Saturday was a very important day for New Jersey vintage baseball. The Logan Club of Lambertville played their first matches against the Neshanock. Led by Sam "Ewing" Ricco and Scott "Snuffy" Hengst of the Neshanock with Brad "Brooklyn" Shaw as a mentor, the Logan Club's plan is to play six to eight times a season. Fortunately for the Neshancok, "Snuffy" and "Ewing" will continue to play for Flemington. In order to get things off to a good start, Rene "Mango" Marrero, Joe "Mick" Murray, Chris "Lowball" Lowry and Tony Pallanta manfully agreed to supplement the Logan Club's lineup. Also playing for the Logans, was Jeff "Duke" Schneider who we were pleased to welcome back from the injured list. Building on a match sponsored by the Lambertville Historical Society a year ago, the clubs played two seven-inning games at Ely Field on Main Street in this historic Delaware River community.
Logan Club players - photo by Filomena Hengst
To no one's surprise, the Neshanock lost the coin toss but began the game in the field when "Ewing" opted to have his team bat first. The local team tallied twice and recorded a perfect first inning in the field retiring the first three Neshanock strikers on bound outs. Flemington tied the game in the second and the score remained 2-2 going to the bottom of the third. With one out, Thomas "Hawk" Prioli blasted a triple and the next six strikers reached base to help the Neshanock take a 9-2 lead. The Lambertville club chipped away, but the Neshanock held on for a 10-7 win. Matt "Fly" Nunn led the Neshanock attack with three hits and a clear score. Nick Prioli and Mark "Gaslight" Granieri each had two hits. Bobby "Melky" Ritter handled the pitching with his usual aplomb. The Neshanock were ably assisted by Nick, Joe and J.P. Prioli who are now full team members. We're glad to have them - nicknames to follow.
Not only did Brad "Brooklyn" Shaw throw out the first pitch, he performed "Casey at the Bat" between games and umpired the second contest - photo by Rene Marrero
After a rehydration break, the second game began with the Logan Club at the striker's line and Brad "Brooklyn" Shaw serving as umpire. Sam "It Ain't Nothing Until I Say" Bernstein handled the first game with his usual efficiency. This time the Logan Club did the early scoring, jumping out to a 10-3 lead after three innings. The local team still led 12-5 headed to the bottom of the sixth when the Neshanock rallied. Jim "Jersey" Nunn got it started with a single and five additional hits led to five Neshanock runs, closing the score to 12-10. A double off the bat of Paul "O'Neill" Cincotta was a key part of the rally. The Neshanock then blanked the Logan Club in the top of the seventh, to enter their last at-bat down two runs.
Left to right - Jeff "Duke" Schneider, Sam "Ewing" Ricco, Scott "Snuffy" Hengst, Larry Etgen, Larry Vellenskey and Brian Thomas - photo by Mark Granieri
Flemington tallied once and had the tying run on third with only one out. The next Neshanock striker hit to "Mango" at first base who made an outstanding play holding the runner at third while retiring the batter. When the next Flemington batter went out on a bound out, the Logan Club had their first win and a well-earned one at that. Tony Pallanta hit the only home run of the day for the Logan Club. While all of "Duke's" hits combined didn't travel as far as Tony's homer, he gave a clinic on the fair-foul play, with some hits that defied description, the Neshanock defense and perhaps even the rules. Joe Prioli had three hits and a clear score for the Neshanock as did "Hawk" who hit a triple and a double. Nick Prioli, Ken "Tumbles" Mandel and "Jersey" each had two hits for the Neshanock. Chris "Sideshow" Nunn continued to demonstrate extraordinary ball-hawking skills in center field.
Jeff "Duke" Schneider about to execute one of his many fair-foul plays - photo by Rene Marrero
Why was Saturday such an important day for New Jersey vintage baseball? It's because of a requirement for playing a game that, strange as it may seem, sometimes gets taken for granted - an opponent. We usually don't think that much about this because, in most forms of modern baseball, the larger structure provides the opponent. Almost every level of organized baseball from youth to the majors takes place in a league or conference where as the word implies, the larger organization supplies the opposition. It wasn’t like that, however, when the Neshanock and Logan Clubs got started in the 1860s. The captains or club presidents had to find other teams and make arrangements for matches.
Game action under the watchful eye of umpire Sam Bernstein - photo by Mark Granieri
While it’s not by design, vintage teams have to recreate that aspect of 1860s baseball. It isn't easy to do, particularly this year because of some supply and demand problems at least in New Jersey. Simply put the demand for matches exceeds the supply of teams to play them. In preparing the Neshanock's 2024 schedule, five different invitations had to be declined, at least partially due to the lack of potential opponents. At present, there are just four nineteenth-century baseball teams in all of New Jersey. That’s what makes the efforts of Sam Ricco and Scott Hengst in starting the Logan Club so important.
Left to right - Rene "Mango" Marrero, Ken "Tumbles" Mandel, Mark "Gaslight" Granieri and Joe "Mick" Murray - "Tumbles" is either observing the prohibition against smiling in nineteenth-century baseball pictures or he's in a daze - picture by Rene Marrero
But there's more to it than finding nine baseball players. Good opponents must commit to historical accuracy - to play baseball by rules that no longer exist, are hard to understand and sometimes make little sense. Sam and Scott know this from their experience with the Neshanock and they’ve wisely relied on the wisdom and experience of Brad Shaw. Historical accuracy, however, doesn’t mean that much, if the team doesn’t honor its commitments. Here again, the Logan Club is being prudent, by starting slowly, playing just a few times in their first season. Their success will create another badly needed New Jersey nineteenth-century baseball team. Certainly, the Neshanock will do our part to help. And, if reading this post, makes you think you’d like to try your hand at playing, or if you know someone who would, please contact Sam Ricco at sricco74@yahoo.com or sam@loganclub.org.
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