No boat ticket, interstate traffic or overnight accommodations are necessary. Just load up the family or grab a couple of friends and take in our nation’s beloved pastime in an environment truly in tune with the best the Vineyard has to offer.

Since 2011, the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks have included some of the best collegiate players in summer league baseball. And for years now, our local ball team and the field they play on have been an integral part of our Island community.

Behind it all is Russ Curran, the general manager of the team, steward of the Shark Tank and year-round Vineyarder who makes it all possible every single summer. When Russ joined the organization nine years ago, the Shark Tank was only a few years removed from being a scrub-oak covered makeshift junkyard tucked away off Sanderson Avenue in Oak Bluffs behind the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS). At first, few Islanders knew of the transformation, but over the years this gem of a ballpark has become a favorite summer destination.

Every season, Russ brings in new ideas and debuts new features for Sharks fans to enjoy. There’s the bounce house for little league (MV Youth Baseball & Softball) night, partnerships with local businesses to sell concessions, and enough seating and comfortable grass to cheer on the Sharks and have dinner almost anywhere around the field. You can find the Mad Martha’s ice cream truck behind home base. In addition to Shark Bites, which sells familiar ball game fare, local business Aquila sells specialty lemonades and acai bowls.

If you ask Russ what makes the Sharks who they are, he’ll tell you the Island community is the heartbeat of the team. “There are people there every game no matter what,” Russ muses. “We could be getting beat 20-1, but they’re still sitting there watching the team because they love it.”

Thanks to Russ and other Vineyarders, the Sharks have a year-round presence on the Island. You’ll find Sharks tickets available at any fundraiser that asks for them. Russ makes a point to support the high school teams as well, from hockey and basketball in the winter to the high school nine that also calls the Shark Tank home.

Russ said he’s gotten the green light from MVRHS to renovate the field on the condition that he secures all the funding himself. And while it’s difficult and costly to keep the field the way it is now, giving it a facelift is an attainable goal if folks are willing to invest in the organization that’s given so much to the Island and especially Vineyard kids. Looking to support the Sharks? Consider hosting a player. As The Vine was going to press, Russ said he still had players waiting to join the team this summer but nowhere to house them.

“The sad fact is that this team will go away someday because there aren’t enough host families,” Russ said. “That’s the biggest issue.”

The cost of building a dorm for players is prohibitive and the current state of housing on the Island leaves too few options.

“(The team) is a nonprofit, we survive. Every year, that’s all we’re trying to do. Survive,” Russ said. And so far, the Sharks have, all while cultivating family fun and, as it happens, one of the most affordable meals on the Island.

If you’re a baseball fan, or just have an unoccupied room (consider next summer!), there’s a chance that hosting a college ballplayer might one day lead to a friendship with a major leaguer. On June 6, the Yankees’ starting pitcher for their first series with the Red Sox this year was Will Warren, a former Shark who played on the dominant 2019 squad.

There’s also Tyler Hardman, a 2017 Shark and first baseman who is one injury away from joining Warren on the Bronx bombers. Warren’s Sharks teammate Nick Raposo made his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals last year, and Alejandro Torres, the flamethrowing closer from the 2022 New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) championship team was just promoted to the Houston Astros’ Triple A affiliate and looks to be on his way to the big league.

The relationships Russ builds with his players are one of the things he enjoys most about his role as the general manager. “I still talk to guys we had five, ten years ago,” he said.

Many former players are now coaches at division one schools and help their players find their way to the Island. Most come with no knowledge of the Vineyard but quickly learn to embrace the spirit of community so prevalent here. By the end of the season, Sharks players have been spotted at the Possible Dreams auction, the harbor fest in Oak Bluffs, on the field at 9 a.m. teaching youngsters fundamentals during drop-in clinics and parading down Edgartown’s Main Street on the Fourth of July.

These NECBL players come to the Island hoping to be discovered by a major league scout, and within weeks, they discover what it’s like to be a hometown hero. That’s the power of baseball and the power of Martha’s Vineyard.

Aaron Wilson is an Islander who works at the Vineyard Golf Club and writes for the Vineyard Gazette.