On Thursday night, the Cape Cod Baseball League’s finest descended upon Fenway Park for All-Star festivities. The anticipation of taking to such a hallowed diamond and the pure joy was clearly written on the faces of the this year’s Cape League All-Stars.

Three men — Ron Darling, Lou Merloni and Brian Roberts — who were also on hand at Fenway on Thursday certainly know the feeling of excitement and anticipation that this year’s crop of Cape Leaguers was feeling. All three players graduated from the Cape to play in the Major Leagues.

Millbury, Mass., native and current television announcer Darling was the oldest of the Cape League alumni trio. He spoke quite fondly of his Cape League experience during the summer of 1980. That summer Darling made the full-time switch to pitcher, his position during a 12-year professional career.

“When I played for the [Cotuit] Kettleers in 1980 it was probably the last great summer of my life,” Darling said nostalgically. “It was Cape Cod League girls and baseball, you couldn’t beat it.”

That summer, Darling had the opportunity to play on a Cape League championship team, a feat he would duplicate on a Major League scale six years later as a member of the New York Mets. Darling was also named MVP and Best Pro Prospect after that summer on the Cape some 29 years ago.

Today, the Cape League is known for bringing the best collegiate baseball talent in the country together. Even in Darling’s time on Cape Cod, the league was the premier place for collegiate summer baseball.

“I think what’s great is that you have guys from all over,” Darling said of mix of players that play on the Cape each and every summer. “You have guys who could be major league prospects and they get a chance to measure against each other that summer.”

Fellow Massachusetts native and fellow Cape League All-Star Game alum (not to mention frequent WEEI contributor) Lou Merloni echoed Darling’s statements on the camaraderie and what it takes to be successful during those summers basking in the Cape Cod sunshine.

“You see it when you get to the big leagues that guys are proud to have played there,” Merloni said of looking back on those summers with fellow major leaguers. “We talk about Cape stories, talk about how we played there. Next thing you know the guy on the end of the bench says ‘Hey, I played on the Cape,” Merloni added.

Roberts, the only current big leaguer of the the trio visited Fenway last night not as a former All-Star, but as a son cheering on his father, Cotuit coach Mike Roberts. Roberts  played for the Chatham A’s in 1998.

“All of us who had been there remember it like it was yesterday,” Roberts said of his Cape League memories. “It’s such a step for you in your career that you can’t really replace.”

Roberts’ 1998 Cape League Champion Chatham squad included three other future major leaguers in Mike MacDougal, Kevin Mench and Kyle Snyder. MacDougal currently throws out of the bullpen for the Washington Nationals, Snyder pitches for the Mets’ Triple-A club in Buffalo, and Mench has since hung up the spikes.

That 1998 Chatham A’s squad took down a Wareham team loaded with pitching including future Big League stars Ben Sheets and Barry Zito. Roberts said winning the Cape League title was his favorite Cape League memory.

The Baltimore second baseman made friends during his summer on Cape Cod are ones he still keeps in touch with today. All three of the Cape League alumni attested to the bond that the game helps to foster.

“Baseball just seems to bring guys together,” Roberts said. “When you’re on the same team that bond seems to last for a long, long time.”

The memories forged on the sun-soaked shores of Cape Cod and remembered by all three men will last lifetimes. For Darling, Merloni, and Roberts the evenings spent playing in the Cape Cod Baseball League are some of the best days of their lives.

D.J. Bean and Jen McCaffrey also contributed to this report.