JUDY WALDEN SCARAFILE HAS BEEN A PIONEER SINCE SHE WAS ESCORTED OUT OF THE YANKEE STADIUM PRESS BOX IN 1970 FOR BEING THE FIRST WOMAN TO CLAIM HER PLACE THERE. The then-University of Connecticut sports reporter had been invited to join the Cape League as a scorer by former league official Dick Bresciani and she was on assignment covering its all-star game.

"All I wanted to do was my job. To be held back because I was a woman was ridiculous," Scarafile says. Not much has held Scarafile back since. She has served the Cape Cod Baseball League for 39 years, including 18 years as president. Continuing her role as a pioneer, in 2003 Scarafile became the first woman to be inducted into the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame.

Scarafile has led the 125-year-old NCAA summer league through unprecedented growth and heightened competition. She says, "The Cape League was always considered one of the best summer leagues; but over the last 25 years it's clearly been defined as the best."

A look at any Major League Baseball team roster would confirm the league's slogan that the Cape is "where the stars of tomorrow shine tonight." The 2008 major league baseball season featured 205 former Cape League players.

The Cape League's media efforts have "absolutely taken off in the last 25 years," according to Scarafile. The organization reaches fans through live Internet broadcasts, major radio station coverage, and a regional half-hour cable television show produced with Cape Cod Community Media Center, "Cape League on Deck."

However, Scarafile credits the Cape League's success to a team of 200 volunteers. "We tell players that without the volunteers in their organization, there is no organization; there's no team; there's no baseball," she says firmly.

Cape League volunteers and team members contribute their efforts to many worthy causes in addition to baseball. The Cotuit Kettleers send players to visit patients at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox members participate in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. You can find league officials and volunteers collecting donations for the Salvation Army during the holidays or assisting in any number of other programs.

One of the most fulfilling moments for Scarafile was when the Cape League received the Pride in Cape Cod Award in 2000, presented by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and several banks, for being the volunteer organization with the greatest economic impact on Cape Cod. Scarafile says, "It made the business community sit up and take notice; and it says to volunteers that you're a member of this community and we're all going to work together."

While Scarafile is proud of the league's development, she would like to see the playing season extended a few days later in mid-August, when more fans attend games and team rosters are stable.

And she considers what her continuing leadership role will bring. The busy president, who also works as a per-diem pharmacist at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, says, "I think that in order to be fair, someone should come in with new ideas and take the league in a new direction. But I still love the Cape League and don't want to leave. "