So I finished up my meetings at around 4pm on Wednesday. Being in New Hampshire, but right along the Massachusetts state line, I got curious, so I called my friend Pat and asked him for the address of The Squire in Chatham, MA.
Now in order to understand why I did this, one must know my penchant for the somehow non-award-winning film Summer Catch. Inexplicably, this is one of my favorite movies of all time. The acting: terrible. The plotlines: Horrendous. The baseball scenes: lackluster at best. The movie as whole: INCREDIBLE. I used to watch this movie every night before I pitched in college. I'm not sure what the big draw was about it (aside from Jessica Biel), but I do know that as soon as friends of mine started watching the movie as well, they all became hooked. By junior year, I had teammates screaming out quotes from the movie to me while I was literally mid-windup. It caught on like wildfire. I then shared with non-baseball players, and happened upon a friend of mine (the aforementioned Pat) who had a house in Cape Cod and was, like me, obsessed with the movie. Pat told me that the scenes in the "Oasis" are derived from a dive bar on Main Street in Chatham called The Squire. So when Pat told me the address, as I mentioned above, even though the GPS spit out a 2-hour commute, I had to make the pilgrimage.
Now in order to understand why I did this, one must know my penchant for the somehow non-award-winning film Summer Catch. Inexplicably, this is one of my favorite movies of all time. The acting: terrible. The plotlines: Horrendous. The baseball scenes: lackluster at best. The movie as whole: INCREDIBLE. I used to watch this movie every night before I pitched in college. I'm not sure what the big draw was about it (aside from Jessica Biel), but I do know that as soon as friends of mine started watching the movie as well, they all became hooked. By junior year, I had teammates screaming out quotes from the movie to me while I was literally mid-windup. It caught on like wildfire. I then shared with non-baseball players, and happened upon a friend of mine (the aforementioned Pat) who had a house in Cape Cod and was, like me, obsessed with the movie. Pat told me that the scenes in the "Oasis" are derived from a dive bar on Main Street in Chatham called The Squire. So when Pat told me the address, as I mentioned above, even though the GPS spit out a 2-hour commute, I had to make the pilgrimage.
I drove out to Cape Cod as night began to fall. Cut through Boston and out into rural, and eventually coastal, Massachusetts. I had never been to Cape Cod before, and although it was pretty dark by the time I arrived, the place looks gorgeous. The houses are huge, the feeling is very old-time, rustic New England, and the seafood was fresh, so luckily for me, the kitchen at the Squire was open.
http://www.thesquire.com/
I opted for a cup of clam chowder and an order of the buffalo shrimp, and washed it down with a glass of Naragansett beer. If I were really going for the whole Summer Catch experience, I probably would have had a Sam Adams, but quite honestly, I can't stand that garbage. The clam chowder was great, the buffalo shrimp were more breading than shrimp, and the Naragansett, well, it was reminiscent of Keystone Light, only not as light. I had it a couple times before when in Rhode Island, and really don't remember it being this bad.
So overall, the food gets a meager 5 Bearclaws.
However, I wasn't there for the food. I was there to walk the movie-set reminiscent footsteps of Ryan Dunne, #26, the hometown lefty. I was there to talk Chatham A's baseball with the bartender (which I did.) I was there to see a couple Cape Cod townies (which I did.) I was there to talk about life during the summers at the Cape (which I really did not.) I was there to feel like a huge loser (which I did.) Either way, the bar was very reminiscent of the one in the movie, and I think it's now safe to say I'm maybe the only person who has ever made a "Pilgrimage" to the Squire in Chatham to talk about the movie Summer Catch. That's the kind of stuff you do when you're alone in New England with a company car and 7 hours to kill.
That being said, upon telling a number of my fellow Summer Catch junkies about the pilgrimage, a summer visit has been all but guaranteed, and I'm looking forward to soaking it all in when the weather is warm and the bats are cracking.
http://www.thesquire.com/
I opted for a cup of clam chowder and an order of the buffalo shrimp, and washed it down with a glass of Naragansett beer. If I were really going for the whole Summer Catch experience, I probably would have had a Sam Adams, but quite honestly, I can't stand that garbage. The clam chowder was great, the buffalo shrimp were more breading than shrimp, and the Naragansett, well, it was reminiscent of Keystone Light, only not as light. I had it a couple times before when in Rhode Island, and really don't remember it being this bad.
So overall, the food gets a meager 5 Bearclaws.
However, I wasn't there for the food. I was there to walk the movie-set reminiscent footsteps of Ryan Dunne, #26, the hometown lefty. I was there to talk Chatham A's baseball with the bartender (which I did.) I was there to see a couple Cape Cod townies (which I did.) I was there to talk about life during the summers at the Cape (which I really did not.) I was there to feel like a huge loser (which I did.) Either way, the bar was very reminiscent of the one in the movie, and I think it's now safe to say I'm maybe the only person who has ever made a "Pilgrimage" to the Squire in Chatham to talk about the movie Summer Catch. That's the kind of stuff you do when you're alone in New England with a company car and 7 hours to kill.
That being said, upon telling a number of my fellow Summer Catch junkies about the pilgrimage, a summer visit has been all but guaranteed, and I'm looking forward to soaking it all in when the weather is warm and the bats are cracking.
Great story. I saw summer catch and it was an OK movie. But I have been to Chatham A's games in 2007 & 2008, missed last year but we're going back this summer. Seeing an A's game is a must. One thing for the uninformed many of the A's baseball scenes are actually shot at the Harwich Mariners field so make sure you go see a game there also. But Chatham is the best venue in the league. I'd trade a 44 game season on Cape Cod for a 162 MLB schedule. Hopefully someday I'll get a chance to spend several weeks just slumming around CCBL games after I retire. Opening day is only 88 days away June 13.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I loved this one. I haven't see Summer Catch in quite some time but I do recall it leaving me with a slight FPJ crush and a hope that the Rider fam would decide to relocate to Cape Cod.
ReplyDelete