Juniper Valley Park, Queens – T'was a beautiful and glorious day to play base ball in Middle Village, Queens. The home town New York Gothams hosted the visiting Flemington Neshanock to play two splendiferous games on this fine day. The first game included a tad of controversy as the two clubs had to flee the southeastern part of the meadow in the first inning due to a swarm of young locusts with a strange old leather clad gentlemen leading them getting in the way of the match. After the 2 clubs settled into the opposite end of the field, the match continued with the Gothams continuing in their winning ways with a 27-13 victory. The 2nd match was a much more contested affair with the Gothams tallying an ace in the bottom of the 9th to again find themselves the victors, but this time by a more modest 12-11 score.
Game 1 vs. Flemington Neshanock – 1873 Rules:
The Gotham strikers were well prepared to start the match. The first 8 Gothams reached base safely with 6 one-base hits and 2 bases on balls before a single hand was down. 3 more one base hits were secured before the inning was over and before the Neshanock knew what had happened 9 different Gothams had tallied an ace to take a commanding lead. It should be noted that Swampfox reached base twice safely with one-base hits to lead the attack. Then came the swarm of locusts led by their leather-clad pied piper to shoe the ballists to the other side of the park. It was a scary and upsetting few moments, but the ballists would not be stopped and the match would continue. The Flemington club came right back by taking advantage of the dreaded Gotham inning to tally 4 times and get right back into the game. Flytrap tallied an ace in the 2nd with a one-base hit, 2 pilfered bases and a trot home one a base on balls issued to Coach. Coach induced 3 straight hands down in the Neshanock 2nd before Wombat and Collector walked around the bases after collecting bases on balls in the 3rd to add another ace to the tally. The Gothams almost escaped a bases full no hand situation in the Neshanock 3rd by inducing 2 straight infield fly balls before the New Jersey club broke through with 3 aces and before you new it the match was a tight 11-7 after 3 frames.
The Gotham strikers would not be stopped on this afternoon. Flytrap again led the charge in the 4th with a base on balls and 2 additional base thefts and tallied an ace on Coach's one-base hit and 2 thefts. Coach tallied his ace when the Gothams newest power threat Stacks' struck a monstrous 2-base hit. Coach kept the Neshanock to only one ace in their half of the frame. El Presidente, Trolley, Preacher, and Wombat struck a succession of one-base hits to tally twice more in the 5th. A 2-base hit from Collector, a 3-base hit from Swampfox and one-base hits each from Flytrap, Stacks and Rugs added 3 more aces to the Gotham tally in the 6th, whilst Coach settled down on the mound to Chicago the Neshanock in the 5th and 6th innings with help of fine field work by the Gotham catcher Flytrap securing every foul tick in sight. Coach also aided his own cause by swiftly catching a short fly ball and quickly throwing to El Presidente at 1st to complete a double play. The tally had now been brought to 18-8 in the Gothams favour.
The onslaught continued in the 7th as Trolley and Preacher each had one-base hits followed by a theft of 2nd, Wombat reached on a base on balls and Collector also had a one base hit, but the real damage came forth when Dog unleashed a mighty blow to circle all four bases at once and before anyone had realized it, the Gothams tallied 6 more times. The Neshanock tallied once in their half before the Gothams tallied 3 more times in the 9th to build an 18 ace lead going into the bottom of the final frame. The Neshanock, however, are no meek team and they would not go down without a fight. They tallied 4 times before ending the game in dramatic fashion. Collector, the Gotham left fielder, corralled the ball in deep left field, threw swiftly to Swampfox at shortstop, who relayed the ball precisely to Flytrap at home plate to place the tag on the Flemington Captain Brooklyn for the final out of this exciting ball game. In the end the Gothams prevailed 27-13 for their 3rd consecutive victory.
