Vintage baseball scheduling is similar to umpiring - it's easy until it isn't! Take for example the Neshanock's schedule for July and August. Since July includes the annual Gettysburg weekend, a major commitment of time and money, only one other date was scheduled. Then, after a well-deserved post-Gettysburg weekend off, there would be matches on the first three weekends in August - seemingly just the right level of activity for the summer months. The first date in Lambertville went well, but weather and circumstances beyond our control wiped out the other two events. As a result, Flemington only got on the field three times over the summer - hardly ideal for what are supposed to be prime months for baseball. It was, therefore, all the more satisfying to return to the field this past Saturday in Delanco, New Jersey.
Unless otherwise noted, photos are by Mark Granieri
The occasion was the centennial celebration of the July 1, 1924 game when the one and only Babe Ruth played and homered (of course) at the field that now bears his name. Saturday was the fourth time, the Neshanock have been privileged to be part of these celebrations, most recently two years ago. The blog post about that visit has some of the details of the original game. Peter Fritz and the Delanco History Board do a wonderful job in hosting these events and Flemington was once again glad to be part of it. To make it even more special we were delighted to host our friends, the Elkton Eclipse, one of the country's top nineteenth-century teams and the organizers of the Gettysburg event. We were also glad to have Matt Labella join us and hope he returns.
While we were honoring a 1924 game, reenactors from the 23rd New Jersey were a reminder that the games were played by 1864 rules
Two unusual things took place as the first game got underway. First Flemington won the coin toss, ending a 15 or so coin toss losing streak. More on coin tosses later. Next for the second time since 2010, a Neshanock game started on time. If this were a perfect world, those would have been good omens, but, as we well know, it's far from a perfect world. Elkton tallied once in the top of the first which the Neshanock matched in their turn. After the Eclipse took a 2-1 lead, Flemington scored three in the third and one in the fourth for a 5-2 lead. It didn't, however, last long as Elkton got two back in the fifth. It could have been worse but for a fine play made by Rene "Mango" Marrero's at first. The Neshanock scored again in the sixth, but Elkton tied up this well-played, interesting game in the top of the eighth.
As always Sam Bernstein officiated efficiently and with good humor - photo by Rene Marrero
Flemington broke the tie in the bottom of the inning and retired the first two strikers in the top of the ninth. It looked good, but teams have 27 outs, not 26 and Elkton tied the game again. Sadly, the Neshanock didn't score in the bottom of the ninth when a run could have won the game. Baseball can be an unforgiving game and that proved once again to be the case as the Maryland team scored six times in the tenth and won the match 13-7. Leading the Neshanock attack with two hits apiece were Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner, "Mango," Nick Prioli and J.P. Prioli. Defensively, Flemington played well behind Bobby "Melky" Ritter and Chris "Lowball" Lowry including a key play that kept the game tied in the top of the ninth.
Both teams took full advantage of the free lunch
After ten innings of dramatic baseball in just over 90 minutes, the two teams took a break to enjoy a free lunch courtesy of the host organization. Flemington didn't score in either of its first two at-bats in the second game and Elkton led 2-0 heading to the bottom of the second inning. Thus far offensive success had been limited, but Elkton changed that tallying ten times on one well-struck ball after another. Flemington continued to struggle at the striker's line, scratching out only 3 runs in the first six innings. Elkton led 14-3 at that point, but suddenly the Neshanock's bats woke up, aided by some Eclipse muffs. When the dust metaphorically cleared, Flemington had closed to within 14-10.
No one can say the Neshanock weren't into the game
Any hopes of a Neshanock comeback died quickly, however, when the Maryland team added 5 more runs in the bottom of the seventh to lead 19-10. Meanwhile, the skies were getting darker and darker while the wind was picking up leading to a decision to end the game after seven innings. The decision proved to be a prudent one since a downpour followed the usual end-of-game ceremonies. It was not a productive offensive game for Flemington as only "Thumbs" had two hits with eight other Neshanock having one each. As always it was a privilege to play at Babe Ruth Field and help Delanco honor that historic day a century ago.
Saturday's games were played with the standard nineteenth-century equipment - bats, balls and bases, replicas of what was used in the 1860s. But we did have, and use, one object that existed in 1864, the Indian head penny pictured above. The coin was used to decide which team batted first. In the nineteenth century, the visiting team didn’t automatically go to the striker's line first, requiring some method to make that determination. During my 15-plus years of vintage baseball, the decision has typically been made by a bat toss. I think that came about because people knew the bat toss was sometimes used for that purpose and assumed it dated back to the organized game’s early days.
Game action and the crowd
However, recent research has determined that while the bat toss may be more colorful, the coin toss was more common. In addition, even when the coin toss was used in vintage games, the umpire was usually the officiant. Here again, further study has found something different – the coin toss was typically done by the two captains. One unresolved issue is which captain called the toss. All of this may seem like the vintage baseball version of counting the number of angels on the head of a pin, but it illustrates the challenges of recreating nineteenth-century baseball. There are a lot of details and, therefore, the real danger of getting carried away to an extreme.
This exchange between Bobby "Melky" Ritter (left) and Ken "Tumbles" Mandel pretty much sums up how things went on the field for the Neshanock - picture by Rene Marrero
There’s an old saying that “the devil is in the details,” meaning that it's important to look closely at the specifics of any undertaking to find and avoid potential problems. It's also possible, however, to turn the phrase around 180 degrees to say that “God is in the details.” The idea is that it can be equally, if not more, important to search among the details for the good things that can help us achieve our objectives. When it comes to vintage baseball that means working to recreate the game as accurately as possible without getting bogged down in things that can make it lose its appeal, especially to those doing the recreating.
No comments:
Post a Comment