. It really hasn’t changed, and I don’t see a change in the on-field products” Lang said. “The atmosphere at the games isn’t going to change because of the technologies that we’re bringing in. But when you’ve been around for 100 years, you don’t want to be those people who say, ‘Well, we’ve been around for 100 years, so we’re obviously doing it the right way.’”

At the end of the day, it’s the focus on the personal connection between player, coach, and community that is at the heart of Cape Cod baseball.

“Community doesn’t matter where you are, whether it's here or Hoboken, or Saskatchewan,” Eric Zmuda, the commissioner of the Cape Cod Baseball League said.

Zmuda has been involved in the league since 2010 when he gave up his basement to host a player before later becoming the GM of the Falmouth Commodores. Born and raised in Falmouth, he can’t envision a day where the teams and communities aren’t reflections of each other.

“The Commodores and the other franchises in the Cape League go through great effort to stay connected to their community members, whether going to town hall meetings in the offseason to talk about what they want to try to do for the next season. Or I can talk about when I was GM and what they still do, where in season you go to community events. Falmouth has their Strawberry Festival at St. Barnabas Church. They have readings for local libraries, they do field days at the schools before they let out for the school year in June."

For all the changes both on the Cape and in the sport, it all comes down to one very simple thing: It's baseball, and as long as you have that, you can't go wrong.

"It's amazing that through all of its changes and alterations, that it's still just nine innings of baseball: Throw, catch, hit. It's the basics," Zmuda said. "That is still the pureness of the game. Now, we'll share news and do different things, but I think it's still going to be nine players in the field. There's still going to be nine guys in the lineup. Now, with that, we'll [plan] about the future, but I think going to be baseball now and forever."