"I'd Rather be in Philadelphia"

Photo by Mark Granieri

Much like the singer in Simon and Garfinkel's 1968 hit song "America," I spent a fair amount of time over the weekend on the New Jersey Turnpike, not "counting the cars" or trying to"look for America," but rather on my way to and from Philadelphia in order to count tallies and outs at the Philadelphia Naval Yard Classic.  Played every other year, the event is hosted by the Athletic Club who once again did a fine job of bringing together vintage base ball clubs from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and, of course, Pennsylvania to play four matches over two days.  The games were played on the parade grounds of the former Naval Yard, an appropriate place to recreate 19th century base ball since Union troops used some of their off duty hours to play base ball on fields more typically devoted to drilling and military training.  Never doing anything by half measures, the Neshanock's first match on Saturday was against the Atlantic Club of Brooklyn, one of the country's top teams and long time friends of the Neshanock.  It would be great to say the two clubs are friendly rivals, but while the first word is accurate, it's hard to consider it a rivalry when one club (Flemington) has won only once in over a decade.

Photo by Mark Granieri

Vintage base ball is, of course, about recreating the game the way it was played in the 19th century, in this case 1864, but there are always differences, both intentional and otherwise.  One aspect, however, where the vintage game mirrors the original, is the importance of who shows up for a given game.  That this was an issue back in the day is confirmed by the way pioneering sports writers, William Cauldwell and Henry Chadwick typically began 1864 game accounts in the Sunday Mercury and the New York Clipper by evaluating the turnout, not of fans, but players.  Had both gentlemen been transported to the Naval Yard on Saturday, they would have quickly concluded that the Atlantic were missing some of their key players, especially the left side of their infield, one of the best in the country.  The Brooklyn team, however, didn't get to be a top team by relying on just a few players and those present were more than worthy of the club's reputation especially in terms of its defense.  While the Atlantic players are fully capable of making spectacular plays, their strength, in my view, is the way they consistently make the routine play, thereby giving opponents the minimum number of offensive opportunities. 

Photo by Mark Granieri

Flemington was also not at full strength and fortunate to have Chris Lauber, a muffin playing his first game and Matt Nunn, returning to action for the first time in several years.  Playing some good defense of its own, the Neshanock held the Atlantics scoreless for the first three inning while tallying five times for a 5-0 lead going to the bottom of the fourth.  No one thought that trend would continue and the Brooklyn club scored twice in both the fourth and fifth innings to trail by only one tally.  The Atlantic comeback was aided by one of the Neshanock's characteristic multiple out innings, in this case, combining three errors with the standard three outs.   Fortunately, and uncharacteristically, however, the damage was limited to only two tallies.  From that point on, however, it was the Neshanock's day, Flemington tallied seven more times while holding the Atlantic to only two runs for a 12-6 Neshanock victory.  Offensively, Flemington was led by Jeff "Duke" Schneider and Mark "Gaslight"Granieri with three hits each, "Gaslight" recording a clear score in the process.  They were ably supported by Adam "Beast" Leffler and the Neshanock's three Nunns - "Jersey" Jim, Chris "Sideshow" and the aforementioned Matt with two each.  Scott "Snuffy" Hengst,in only his second career start, pitched very effectively and, with the one exception, was well supported by his defense. 

Photo by Mark Granieri

After taking on one of vintage base ball' senior clubs in the first Saturday match (the vintage version of the Atlantics were founded in 1997), the Neshanock next played a relatively new team, the Brandywine Club out of West Chester, Pennsylvania, founded in 2013.  Flemington has enjoyed playing Brandywine at various locations ranging from Ringwood Manor State Park in New Jersey to two memorable contests a year ago at the Hecklerfest in Harleysville, Pennsylvania.  Flemington again got off to a fast start, scoring twice in the first and leading 7-0 after four innings.  Brandywine is too good a team to go down easily, however, and they rallied to close to within 9-6 as the game went to the bottom of the seventh.  Fortunately, Flemington tallied four times, for a 13-6 lead and held on for a 13-8 victory.  Sadly, the win was marred by a broken finger suffered by "Sideshow"which will sideline him for the rest of the season.  Flemington got another strong pitching performance from "Snuffy" and the offense was led by Ken "Tumbles" Mandel and "Gaslight" with three hits apiece, "Gaslight" coming up just one at bat short of another clear score.  Five other Neshanock's had two hits apiece and even more impressively, 10 of the 11 Flemington players tallied at least once.

