After a week off, seven Neshanock players traveled to Washington (Warren County), New Jersey to take on the Warren Hills High School team. Since Abner Doubleday decreed a minimum of nine players, Flemington was once again shorthanded. Fortunately, through the kindness of strangers, we were able to fill out our lineup. Thanks to Dan and Mike for helping us out. We were also pleased to see local resident and longtime Neshanock Gregg "Burner" Wiseburn who had just been cleared for running after what seems like a record stay on the injured list. Not only was it good to see "Burner," he caught the last two innings, the start, we hope, of a return to the Flemington lineup.
Picture of an earlier Washington ballpark at a different location - newspaper and date unknown
Thanks to the aged scorekeeper's call of heads, Flemington won the coin toss and chose to strike second. Warren Hills tallied once in the top of the first and added five more runs over the next five innings. Heading to the bottom of the fifth, the Neshanock trailed 6-1, but a three-run rally closed the margin to just two runs. That, however, was the extent of Flemington's offense and even though they already had enough runs, Warren Hills tallied seven more times for a comfortable 13-4 win.
Historic grandstand at Washington Boro - All pictures by Mark Granieri
Close quarters in the Neshanock dugout - left to right - the aged score keeper, Jeff "Duke" Schneider, Don "Splinter" Becker, Chris "Sideshow" Nunn and Jim "Jersey" Nunn
Local resident, Mark "Gaslight" Granieri led Flemington with three hits and came within inches of recording a clear score. Chris "Sideshow" Nunn and Don "Splinter" Becker had two hits each while playing solid outfield defense. Jeff "Duke" Schneider, the other member of the outfield had one hit plus a base on balls. Walks as a rule don't merit much notice, but in this case, there was a runner on third thereby adding one tally to the Flemington total. Had there been RBI's in 1864, "Duke" would have gotten one, but they didn't so neither did he."Duke" also made a nice rolling catch in the outfield. He enjoyed it so much he took another tumble, this time well after grabbing another batted ball on the bound thereby earning a putout, but no style points.
As always, Bobby "Melky" Ritter's follow through is flawless
Before Flemington's first visit to Washington in 2023, I read in the book "Covered Wooden Grandstands" that Ty Cobb played a game there in 1911. Further research led to a blog post about that game where a local pitcher won a new hat and a lifetime of bragging rights for striking out Cobb who hit .419 that year. At the time "Gaslight" and I weren't sure whether that game was played at the same site as the current field with its historic grandstand. Recently, the picture at the beginning of this post appeared on a Washington Facebook page without, unfortunately, listing the source. Given, however, the mention of 1911 and the number of fans in the picture it's possible the picture was taken at that game. It could, in fact, be a picture of the Georgia Peach himself at bat. Time for some more research - stay tuned!
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