I Get Into the Game (At Least Metaphorically)

Yesterday Carol and I drove down to Newtown, Pennsylvania for a vintage base ball game between the Eureka and our "mother" club the Flemington Neshanock. The match was organized as part of the town's Memorial Day observation and they did a great job of promoting it. The crowd looked to be somewhere between 2-300 by far the largest crowd I have ever seen at a vintage game. In fact, there had to be more people there than have attended all the other games I have been at combined. Brad Shaw, the President of the Neshanock, says that the best way to schedule is as part of an event and yesterday certainly illustrated the truth of that statement.

For those of us who are historic purists there were some unhistorical features of the day including the National Anthem (probably began during WWI) and singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (no either than 1908). However since the vintage base ball postage stamp to the upper right also uses baseball's theme song in an uhistorical way I suppose I can't complain to much. There were also some baseball trivia questions for those in the stands some of which were absurdly easy - "When was the first World Series played?) (bad) and "Which team has won the most World Series? (by far the worst - both because it is so simple and because the answer is so depressing).

The venue was spectacular, a field with a grass infield, well maintained with plenty of shade all around. Once again the Eureka got off to a slow start and lost to the Neshanock, but it was a good game. One thing that always strikes me about vintage games is the combination of adapting to the old rules (1864 in this case) and remembering some aspects of the game that probably have never changed. In the latter category are things such as how one bad play can lead to a disastrous inning, not making the first or last out of inning at third, and the importance of getting runners into scoring position with two out. On the other side are things like 3 balls for a walk, batters/pitchers getting a warning pitch before balls and strikes are called, any ball caught on the bounce being an out, underhanded pitching, and not being allowed to over run first base.

Because of the travel involved, most of these games tend to take a whole day. Almost without exception the day before the game, I start thinking about how else I could use that time. Yet from the moment I get there I enjoy the whole experience. A big part of that is just the fun of being back participating in a game I love, the game that I played more than any other growing up. I wish I had known about vintage base ball at least 10 years ago when I could have still played and it might have been possible to make it a father and son activity. At least this time part of me did get into the game - one of our younger players didn't have a uniform so I lent him my shirt so he could play. Anything (well almost anything) for the team!