Photo by Mark Granieri

After round trips of varying distances, early Sunday morning found the Neshanock in reduced numbers back at the Navy Yard for the festival's second day.  Fortunately the remnant from Saturday was joined by some regulars plus two muffins, Nick Mendell and Joel Price both of whom made important contributions.  First up for the Neshanock was the host Athletic Club already with one win under the their collective belts, and another to come, led by former Neshanock and old friend Greg "Southwark" Stoloski.  Once again, (are we noticing a pattern here), Flemington got off to a quick start leading 6-0 after just two innings.  At that point, however, the Athletics shut down the Neshanock and closed to within 6-3 as Flemington batted in the sixth.  Fortunately, the Athletics, according to "Southwark," have a tendency to give up the ten run inning, much like the Neshanock's susceptibility to the multiple out inning.  On this occasion it turned out to be eight runs, but it was more than enough to propel Flemington to a 17-4 win, nowhere near as decisive as the score suggested.  Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner led the Neshanock with five hits while Renee "Mango" Marrero and Joel (in his first game) added four apiece.  Continuing the offensive balance of Saturday's second game every Neshanock had at least two hits.   

Photo by Mark Granieri 

By the time Flemington's final match of the classic began, my sense was both teams were tired from the heat, the travel and two full days of baseball.  I know I was and, other than hitting the dirt twice to avoid foul line drives, I hadn't been moving around that much.  After opening the weekend against, one of the country's top vintage teams, the Neshanock finished up with another, the Talbot Fairplays from Maryland.  Like Flemington, Talbot didn't have its full roster, but those present took a back seat to nobody.   While the Neshanock again scored first, Talbot quickly took the lead in the bottom of the first and led 8-6 after four innings before Flemington tied it in the fifth. The Neshanock then retook the lead, scoring twice in the fifth and five times in the seventh to lead 13-8.  Unfortunately, the multi-out inning once again raised its ugly head and along with some solid hitting, Talbot closed the gap to 13-11.  Flemington only had one base runner over the next two innings which might have spelled disaster, but Talbot managed only a single run in the eighth and the game headed to the last inning with the Neshanock clinging to a one run lead.  In its last at bat of the weekend, however, the lower half of the Flemington order added two badly needed insurance runs and the Neshanock earned a very hard fought 15-12 victory over a very worthy adversary.

Photo by Mark Granieri

Dan "Sledge" Hammer led the Neshanock attack with four hits, including two triples and tallied four times, once more than "Duke" who had two hits of his own.  "Thumbs," "Mango," "Jersey" and Chris "Lowball" Lowry each added three hits with "Lowball's" especially important since they came from the bottom of the batting order.  Now 15-6 on the season, Flemington will be off for the Labor Day weekend before returning to action at 4:00 (yes 4:00) on Saturday, September 8th in Long Valley, New Jersey against the Diamond State Club of Delaware.  The quote at the head of this post is from a popular urban legend about the comedian, W. C. Fields (1880 - 1946), who was born in Philadelphia and made countless jokes at the expense of his native city.  Supposedly his tombstone bears one last shot at the City of Brotherly Love of which there are various versions including  "Better here than in Philadelphia."  According to the website, www.legendsrevealed.com, the story is in fact only a joke he told many years before his death.  For those of us in the vintage base ball community fortunate enough to attend the classic, it's safe to say that thanks to the Athletic Club, there was no place we would rather have been this past weekend than in Philadelphia!

Half a Loaf

The Neshanock's weekend in New England began successfully (at least on my part) with two days with Sophie and Henry, seen above enjoying finger puppets from Ecuador courtesy of amiga Linda.  Things began to go downhill on Friday morning (Gettysburg all over again) when the weather forecast changed from thunderstorms to rain all day on Saturday with more storms on Sunday.  In the end the entire weekend of games in Massachusetts and Connecticut was rained out leading to a ride home on Saturday that became el viaje del infierno (the trip from hell).  What's normally a 4 to 5 hour trip lasted 7 hours (a new record) topped off by taking an hour to go the last 10 miles due to flooding in north Jersey.  Having set a team record for fewest games played in July (4), the Neshanock are now on target for a similar record in August with four the maximum possible.  While I don't usually forecast the weather, next weekend should be one of the nicest of the summer since Flemington has no games scheduled.  The following weekend,  however, the prudent reader would do well to have indoor plans since the Neshanock are scheduled (the operative word) to participate both Saturday and Sunday in the Philadelphia Navy Yard classic, held, of all places, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard under the leadership of the Athletic Club of Philadelphia.   At this point, we would probably settle for one tolerable day.

