How does a vintage base ball team occupy its time during a seven week gap between games? Ideally, it is an opportunity to catch up on yard work, but in my case there are no shortage of week days for those tasks, leaving a definite void on the weekends. Some of the time has been devoted to a new non-book research project (more on that in a later post), but there has also been time to finally try to get my New Jersey base ball files in some kind of order. Since they represent over ten years of research, it is no small task, but in addition to at least having some sense of where things are, the process has also unearthed some interesting things including the below article from the August 4, 1862 edition of the New York Times about a match between the Newark Club and the Union Club of Morrisania.
I share the entire article for a number of reasons, but primarily because of the form used by the reporter where instead of giving a linear inning-by-inning account, he devotes a lot of space to listing the ten "more noticeable points of the game," a form, I've never encountered before.
Also interesting, at least to me, are the following:
1. The Union and Newark Clubs are referred to as "Provincial" teams. I have no idea what Morrisania was like in 1862, but since Newark was one of the 12 largest cities in the country, located only a few miles from Manhattan, the "Provincial" label seems a bit much.
2. The length of the game, four hours to play ten innings, anticipating the length of modern games, but long before the practices that make so many of today's games interminable. A partial explanation was provided by the New York Sunday Mercury which claimed that with the score tied, Newark batters in the tenth "were very fastidious in their choice of a ball to bat" so that the half inning took "nearly a half an hour." If so, it did the Newarkers little good.
3. The praise for a play by William Lewis of the Newark Club when he "splendidly caught" a ball in the outfield earning a comparison to some of the top players of the day or at least those so viewed by the writer. Lewis was also praised by the Mercury which said his "splendid fielding was quite a feature of the game" and that "We never saw fly-balls taken in such style before," five in total. By 1864, Lewis was being regularly praised by the media for his outfield play, especially eschewing the bound catch even before it was outlawed in 1865. He would go on to play for the Irvington Club during its hey-day and, perhaps, also for the Elizabeth Resolutes.
4. Newark Club president Henry Dusenbery's reference to the lack of the progress of the Army of the Potomac under the far from effective leadership of its field general, one George McClellan.
5. While extensive post game festivities were still the order of the day in 1862, the references to toasts to the umpire, the "Press," and others unnamed probably makes it a good thing that the only possible post game driving was behind a horse.
6. The reference to the Union Club's pitching as "bowling," an image which while understandable is one I don't recall seeing very often.
7. The "manliness" of Terrill of the Newark Club who suffered a dislocated finger, had it snapped back into place and remained in the game, albeit moving to center field from second base.
Hopefully, at least some of this is of interest to readers of this blog. But either way, the good news is that the Neshanock return to action on September 14th for their annual visit to historic Cameron Field in South Orange.
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