"Their Appointed Rounds"

While its traditionally mail carriers who refuse to let snow, heat or gloom of night prevent the "swift completion of their appointed rounds," it's fair to say they had nothing on the hardy band of Neshanock and spouses who traveled to Newark, Delaware on Sunday.  Not only were a majority of the group still recovering from the National Silver Ball Tournament in Rochester, they also made their way through the vestiges of tropical storm Henri just to get to Paper Mill Park, the site of two seven inning matches with our friends, the Diamond State Club of Delaware.   Fortunately, the storm had pretty much passed by Delaware and by the time the first pitch was thrown just after noon, the rain was limited to a few brief showers. I believe the Neshanock and Diamond State first met in 2010 as part of the inaugural Gettysburg 19th Century Base Ball Festival on an incredibly hot day even for Gettysburg.  Since then we've had a number of memorable matches with this fine team which won the National Silver Ball tournament in 2018.

All photos courtesy of Lauren Marchese Nunn Optimum Photography

In the first game, Diamond State went first to the striker's line and quickly pushed two tallies across the plate.  Flemington got one back in the bottom of the first, but the Delaware team scored twice more in the third and led 4-1.  Thanks to a clutch two-out single by Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner in the bottom of the inning, however, the Neshanock tallied twice to stay within one.  After setting down Delaware in order in the top of the fourth, the Neshanock offense erupted in their next at bat, tallying seven times to take a 10-4 lead.  Flemington added two insurance runs and played solid defense to keep Diamond State off the scoreboard the rest of the way for a 12-4 Flemington win.  Chris "Sideshow" Nunn led the Neshanock offense with three hits followed by Jeff" Duke" Schneider, Joe "Mick" Murray and Nick Mendell with two apiece.  The Neshanock were glad to have Nick Mendell back with us and hope he has a quick recovery from the leg injury he suffered in the second game.  

Getting ready for the first game

After a brief break, the second game got underway with Flemington striking first.  The Neshanock offense stayed hot, tallying 13 times in their first four at bats for an early 13-2 advantage. Once again, Flemington played solid defense, keeping Diamond State off the scoreboard for the last four innings of an 18-2 Neshanock win.  Chris "Low Ball" Lowry who shared the pitching duties with Rene "Mango" Marrero in the first game handled most of the load in the second contest.  Jim "Jersey" Nunn led the offense in the second game with four hits, losing a clear score in his last time at the striker's line.  "Duke," "Thumbs" and "Mick" each had three hits while "Mango" had two.  After racking up 14 hits in the first contest, Flemington added 20 in the second game - 34 hits for the day - all singles.  Also contributing in his own unique way was Ken "Tumbles" Mandel.   This Saturday, the Neshanock will play their final 2021 game outside of New Jersey, a visit to the Hecklerfest in Lower Salford, Pennsylvania to take on the Brandywine Club.

Vintage base ball at it's most memorable - Ken "Tumbles" Mandel at the striker's line

Since Flemington was ahead when Diamond State was retired in the top of the seventh of the first game, the Neshanock didn't bat in the bottom of the inning.  That's no great surprise under modern rules, but it's contrary to the rules of the 1860s.  We were reminded of that last weekend in Rochester where in similar situations, the bottom of the last inning would have been played unless the Neshanock waived their last at bat, which we did.  Playing an equal number of innings is a concept that dates back to the early days of organized base ball.  Back in 1845, the Knickerbocker Club of New York played a game that was won by the first team to score 21 runs, but with the stipulation that an equal number of outs and, therefore, innings had to be played.  While it's impossible to know with certainty why the rule was so important as to be put in writing, the answer probably is because the Knickerbocker's played the game for its own sake rather than to win.  

Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner runs out one of the Neshanock's 34 singles

Based on information on the invaluable Protoball web site (www.protoball.org), from 1845 through 1850, the Knickerbockers played 223 games, only one of which, at most, was a match game.  On all of the other occasions, the club members divided up into two teams and played games that had no lasting significance because the teams changed almost every game.  If, say, 110 of those games ended with the winning team batting second, the players would have lost out on playing the equivalent of just over 12 games - something likely more important to them than the time saved from skipping an inning with no impact on the game.  As competing against other teams became the order of the day, the emphasis switched with winning a greater priority than playing and finally in 1880 the rules were amended to eliminate the requirement to play the bottom of the inning.  Possibly it may have been changed in practice before that.

Catcher Chris "Sideshow" Nunn and the striker wait for Chris "Lowball" Lowry's pitch to come down

In a post a few weeks ago, I suggested that over the past 100 years, something of value has been lost by the decline in direct participation in baseball.  At first glance, not playing even a half-inning for its own sake, might seem to be in the same category.  The great thing about baseball, however, is that there are other ways to preserve traditional values and Sunday's games are a case in point.  Vintage base ball games are played for at least three reasons.  Some are highly competitive like those played at the National Silver Ball tournament and there's nothing wrong with that.  Others are played as part of events, like this coming weekend in Pennsylvania which, while the teams try to win, are intended to illustrate/teach how the game used to be played.  Sunday's games in Delaware, however, were neither part of a tournament nor intended to show a crowd of newcomers about 19th century baseball.  Why then did the two teams, under less than perfect traveling and playing conditions make the effort?  We played for the game's sake, the importance of which should never be forgotten.