Two weeks ago, when the Neshanock visited Ringwood Manor State Park, it marked the return to a very familiar venue - a place Flemington has visited regularly for over ten years. Ringwood is one of a series of historic sites gracious enough to host us and our opponents on an annual basis. Howell Farm near Lambertville, New Bridge Landing in Bergen County and the Dey Farm in Monroe Township are other examples. However, we also enjoy visiting new places which give us additional opportunities to demonstrate how baseball was played in the 1860s. Sunday was one such occasion as the Neshanock traveled to Historic Smithville Park in Eastampton, Burlington County. While the venue was new, the opponents were very familiar - the Monmouth Furnace Club as well as the Athletic Club of Philadelphia.
In the opener, Flemington took on Monmouth Furnace who won the bat toss, sending the Neshanock to the striker's line. Flemington tallied twice in the first and third innings and then enjoyed a seven run inning in the fourth. Although down 11-0, Monmouth Furnace manfully battled back, closing to within 14-7 after seven innings. In the end, however, it proved to be too big a hill to climb and the Neshanock prevailed 18-8. Dan "Sledge" Hammer, Mark "Gaslight" Granieri, Rene "Mango" Marrero and Dave "Illinois" Harris led the Flemington's attack with three hits apiece. "Gaslight" hit two doubles, while "Sledge" added one for the Neshanock's only extra base hits of the game. Additional offensive support came from Joe "Mick" Murray, Jim "Jersey" Nunn, Paul "O'Neill" Cincotta and Matt "Fly" Nunn with two hits each. "Illinois" and "Sledge" handled the pitching chores in a manly and effective manner.
After a break for relief of various forms, the Neshanock were back in action, this time against the Athletic Club. Flemington led 5-1 heading to the bottom of the fifth when the Neshanock offense erupted for another seven run outburst putting the game out of reach. The final score was 15-2 ending a highly successful and enjoyable day of baseball. As in the first game, "Illinois" contributed three hits, joined this time by Chris "Sideshow" Nunn, Sam "Ewing" Ricco and Ken "Tumbles" Mandel. "Sledge" contributed two doubles, Flemington's only extra base hits of the game. He was joined in the two hit column by "Mango," Jeff "Duke" Schneider, "Mick" and Ernie "Shredder" Albanesius. Chris "Lowball" Lowry took over at first base late in the second game and handled six chances flawlessly.
The vintage version of the Athletic Club recreates one of the great teams of the nineteenth century. Founded in 1859, as a Philadelphia town ball team, the Athletics became not just the best baseball team in Philadelphia, but one of the best in the country. During the second half of the 1860s, the Athletics, in addition to playing the country's best teams, also played local teams who were nowhere near as proficient. In late 1866, for example, the Athletics made two visits to Burlington County, the site of Sunday's matches, defeating the Columbia Club of Bordentown and the Burlington team by scores of 63-26 and 73-7. The scores give some sense of the talent differential, but pale in comparison to some other displays of the Athletics' prowess. On at least seven occasions, the Philadelphia club tallied over 100 runs which merits a blog post of its own. For the moment, though, I want to focus on an August 19, 1869 match between the Athletics and the Mountain Club of Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
The Athletics wasted no time taking charge, scoring 31 times in the first inning, adding 17 in the second and led 80-0 after six innings. At least the Mountain Club managed two runs in the seventh, but that was little consolation in a 107-2 rout. The box score totals are mind boggling - 19 Athletic home runs, just part of the Philadelphia team's 159 hits. What's even more noteworthy, however, is the first inning performance of Jim Foran of the Athletic Club. While his teammates crossed home plate 31 times, Foran had the ignominy of making all three outs which the Philadelphia Sunday Mercury considered "something unprecedented in the game." The details of this spectacular failure don't survive, but Foran left the game supposedly due to illness. Foran's epic futility was certainly unprecedented, but at the time there weren't many precedents so the obvious question is whether this dubious achievement was ever repeated.
At the major league level the answer is no. About 20 years ago, however, Bryan Caruso of the North Shore Spirit, in a Northeast Independent League game, matched Foran's inning of futility. While his team scored 13 runs, Caruso made all three outs and to make matters more embarrassing, did so against three different pitchers. Foran, at least, bounced back quickly scoring 14 runs two days later as the Athletics piled it on again in a 114-5 win over the Independent Club of Bloomsburg. He went on to a long baseball career that saw him become one of the most widely traveled players of the nineteenth century including stints both on the East and West Coasts. Also worthy of a blog post in his own right, Foran's best year was when he hit .348 for the short-lived Fort Wayne entry in the National Association's first season. No matter how well he did, or how much he traveled, however, it's unlikely Foran ever forgot his epically embarrassing inning at the striker's line.
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