A few years ago, Henry Zinn, my ten-year-old grandson, gave me a guided tour of his dinosaur collection, which he categorized by their degree of "coolness." Some were “very” cool, others “extremely” cool, with a few receiving the highest accolade of "insanely" cool. I was reminded of the many possible levels of coolness after Saturday's game in Washington when Darryl Wright, coach of the Warren Hills team, said the day had been "so" cool. While it's not a category I've heard Henry use, it was very appropriate for two reasons. First, we were fortunate to play on a historic field, more on that later. Second and more important, was enabling local high school players to learn how baseball was played in the 1860s. Learning not by listening to one of my perhaps not entirely gripping lectures, but by actually playing baseball the way it was played well over 100 years ago.
The Neshanock played the Warren Hills High School team two years ago, but this was an entirely different group of players. That made Saturday even more impressive because these young men learned very quickly. Especially noteworthy was how fast they adjusted to playing without gloves. The game began with both teams tallying three times in the first inning, but Flemington tallied six more times over the next three innings while the local club added just one run. Flemington's 9-4 lead proved to be short-lived, however, as Warren Hills scored 11 runs over the last five innings while shutting out Flemington in the process for a 15-9 victory.
The Neshanock offense was led by Scott "Snuffy" Hengst and Jason Blazakis with four hits apiece. Both came up one at bat short of a clear score. Special thanks to Jason, a member of the Logan Club of Lambertville, who helped us field a team. Right behind Jason and "Snuffy" was Chris "Sideshow" Nunn with three hits. "Sideshow's" younger brother, Matt "Fly" Nunn, was next with two hits and Paul "O'Neill" Cincotta led a number of Neshanock who had one hit each. Jim "Jersey" Nunn, the final (and oldest) Nunn in the Neshanock lineup, contributed a fine defensive play at first, as did "Snuffy" at third. As usual, Bobby "Melky" Ritter and Bob "Riverboat" Smith pitched effectively while local resident Mark "Gaslight" Granieri handled the catching.
The field at Washington is unique because of the covered grandstand. There was a time when almost every community in New Jersey had such a field. To my knowledge, there are only two others left - Gebhardt Field in Clinton and Case Field in Holland Township. Not only were these fields used by local teams, legendary major league players sometimes played there. Ty Cobb, for example, played in Washington in 1911. Sadly, as I understand it, very few games are played there today. Saturday was, therefore, even more important for the local high school players. Not only did they get to play on a historic field, it was one in their own community. I'm confident that even by his highest standards, Henry Zinn would have agreed that the day was indeed "so cool."
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