The June Jersey Tour Visits Princeton

The essence of vintage base ball is to recreate, to the best of our ability, the game that in the span of about 25 years (roughly 1845 to 1869) grew from exercise for social clubs to the country's national pastime.  This past Saturday may not have shown why or how that happened, but it certainly captured the spirit of the game's growing popularity in the nineteenth century and that's not just because of the Neshanock's experience in Princeton.  On a day when most of the country was apparently blessed (finally) with real base ball weather, vintage teams took the field from Maine to Maryland as well as in a 37 team event in Michigan.  We know this because of something that would have been almost as unthinkable to early base ball players as the transcontinental railroad would have been to earlier generations - social media, especially Facebook. As Matt "Bart" Bartnicki noted last night it was great to see so many people having so much base ball fun.

In the case of the Neshanock and the Diamond State Club of Delaware ("Bart's" team), the venue was Princeton, New Jersey, historic in its own right for many reasons especially the Revolutionary War battle in December of 1776.  Less well known, but also important is the cradle-like role Princeton or the University of the same name played in early college base ball.  Thanks to the contributions of three young men from Brooklyn, led by Lewis Mudge, the school's Nassau Club was one of the first college teams to play competitively to the point that in 1863 they had to play the top amateur teams because they were unable to find college opponents.  Once regular intercollegiate competition got underway, it did not take long before attention turned to winning or at least claiming championships.   In 1873, Princeton defeated Harvard and declared they were college champions because Harvard had defeated Yale twice, a rather narrow view of the baseball world, but one that shows how quickly college base ball became competitive.

Diamond State Base Ball Club of Delaware

Saturday's visit to Princeton was for the annual event hosted by the Historical Society of Princeton, with Morven Museum & Garden as a co-sponsor this year.  The annual game in Princeton also marks a turning point in Neshanock history since it was here that Ken "Tumbles" Mandel joined the team and nothing has ever been the same since.  After dropping two games last Saturday, Flemington didn't exactly pick an easy way to get back on the winning side of the ledger by playing the Diamond State Club of Delaware.  Last year the Delaware club won the National Silverball Tournament in Rochester and are without question one of the toughest teams on the Neshanock schedule.  Diamond State was somewhat short-handed today, but they had solid reinforcements from the neighboring state of Maryland.  Having won the toss Flemington opted to strike second and Diamond State quickly got on the board with two tallies although some solid Neshanock defense stopped the damage before it got out of hand. Flemington then tied the game in their half of the inning, but the visitors put together five straight two-out hits in the top of the second to score six times.

Left to right, Chris "Low Ball" Lowry, Dan "Sledge" Hammer, and Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner

Diamond State led 9-3 going to the bottom of the fourth, but with one man on base, Jeff "Duke"Schneider delivered a well-placed hit down the right-field line and rounded the bases for his first career home run. Flemington kept chipping away and were only down three runs as they came to bat in the sixth.  The bottom of half of the batting order was up, but they were more than equal to the task, tallying four times, putting the Neshanock in front for the first time.  Diamond State quickly tied it in the top of the seventh, but Flemington scored once in the seventh and once in the eighth for a two-run lead headed to the ninth.  No one on the Neshanock bench thought the visitors would go quietly and they put the tying runs on base with one out before good defensive plays by Mark "Gaslight" Granieri and Scott "Snuffy" Hengst gave the Neshanock a hard-fought 13-11 win.  Flemington's offense was led by Joe "Mick" Murray, Ken "Tumbles" Mandel, and "Duke" who each contributed three hits with "Mick" earning a clear score a day before his birthday.  Bobby "Melky" Ritter and Dan "Sledge" Hammer divided the pitching responsibilities, aided by a strong Neshanock defense effort, allowing only three runs in the last seven innings.

After a break, the teams returned to the field for a seven-inning second game with Flemington taking a quick 1-0 lead which didn't last long as Diamond State tallied three times in their first at-bat and led 4-1 after two.  Flemington cut it to 4-3 in the third only to see the visitors tally twice in the fourth.  The Delaware team led 6-4 going to the top of the sixth when the Neshanock offense erupted for a big inning, keyed by six straight hits on the way to scoring seven runs and an 11-6 lead.  Diamond State hung tough getting two back in the sixth, but Flemington put the game out of reach by scoring five times in their last at-bat and a 16-8 victory. This time the top of the Neshanock order led the offense with Danny "Lefty" Gallagher, "Sledge" and "Gaslight" contributing three hits apiece with the latter two losing clear scores in their last at-bat. "Melky" was again the Neshanock starting pitching and was ably relieved by Rene "Mango" Marrero.  Mention also should be made of "Tumbles" play at first base where he displayed an assortment of "graceful" moves perhaps setting a team record for tag-out plays at first.

It was a beautiful day for baseball and the games were not only worthy of the weather but also a tribute to the way baseball became so popular in the pioneer period.  Thanks to the Historical Society of Princeton and Morven Museum & Garden for sponsoring the event. I am also grateful to Debi Lampert-Rudman for the photo of "Duke" rounding third on his home run.  All other photos by official blog photographer Mark "Gaslight" Granieri.  Above all, special thanks to the Diamond State team which played hard and well, never gave up and, as always, conducted themselves as gentlemen.  Best wishes to them for the remainder of the season except perhaps when we meet again for the last game of the 2019 season.  Next week Flemington's June in Jersey tour concludes with matches against the Monmouth Furnace Club in Delanco, New Jersey, the site of a historic appearance by the one and only Babe Ruth.