After a well-earned Labor Day weekend off, the Neshanock returned to the field on Saturday - the field at the Dey Farm in Monroe Township. Flemington's annual visits to this historic site date back to at least 2011 and it's always one of the favorite stops on our yearly baseball journey. Sue Rudy and the rest of the historical commission are always gracious hosts and the event usually attracts a large and attentive crowd. The threatening weather kept some fans away this time, but those who came got to see a full nine inning game and certainly seemed to enjoy themselves. The Hoboken Club provided the opposition, bringing the season almost full circle since the two teams opened the 2023 season back in April at another historic farm - Fosterfields near Morristown.
Flemington won the bat toss and sent Hoboken to the line. Although the first two strikers were retired without incident, two straight hits and and some aggressive baserunning produced one tally. In the bottom of the first, with one out, Dan "Sledge" Hammer singled, sparking a Neshanock rally that saw seven straight Neshanock strikers reach base. Six of them scored to give Flemington an early 6-1 lead. Hoboken was held scoreless for the next two innings while the Neshanock added one tally to lead 7-1 going to the top of the fourth. At that point the visitors rallied for two runs, narrowing the gap to 7-3. Flemington more than matched that, however, tallying four times in the fourth and three in the fifth for a commanding eleven run lead. Interestingly neither team scored again and the Neshanock prevailed 14-3.
Flemington scored 14 times by virtue of the team's most balanced offense of the season. Leading the way with two hits each were Chris "Sideshow" Nunn, "Sledge," Paul "O'Neill" Cincotta and Sam "Ewing" Ricco. After that eight different strikers had one hit apiece. Perhaps even more impressive, however, was another solid defensive performance, behind the pitching of Bobby "Melky" Ritter and Bob "Riverboat" Smith. While there's not a lot of statistics, it feels like 2023 has been one the Neshanock's best defensive seasons. Especially noteworthy Saturday was what may be a new team record set by catcher Thomas "Hawk" Prioli. During the eighth inning "Hawk" recorded all three outs on a combination of foul flies and foul bound outs. Even the rare Neshanock muffs ended with a good defensive result. After Jeff "Duke" Schneider unaccountably let a bound out elude him in center, he recovered to begin a relay to Rene "Mango" Marrero and "Hawk" that retired a Hoboken runner at home.
Early in the game there was another standout defensive play that also offered a rare baseball history teaching opportunity. Hoboken had runners on first and second and only one out when the next striker hit a pop fly to shortstop Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner. Although perhaps not as wily as Mark "Gaslight" Granieri, "Thumbs" is a vintage baseball veteran who knew exactly what to do. Rather than catch it on the fly, he let it bounce twice. Had "Thumbs" caught it on the fly or one bounce, the runners had no obligation to advance. Once the second bounce, however, they had to advance and the runners at first and second were forced out by a wide margin.
The play "Thumbs" made was eventually outlawed by the infield fly rule which came into existence in the 1890s. In it's time, it was a heads-up play against which there was literally nothing the other team could do. As a result, it's also unfair which is the primary reason the rule was changed. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, other vintage baseball teams have sometimes objected to the play as being somehow unsportsmanlike. Using it, however, is part of teaching how the game was played and also how baseball constantly evolves. In other words, it's part of what vintage baseball is all about.
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