On Not Being First

Baseball, like many things in life, doesn't lack for cliches and platitudes.  But no matter how trite they may sometimes seem, they frequently contain some degree of truth.  Take, for example, opening day.  The return of baseball supposedly simultaneously with nice weather makes almost all of us somewhat nostalgic about the game we love.  In recent years, however, the failure of the weather to keep up with the calendar has taken away some of the enjoyment or at least for me.  Whether it has been sitting in gale force winds high above Citi Field with Paul Zinn or being relieved at the decision not to open the vintage baseball season in winter-like weather, the experience hasn't been the same.  No one, however, at least in New Jersey's vintage baseball community, had grounds for complaining this year.  Saturday saw all five of New Jersey's clubs open the season under bright sunshine and blue skies in perfect temperatures.  While the Neshanock and Hoboken clubs opened the season in Dumont, the Elizabeth Resolutes and the Liberty Club met in Piscataway at the same time the Monmouth Furnace Club was taking on a group of students at Monmouth University.

Photo by Mark Granieri

The Flemington-Hoboken match was played in the Bergen County community as part of the opening of that town's Little League season.  Both teams had good turnouts and the game got underway only a few minutes late (a rare occurrence for Flemington) with the Neshanock in the field.  After retiring Hoboken in order, Flemington quickly got off to a 2-0 lead that grew to 7-1 after three innings keyed by two clutch hits from Dave "Illinois" Harris.  Had there been rbi's back in 1864, "Illinois" would have collected four in his first two at-bats of the season.  The Neshanock lead grew to 9-3 after four innings, but then Hoboken shut down the Flemington offense with defense that was steady throughout and stellar when necessary.  Indeed, the Hudson County team's fielders didn't make a single error throughout the entire match.  Hoboken then proceeded to chip away at the Neshanock lead aided by some especially untimely muffs by the Flemington defense.

Photo by Mark Granieri 

Hoboken finally tied the game in the top of the eighth at 10-10 only to see the Neshanock tally twice in the bottom of the inning.  Ahead by two runs going to the ninth, the Neshanock quickly retired the first two strikers which is when Flemington is always at its most vulnerable.  Sure enough, Hoboken rallied, scoring once and putting the tying and go-ahead runs on second and third.  The next striker hit a hard grounder to third, the throw to first was offline, but wily veteran that he is, "Illinois," came off the base, took the ball on the bounce and tagged the runner to end the game.  In addition to his defensive heroics, "Illinois" recorded four hits, matching Danny "Lefty" Gallagher, both Neshanock strikers were just one at-bat short of a clear score.  Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner was next in the hit parade with three, followed by Rene "Mango" Marrero, Mark "Gaslight" Granieri, and Chris "Low Ball" Lowry with two apiece.  Bobby "Melky"Ritter handled most of the pitching chores while Matt Nunn and Gregg "Burner" Wiseburn provided steady defense in the outfield.  Brad "Brooklyn" Shaw was also present but somehow didn't perform "Casey at the Bat" even once.  Flemington came out ahead on the scoreboard, but both teams won because we were once again privileged to be back on the baseball field, playing the game we love.

Photo by Mark Granieri

This blog has been on sabbatical so that I could devote more time to my fifth (and final?) book which will be published by Morven Museum & Garden in June as a companion volume to an exhibit on New Jersey baseball.  The exhibit will cover baseball in the Garden State through 1915, but the book will focus exclusively on the period from 1855 to 1880.   One part of the book will look at baseball firsts in New Jersey including the first junior team, the first inter-scholastic game, the first game on ice, and, perhaps most interesting of all, the first game between African-American clubs.  While working on the end stages of the book, however, I've become increasingly sensitive to the danger of claiming anything as a baseball first.  This was brought home a few weeks ago when Richard Hershberger reported that he had found newspaper accounts of two baseball games between white and black teams that pre-dated the September 3, 1869 game between the Pythian and Olympic Clubs of Philadelphia that has long been considered the first integrated game.  That news prompted responses about even earlier integrated games, demonstrating that claims of having found a baseball first can, and likely will, prove to be short-lived.  Fortunately, this hit home before my manuscript was finished and "first" has pretty much been replaced by "earliest known."

Even before this, however, I was concerned about how to describe the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings who are typically referred to as the first all-professional team even though that's not correct.  Seeking guidance, I used the Society for American Baseball Research's nineteenth-century email list to find the best way to talk about this historic club.  There were a number of helpful responses, but the one that really made an impact was John Thorn's comment that the Red Stockings were the team that "made baseball famous nationwide."  I was well aware, of course, of the Cincinnati club's transcontinental tour, but John's email brought home how that incredibly arduous trip, 150 years ago this year, enabled baseball fans in both New Jersey and in San Francisco to say they had seen the best team in the country play in person.  It's an extraordinary accomplishment, the kind of thing that might not get due attention if there is excessive concentration on "firsts," especially since the latter may prove to be short-lived.  Something to think about as we begin another baseball season.