During the last hour of the 152nd Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair on Sunday, a drizzly rain began to patter the ground. The exhibit hall closed and the animals in the barn and fiber tent were loaded into their trailers. Someone played Taps on a bugle. But the midway remained open and active, and rides still zipped and zoomed, flashing their colorful lights. Fairgoers continued to roam the booth area, eating corn on the cob, burgers and cotton candy. The fair comes only once a year, after all, and it was only a little bit of rain.

It was a year of firsts for the Martha's Vineyard Sharks. First stadium seats. First games played at night, under the lights. First time in the playoffs. And now first league title.

There’s a new name on the Futures Collegiate Baseball League championship trophy. With a 6-3 defeat of the Nashua Silver Knights before a cheering home crowd on Thursday evening, the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks earned their first league title. They swept their way through the FCBL playoffs, which began last week, building on a strong 35-18 regular season to bring home the title.

Shep and Ian Murray sat in a pair of white Adirondack chairs on the front stone patio of Vineyard Vines in Edgartown. Both were barefoot. A pair of Crocs, blue for Shep, gray for Ian, sat next to the chairs. They wore khaki shorts and blue-accented shirts, a polo for Shep, untucked button-down for Ian. They looked like any other pair of brothers on the Island in August.

Each morning when West Tisbury emergency management director John Christensen wakes up, he turns on his iPad and checks the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s weather forecast. It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of winter or hurricane season.

The gates opened on Thursday morning for the 152nd annual Agricultural Fair, and within minutes the livestock judging was underway, six horses cantered around the show ring, and a person scaled the portable rock wall at the edge of the food area.