"A New Birth of Freedom"

Photo by Mark Granieri

Over the course of a six month base ball season, it's not unusual for a theme or pattern to develop that seems to characterize that particular year.  It might take the form of frequent close games, too many heart breaking losses (one may be too many) or a season full of injuries.  If we had to use only one word to characterize the Neshanock's 2018 campaign thus far it would be "cancellations."  Far too many games lost to the weather ranging from extreme cold to extreme heat, not to mention the old reliables, rain and wet grounds.  It should, therefore, have been no surprise that the ninth edition of the Gettysburg National 19th Century Base Ball Festival was plagued by rain of biblical proportions.  Typically the weather issue at the festival is heat and humidity, conditions all too common to that small village in central Pennsylvania.  Since the weather forecasts predicted temperatures in the low 80's (mild for Gettysburg in July) with a chance of thunderstorms (a default summer prediction in Gettysburg), the weather outlook seemed promising.  However, just as Carol and I left home on Friday, we noticed that rain and a lot of it was predicted for Saturday.  On arrival mid-afternoon, we experienced the tease only the weather can offer, a beautiful albeit hot day, repeatedly leading to the thought (hope) it could somehow continue.

Photo by Mark Granieri

The Neshanock had, however, caught a break in the schedule, playing early on Saturday morning offering the possibility that we might get at least one match in before the rains came.  Flemington's opponent in the 8:30 opener was the Allegheny Ironsides from Donora, Pennsylvania about 30 or so miles south of Pittsburgh.  Donora, as most base ball fans will recall, is the birthplace of not one, but two Hall of Fame players - Stan Musial and Ken Griffey, Jr., not to mention Ken Griffey Sr., no mean player in his own right.  Founded in 2015, the Ironsides have a real challenge scheduling matches due to the lack of vintage clubs in western Pennsylvania.  Allegheny won the toss and elected to strike first under gray, but not particularly threatening clouds.  After the first striker was retired, the next Ironsides hitter reached first and promptly stole second only to be gunned down by Chris "Sideshow" Nunn when he tried to repeat the feat at third.  The play set an early pattern to the game as the Allegheny club tested "Sideshow's" arm, a test he more than passed, throwing out three runners in the process.

Photo by Mark Granieri

Having shut out the Ironmen in the top of the inning, Flemington quickly got to work in their turn at bat as the first four batters hit safely leading the way to four tallies and a 4-0 lead.  Allegheny responded with two runs in their next at bat, but the aforementioned defensive effort by "Sideshow" stopped any big rallies from developing.  Meanwhile, the Neshanock added two in the second and three in the third for a 9-2 lead, but were only able to score once in the next three innings.  During that same period, the Pennsylvania club added two more runs and trailed 10-4 heading to the top of the seventh.  When the Ironmen put runners on first and third with only one out, the sickening feeling of a lead slipping away crossed at least one mind on the Flemington bench.  The Neshanock defense, however, was equal to the occasion, retiring the side without allowing any runs and Flemington broke the game open adding seven more runs for a deceptive 17-5 victory.  Allegheny played error free ball in the field and the match could easily have been much closer.   The Neshanock offense was led by Dan "Sledge" Hammer with four hits, followed by Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner, Dan "Lefty" Gallagher and Steve "Dave" Colon with three apiece.

Photo by Mark Granieri 

Shifting quickly, and still ahead of the rain, to a new field for a new opponent, Flemington took on the Monarch Club of Moscow, Ohio in the second match of the morning.  Also, I believe, a relatively new club, the Ohio team was making its first appearance in the festival and had the misfortune to take on the Neshanock in a game where Flemington consistently got the good bounces in the field and the Monarchs got nothing but bad hops.  The game saw the Neshanock again take a 4-0 lead after one and the match quickly got out of hand in the second inning when Flemington added 10 tallies for an insurmountable lead on the way to a 23-8 victory.  As the score indicates, it was an especially productive offensive match for the Neshanock, led by "Sideshow" and "Thumbs" with four hits each, both earning a clear score in the process.  Although he had one less hit, "Lefty" more than made up for it terms of power, hitting two home runs.  "Sledge" also added three hits as did "Jersey" Jim Nunn and Meshack "Shack" Dusane.

Photo by Mark Granieri

Saturday also marked the return of crafty Neshanock veteran Mark "Gaslight" Granieri who had two hits in each game, and even more importantly, resumed his role as official blog photographer.  At one point during the second game, the sun even came out prompting thoughts/hopes the forecast was wrong.  Unfortunately, the ray of sunshine was literally the lull before the storm.  The game with the Monarchs finished under a steady rain growing into a downpour that continued with unrelenting fury into the early hours of the morning.  The Eclipse Club made every effort to get Sunday's games in, but the fields were simply too water soaked and they wisely cancelled the rest of the event.  Thanks as always to the Maryland club for the hard work and masterful management that goes into this event.  The Flemington Neshanock are proud to have been part this wonderful festival for every year since its inception.  We're already looking forward to the 10th anniversary in 2019, hopefully under drier conditions and for at least one year, I don't think anyone will complain about the heat.

Photo by Mark Granieri

One of the casualties of Saturday's storm was a battlefield tour that was going to end with a visit to the New Jersey and Pennsylvania sections of the National Cemetery.  Much of what I was going to say at the cemetery was based on ideas in Gary Wills' book - Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America.   According to Wills, once the fighting at Gettysburg was over, both sides rushed to interpret the meaning of the battle. Lincoln, however had a much higher goal, quite simply he was trying to win the entire Civil War or more specifically definitively define why the North was fighting the war.  And Wills thinks Lincoln successfully achieved that goal.  In his speech, Lincoln claimed the North was fighting to preserve a nation "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" with the goal of "a new birth of freedom" based on those principles of equality.  Those were hardly universally accepted sentiments in 1863, just one example is a contemporary editorial in the Chicago Times excoriating Lincoln for claiming that the Union dead were fighting for equal rights for blacks or that the founders entertained any such ideas.  Lincoln, of course, never mentions slavery in the Gettysburg address, but everyone knew what he was talking about.

Photo by Mark Granieri

Like most of Lincoln's deathless words, the phrase "a new birth of freedom" has become sanctified as part of American scripture, but that doesn't necessarily make it easy to visualize what it looks like in practice.  Earlier in July, in a grace filled moment, I had the opportunity to personally witness and experience the kind of equality I think Lincoln was talking about.  Due to a series of events that would have been hard to foresee, I accompanied a friend to a memorial service at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.  About 100 people gathered for the service, but what was impressive was the not the number present, but rather the remarkable diversity of the group encompassing race, sexual orientation, gender and age.  It's one thing, however, to bring a diverse group of people together, its quite another for them to interact on an unspoken, but no less real, level of equality, grounded on this occasion by their shared love and respect for the deceased.  Regardless of how it came to be, however, it was for me a striking demonstration of Lincoln's vision of what our country can be when we live out the core values embodied in the Declaration.  As eloquent as Lincoln's words were however, their effectiveness ultimately depended on the sacrifices of those who at Gettysburg "gave the last full measure of devotion."  Because of what they did there and because of what Lincoln said there, we live in a very different and a much better America.