Camden Town (Ball)

After playing outside the state in August, the Neshanock returned to New Jersey on Saturday for a match in Camden, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.  The game with the Athletic Club of Philadelphia was a late addition to the schedule, to support the Camden Historical Society's reopening which included some new exhibits including one on the Negro Leagues.  We were glad to be part of this event which couldn't have taken place on a nicer day.  The Athletics went first to the striker's line and quickly put their first two men on base.   Unfortunately for the Philadelphia club, the next striker hit a pop fly to Neshanock pitcher Dan "Sledge" Hammer which allowed Flemington to take advantage of the lack of an infield fly rule in 1864.  After letting the ball bounce twice, "Sledge" threw to Joe "Mick" Murray at third for one out and "Mick" completed the double play by throwing to Chris "Low Ball" Lowry at second.  Flemington retired the next batter and, after a promising start, the Athletics failed to tally in the top of the first.

Chris "Sideshow" Nunn catches a pitch while Carol Zinn (far right) looks on.  All color photos by Mark "Gaslight" Granieri

When the Neshanock came to the striker's line, it didn't take long to see it was going to be a big day for the Flemington offense.  Fourteen men came to bat and when the dust cleared, Flemington had tallied nine times.  In the end the offensive output proved to be not just productive, but historic as Flemington's 49 runs shattered the previous high of 35 set on two occasions at the Gettysburg Festival.  Such offensive outbursts may seem unusual today, but there is no lack of historical precedent such as the below box score of an 1860s game where the original Athletics Club more than doubled the Neshanock's 2021 output. Needless to say there was no shortage of good individual performance beginning with "Sledge" who had a seven hit clear score including two home runs in the same inning doubtless also a Flemington record.  "Sledge" also scored all seven times he reached base producing what for the lack of a better term we're calling an immaculate clear score.  Not far behind were Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner and Jim "Jersey" Nunn with six hits apiece while Chris "Sideshow" Nunn, Danny "Lefty" Gallagher, Rene "Mango" Marrero, Mark "Gaslight" Granieri and Tom "Hawk" Prioli chipped in five hits apiece.  

"Lefty's" day included two home runs, combining for back-to-back circuit shots with "Sledge" in the fourth. "Lefty" also hit for the cycle, that is hitting, a single, double, triple and home run in the same game, not necessarily in that order. Like runs-batted-in, the term wasn't used in the 1860s, but we'll make an exception in this case.  "Hawk's" performance earned him Flemington's second clear score of the day.  Also contributing were "Mick" and "Low Ball" with four hit games while Jeff "Duke" Schneider and Rob Colon had three hits each.  It was Rob's first game with the Neshanock and we hope he will become a regular member of the club.  The 49-5 victory brings Flemington's overall record to 13-9 with just one date left to play.  Originally the Neshanock were to make their annual visit to historic Cameron Field in South Orange on Saturday, September 18th, but flood damage from tropical storm Ida has forced the cancellation of the game.  As a result, Flemington will bring down the curtain on the 2021 season on Saturday, September 25th at the Dey Farm in Monroe Township against the Liberty Club of New Brunswick.   

Rene "Mango" Marrero pitches while Jeff "Duke" Schneider looks on with anticipation

Playing Saturday's game by 1864 rules was appropriate since Camden's first base ball team got started that same year almost a decade after the first New Jersey teams took the field.  While that may seem on the late side, it wasn't because local youth had an aversion to bat and ball games.  Rather, it was because teams in neighboring Philadelphia played a very different game known today as Philadelphia town ball.  Town ball is a catch-all term used to describe a wide range of bat and ball games that aren't base ball.  Fortunately, thanks to a critical mass of surviving source material and the work of historian Richard Hershberger, the game played in the City of Brotherly Love is understood well enough to be identified as the Philadelphia version of town ball.  Back in 2014, as part of the Gettysburg Festival, the Athletic Club (Saturday's opponent) recreated the game which is vastly different from base ball.  Just a few of the differences include no foul territory, eleven on a side and bases in a circle about 20 feet apart.

Dan "Sledge" Hammer about to strike one of his seven hits while Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner waits his turn at the line.

As significant as these differences are, they pale in comparison with Philadelphia town ball's most distinctive feature.  Every at bat has only two possible outcomes - a home run or an out.  Young men in Philadelphia organized town ball clubs in the early 1830s and it's no surprise the game gradually moved across the Delaware River, leading to the formation of the Camden Club in 1857.  Camden, however, didn't become the Hoboken of Philadelphia town ball.  Comprehensive research in contemporary south Jersey newspapers has failed to uncover a single instance of another club other than the Camden team.  Part of the failure of the Philadelphia game to spread is the southern part of the state lacked the population density and mobile society of north Jersey that greatly facilitated the spread of base ball north of Trenton.  But having watched Philadelphia town ball being played, it seems to me that there was another major factor - there's not a lot of strategy to a game where each at bat has only two possible outcomes and, therefore, not much reason to be interested in the game.  Baseball, on the other hand, has so many possibilities that the strategic alternatives sometimes seem unlimited.

Camden's Weston Fisler as a member of the Athletic Club of Philadelphia

It's no surprise, therefore, that in the early 1860s, the Philadelphia clubs gradually converted to base ball, followed by the Camden Club in 1864.  The Camden players, or at least one of them, Weston Fisler, adapted relatively quickly.  After starting with the Camden Club, Fisler joined the Athletic Club of Philadelphia when it was one of the top teams of the 1860s.  He stayed with the Athletics throughout their years in the National Association and then as a charter member of the National League in 1876.  Fishler complied a .310 lifetime batting average in the two professional leagues while earning the nickname "Icicle," because he was so "cool and collected" in all circumstances.  In his last season the Camden product not only played in the first National League game, he has the distinction of scoring the first earned run in league history.  Clearly playing another, very different game first, didn't hold Fisler back from being the first, but certainly not the last, New Jersey player to enjoy success at the professional level.