Nine Innings with a Baseball Legend
Judy Walden Scarafile ’71 (CLAS) remembers being at a party years ago where the guests were posed a question: What do you fear in life? A common response was being left alone, without a partner or friends to share experiences with. Her answer: “I don’t ever want to be bored.”
Scarafile is perhaps best known for her six-decade tenure with the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League, which includes 24 years as president. In 2003, she was the first woman inducted into its Hall of Fame.
But baseball is just one of the many bases Scarafile has rounded in her wide-ranging, anything-but-boring career of public service, health care, and humanitarian philanthropy. Let’s play nine innings with one remarkable woman.
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Raised in Demarest, New Jersey, Scarafile finished high school at Housatonic Valley Regional in Falls Village, Connecticut, alma mater of Pittsburgh Pirates 1971 World Series hero Steve Blass. Scarafile arrived in Storrs as a first-year in 1967 with a desire to be a baseball reporter for the student newspaper. However, the only assignment available at The Daily Campus was women’s track. She wasn’t interested and was leaving the office when they called her back. It turns out there was another opportunity after all, and soon Scarafile was on the baseball beat covering head coach Larry Panciera’s Huskies.
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Her travels with the team around the Yankee Conference for four years led her to a friendship with Dick Bresciani, who was in the sports information office at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. “Bresch,” who later would become a longtime executive with the Boston Red Sox, spent summers as a statistician and publicist in the Cape Cod League. He was impressed with Scarafile’s work at The Daily Campus and recruited her to the Cape in 1970, where her duties included being official league scorer for games and writing reports for the Cape Cod Times.
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In 1970, the Cape League All-Star game was in New York City against the Atlantic Collegiate League at Yankee Stadium. Scarafile took a seat in the press box to serve as the scorer. There were only a couple hundred fans in the stands and just a handful of people in the press box. However, she was the only woman, and her appearance created an uncomfortable stir among stadium officials. This was a place for men only; she was ordered to leave.“I tried to resist and explain,” Scarafile says. “It was a summer college game, not a big deal. But a security guard grabbed me by the arm, told me to go, and led me out. I watched from two rows behind, overlooking a near-empty press box.”
Scarafile prepares to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sept. 26, 2015.
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Scarafile overcame that humiliation to become one of the most respected and honored women in amateur baseball. After graduating from UConn in 1971, she had dreams of a career in professional baseball and returned to the Cape League — and this time she never left. For the next 45 years she held nearly every position, from publicist to secretary, to deputy commissioner, to vice president — and, in 1991, president.
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Widely recognized as the No. 1 summer collegiate baseball league in the country, the 10-team Cape League thrived under Scarafile’s leadership. Many of the Major League’s top stars, such as Aaron Judge, Paul Skenes, Chris Sale, and Pete Alonso, played in the league. More than 300 of its alumni are currently in the majors.
As director of corporate development, Scarafile generated more than $7 million in sponsorships and foundation support. She remains involved in the league today as a volunteer with the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, who play on Judy Walden Scarafile Field at McKeon Park.
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Judy met Peter Scarafile in 1973 while working as a pharmacy technician. She majored in biology and chemistry at UConn, and he was a pharmacology student at Northeastern University. Peter encouraged Judy to pursue a career as a pharmacist, which she did, earning a degree from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. She and Peter have been married for 51 years.
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While working as a registered pharmacist — and in the Cape League during the summer — Scarafile also pursued a passion for traveling, working as a travel agent and published travel writer. She and Peter have been to all 50 states in the U.S., including dozens of national parks. Their favorites are Acadia in Maine and the Arches in Utah. They’ve been on an African safari and have visited Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera four times. Judy also notes a memorable whitewater rafting trip in New Mexico with her mother.
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Scarafile’s commitment to helping those in need runs deep. She has been on several humanitarian teams, twice deployed to Haiti after earthquakes, to Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief, and to New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. Last fall she provided aid in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
At home she is the managing director of the Cape Cod and the Islands Major Crisis Relief Fund and, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, was instrumental in organizing nearly 200 clinics to distribute vaccines. She has volunteered at food pantries and homeless shelters, has taught English to Haitians on Cape Cod, and, through her church, helps organize an annual 9/11 day of remembrance.
Scarafile serves on the board of trustees of the Yawkey Foundation, which honors the late Tom and Jean Yawkey, longtime owners of the Boston Red Sox, and has awarded more than $600 million in charitable grants.
When not helping the human race, she was part of a stranding network to rescue marine mammals off Cape Cod.
In recognition of her 2015 retirement as president of the Cape League, Scarafile was a celebrated guest at Yankee Stadium and reunited with former Cape League player, then–New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
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Scarafile’s unwavering efforts have not gone unnoticed. She has been recognized by the American Red Cross with a Community Service Hero Award and as the Mercy Otis Warren Cape Cod Woman of the Year for significant contributions and embracing the ideals of patriotism.
Her numerous baseball awards include National Amateur Baseball Woman of the Year by USA Baseball and National High School Baseball Coaches Association Woman of the Year.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, New York, included her in its “Diamond Dreams” exhibit, tracing women’s influential roles in the game.
Scarafile is particularly proud of the Andy Baylock Distinguished Service Award for contributions to college baseball. Baylock was on Panciera’s staff at UConn when Scarafile was a student reporter covering the team and later was a manager in the Cape League. They have remained friends for more than 50 years.
And in a capstone to her remarkable career, when Scarafile retired as Cape League president in 2015, she was a celebrated guest of the New York Yankees at a game at Yankee Stadium. In a full-circle twist of irony, she was invited onto the field during pregame activities, where she met several former Cape League players, including Yankee manager Joe Girardi. And, 45 years after that ignominious heave-ho, Scarafile was welcomed to watch the game in the Yankee Stadium press box.
By Bill Higgins
Sign Photo by Joseph F. Cavanaugh III
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