In Search of New Jersey's Lost Ballparks

For Christmas one year, I presented my father with a sweatshirt that had emblazoned across the chest the words - "Voice of Doom" because of his uncanny ability to identify and, all too often accurately predict, the worst possible thing that could happen.  The best or worst example was the time we were watching an indoor track meet on television where the lead runner had almost lapped the field, prompting my father to say "If he doesn't fall down, he'll win the race."  No sooner were the words out of his mouth when, in what was probably a foregone conclusion, the unfortunate runner indeed fell down and lost the race.  What brought this to mind is that I'm starting to wonder if I've inherited that trait.  Two weeks ago when I said the Neshanock's 2018 season could be summed up in one word - "cancellations," it was meant to be analytical not prophetic.  Since then, however, the two succeeding matches have been cancelled and I'm starting to wonder what this means for the rest of the season especially next weekend's visit to New England.  The schedule calls for participation in a Saturday event sponsored by the Essex Base Ball Association at the Spencer-Pierce-Little farm in Newbury, Massachusetts, followed by a Sabbath visit to Rhode Island to take on the Providence Grays.  For me, it's a combination of base ball and grandchildren (not necessarily in that order) so I'm hoping I haven't jinxed the Neshnock's entire season.

   

Readers of this blog may recall that I have been in discussions with the Morven Museum and Gardens in Princeton about a possible exhibit on 19th century New Jersey base ball and the good news is that the exhibit is going ahead and is scheduled to open in June of 2019.  Originally, the idea was to cover the first 25 years of New Jersey base ball, but we've since decided to extend the period through 1915 which will allow us to tell the story of New Jersey's sole major league team, the short lived Federal League's, even more short lived, Newark Peppers.  Another possibility under consideration is to show through maps and other media, the location of some of the state's earliest base ball grounds or fields.  Locations which for the most part have long since been consumed by some kind of urban development.  It's an idea not without its challenges since like player identification, the contemporary media wasn't always that precise in describing the specific locations, but it should be possible to identify at least some of these lost base ball fields.  Jersey City, for example, where the Neshanock were supposed to play the Hoboken Club this past Saturday has a number of interesting possibilities.

Although there are claims Jersey City had a base ball club as early as the 1830's, the first two well documented teams, the Pioneer and Excelsior Clubs took the field, wherever it was, in 1855.  The description of the two clubs' first match unhelpfully listed the location as the "field between Hoboken and Jersey City," thereby rendering identification impossible.  Despite some on-the-field success, the two charter clubs lasted only one year, supposedly to some degree to the difficulty in securing grounds, but more likely because the best players on the two teams defected to the Eagle Club of New York.  The next Jersey City senior team was the Hamilton Club, probably the most well-documented antebellum New Jersey club, which will likely play an important part in the exhibit in its own right.  From 1858 to 1860, the Hamiltons played and practiced on a field near the Long Dock in Jersey City which can be seen in the 1867 lithograph of New York harbor at the top of the post, helpfully pointed out to me by John Ward Beekman of the Jersey City Public Library.  The Long Dock and the adjoining fields can be seen left center of the full picture at the beginning of the post and/or at the center of the smaller version immediately above.

Although the Hamilton Club intended to play base ball in 1861, there's no record of club activities after their annual meeting in April of that year where they discussed the problem of finding adequate grounds, suggesting the field near the Long Dock was no longer available.  While it took a few years, a number of clubs filled the gap, especially the Champion Club which became Jersey City's premier base ball team of the pioneer period.  The Champions, as they liked to call themselves, played their matches at "the head of Erie Street."  Review of a contemporary map of Jersey City suggests a vacant lot within the trapezoid shape marked in red above, with Erie Street on the left, Grove Street on the right and Jersey Avenue at the bottom.  Interestingly the field was located only a few blocks east or to the right of one of the city's minuscule African-American community which helps explain how an impromptu 1870 pickup game included some black players in what appears to have been New Jersey's first integrated base ball game.  Identifying early base ball grounds will have its challenges, but stories like these make it well worthwhile.