News

The Future of the Bethesda Big Train: Statement of BCC Baseball President Doug Cashmere and Big Train Founder Bruce Adams

June 1, 2020

We are pleased to announce that on June 1, 2020 stewardship of the Bethesda Big Train will transition from BCC Baseball back to the Bethesda Community Base Ball Club organization under the leadership of Big Train Founder Bruce Adams. Unfortunately, the 2020 season of the Ripken League was cancelled in response to the international health pandemic and the Big Train will not play this year. Plans for virtual programming this summer and for the 2021 season will be announced soon. 

In April of 1998, business leader John Ourisman and community activist and former Montgomery
County Councilmember Bruce Adams founded the Bethesda Community Base Ball Club with a mission to raise money to improve youth baseball and softball fields. Bethesda Community Base Ball Club entered a partnership with Montgomery Parks to construct Shirley Povich Field in Cabin John Regional Park and entered the Bethesda Big Train team in the Clark C. Griffith Collegiate Baseball League. The Big Train team is composed of talented college players from across the country who come to Bethesda each June and July for a summer of highly competitive wooden bat baseball. In 2005, the Big Train became an inaugural member of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League. The Big Train was a hit on and off the field right from the start, raising $600,000 to improve youth fields from Bethesda to Anacostia and Germantown to Takoma Park. 

In 2012, the Bethesda Community Base Ball Club granted control and stewardship to Bethesda Chevy Chase Baseball, a youth baseball organization founded in the 1990s. The league was founded by Denise Gorham who has been an advocate and leader of “Youth Baseball” in Montgomery County.  Each year, BCC Baseball supports more than 2,500 boys and girls playing baseball and softball while investing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in improving youth baseball and softball fields throughout Montgomery County. Gorham was also an integral part of the early years of Big Train success and has always been a big fan. BCC Baseball operated Big Train baseball for eight seasons. Under BCC Baseball’s leadership, the Big Train continued the team’s winning tradition while continuing to provide fans with baseball at its most genuine at affordable prices right by home here in Bethesda.  

“I am grateful to BCC Baseball for continuing the Big Train’s traditions of championship baseball and service to community,” said Big Train founder Bruce Adams. “I appreciate the cooperation of BCC Baseball during this transition to the next era of Big Train baseball starting with our 2021 season.”

“We have valued the opportunity we have had to guide this community jewel for nearly a decade,” said BCC Baseball President Doug Cashmere. “We have been an active partner of the Big Train since 1999, and we will continue to be an active partner to ensure that a new generation of BCC Baseball players has the opportunity to enjoy Big Train baseball at Shirley Povich Field.”

Adams said Sal Colangelo, a coach since the Big Train’s inaugural season in 1999, will continue as field manager and be elevated to a position of Director of Baseball Operations for the 2021 season. In fifteen seasons as Big Train manager, Colangelo has guided the Big Train to eight Ripken League championships, ten regular season championships, and the national championship of summer college baseball in 2011. In July of 2019, Colangelo and Adams were inducted into the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League Hall of Fame as members of the inaugural class along with Cal Ripken Senior, MLB All Stars Brian Dozier (BT 2006) and Brett Cecil, and Youse’s Orioles manager Dean Albany.

Adams said he and his transition team have reestablished the Bethesda Community Base Ball Club and built a new community-based board of directors to prepare for the 2021 season. The Big Train will soon announce a robust slate of virtual events for the summer 2020 season on bigtrain.tv.

For more information about the Bethesda Big Train, visit www.bigtrain.org. To contact BCC Baseball President Doug Cashmere, email cashjd@aol.com. To contact Bruce Adams, email bruce@greaterwash.org or call 240-855-8727. 

Finally, a big thanks to all involved in the last eight years at BCC Baseball, especially our most recent GM and President David Schneider, for doing a great job!

Doug Cashmere
President
BCC Baseball

Bruce Adams
President & Founder
Bethesda Community Base Ball Club