Tomorrow night I'm giving a lecture on Charlie Jamieson, one of the best baseball players most of us have never heard of. Jamieson played for Cleveland in game five of the 1920 World Series, a contest legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice claimed was "the most amazing baseball game ever played." High praise, but perhaps a little surprising for an 8-1 game that was effectively over in the first inning. Like most words, however, "amazing" has multiple applications. In this case, it fits not because the game was close, but because three World Series firsts occurred - the first grand slam, the first home run by a pitcher and, most noteworthy, the first and only unassisted triple play in Fall Classic history. This past Friday, the far more modest history of the Flemington Neshanock also saw three things happen for the first time. It was the first Neshanock night game, the first time vintage baseball was played in Randolph, New Jersey and the first time one of our games started early. The latter achievement may prove equally elusive as an unassisted triple play.
Friday night's event came about thanks to an invitation from Randolph Township to play a game against what the Neshanock call a "town team" as part of the community's annual Freedom Fest. Town teams are made up of local men, and sometimes women, who come together to play just one game by nineteenth century rules. Sometimes, as has been the case in Newtown, Pennsylvania and New Bridge Landing in New Jersey, the game becomes an annual event, while in other places it is more short lived, But regardless of the number of times the games are played, these contests serve their purpose - introducing people to baseball's early history. Games with town teams are always preceded by the above scene where our umpire, Sam Bernstein and I conduct a pre-game tutorial on 1864 rules. It's always interesting watching players trying to absorb how a game they thought they knew so well was played very differently many years ago. At the same time, most teams, like the Randolph group on Friday, prove to be fast learners.
Next came the coin toss to determine which team would bat first, this time complicated by momentarily losing the coin in the tall grass. When uncovered, it had landed in the local team's favor and they chose to strike second. The Neshanock tallied twice in the first inning and once in the second while blanking the Randolph club in their first two times at the striker's line. In the top of the third, Flemington appeared to break the game open, scoring six runs, keyed by a triple from Danny "Lefty" Gallagher. To "Lefty's" chagrin, he didn't get any RBI's, even though two runs scored, because that statistic wasn't introduced until about 1880 and didn't become official until 1920. Of course, the tallies still counted which proved to be beneficial since despite appearances to the contrary, the game was far from over. Randolph used some well placed hits in the bottom of the inning to score four times and close the gap to 9-4. Further damage was averted when "Lefty" threw out a somewhat unsuspecting runner trying to score after tagging up on a fly ball.
Randolph also tightened up on the defensive end allowing only two more Flemington tallies. Fortunately, the Neshanock, behind the continued strong pitching of Bobby "Melky" Ritter and Dave "Illinois" Harris, held Randolph at bay for an 11-6 win. After seven innings it was agreed to end the game due to fading daylight - the first time the Neshanock have ever had to deal with that issue. Flemington had a well balanced attack with eight of the thirteen strikers (too many to name) having two hits apiece. Playing in his first game was muffin Rich Kasmin who got a hit in his initial contest. We hope he'll be back. The Randolph game was one of four "town team" contests on the Neshanock's 2022 schedule. All of these games are fun, but it's especially enjoyable the first time we bring nineteenth century baseball to a community. Vintage baseball can't replicate exactly how early competitive baseball was played, but it can, and does, give both participants and spectators a sense of what the game was like so many years ago. It's an important part of our mission and I hope it always will be.
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