Game 1 – Individual Statistics:
Swampfox – 3-6, 1 3B, 1 BB, 3 Aces
Flytrap – 4-5, 1 2B, 1 BB, 4 Aces, 5 SB
Coach – 1-3, 3 BB, 2 Aces, 3 SB, 1 Win
Stacks – 3-4, 1 2B, 2 BB, 2 Aces, 2 SB
Rugs – 4-4, 1 Ace
El Presidente – 1-4, 2 BB, 3 Aces, 1 SB
Trolley – 4-6, 1 2B, 4 Aces, 2 SB
Preacher – 4-5, 2 Aces, 2 SB
Wombat – 2-3, 2 BB, 2 Aces, 1 SB
Collector – 3-5, 1 2B, 1 BB, 3 Aces, 1 SB
Dog – 3-6, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 Ace
Game 2 vs. Flemington Neshanock – 1864 Rules:
This 2nd match of the day got off to a much different start than the 1st match. In spite of a fine play by Coach to snare a hard hit ball on the bound for an out, The Neshanock tallied twice to take their first lead of the afternoon. Melky, the crafty pitcher for the Neshanock Chicagoed the Gothams in the 1st. After the Flemington club tallied an ace in the 2nd, the Gotham strikers came back to life. Coach, Stacks, and El Presidente each reached on one base hits and Coach and Stacks each swiped a base before Trolley smashed a 2 base hit, and when Shades came up to make his debut a Gotham striker history was made. He manage to strike a daisy cutter that got past not only the infielders, but the outfielders as well allowing Trolley to tally his 100th ace as a Gotham, the first such ballist to do so, whilst Shades circled all the bases for a somewhat unconventional home run in his first Gotham appearance. Shades was almost prevented from tallying his ace when Trolley started walking off with the home plate to commemorate his historic feat, but Sully, the days arbiter, procured the plate and the match went on. In the end 5 Gothams tallied to give them a 5-3 lead after 2.
The Neshanock tallied an ace in the 3rd before hits by Swampfox and Flytrap led to more Gotham tallies in the same frame. The Neshanock in pattern tallied once again in the 4th. Dog began his big 2nd match by reaching on a base on balls, pilfering both 2nd and 3rd base before tallying his ace on Trolley's 2nd 2-base hit of the game. Trolley tallied again on Shades 2nd hit of the match, but this time it was only a 2-base hit and not the prodigious 4-base daisy-cutter of earlier. Coach Chicagoed the New Jersey club in the 5th without allowing a runner. Dog and Collector each made fine plays in the outfield and Trolley threw out Low Ball at first base from far in foul territory as Low Ball was snipered and put out of the game by a confederate soldier sneaking high up in the Northern territory, but that Confederate soldier is no more, with that story to be told in another forum. The Gothams were also Chicagoed in this frame. The 6th inning, the Neshanock smartened up and aimed every ball at the hole in Trolley's hands to reach base and tally twice. A base on balls to Wombat and a 3-base hit by Dog led to 2 more Gotham aces and an 11-7 Gotham lead after 6 innings were complete.
The resilient Neshanock club kept on coming and tallied thrice in the 7th before finally being Chicagoed in the 8th. The Gothams, however, were also held scoreless in both the 7th and 8th frames leaving a one run lead to the final inning and a truly exciting finish. The Neshanock's lead off hitter reached safely and pilfered both 2nd and 3rd base. The next strike hit a short fly ball to left that Collector handled easily and kept the Neshanock runner on 3rd. Coach then induced Cuz to foul tick the ball, which got by the Gotham catcher Flytrap, who quickly raced back to retrieve the ball, fire it to Coach who promptly relayed the ball to Trolley at 3rd for the 2nd out of the final inning. The Neshanock Captain was irate and believed the ball not to be foul, but just a strike and hence forth performed a serious act of kicking at Sully the arbiter, but Sully held his ground and his call. But the Neshanock Captain would have his revenge by reaching first base safely, moving to 2nd base on a passed ball and tallying an ace on a one-base hit to tie the score at 11 all!
Dog led off the Gotham 9th with a base on balls and quickly resorted to 2 acts of thievery to reach 3rd base with no hands down. After Trolley flew out to shortstop, Brooklyn was overheard discussing a foreign strategy of intentionally walking the next 2 strikers, but lucky for him, Jacks and Melky talked him out of it, understanding that the winning ace would tally if that were to happen. So after cooler heads prevailed Shades came up and ended his successful debut with the Gothams by squeezing another daisy-cutter past the infield to bring home Dog with the winning ace in this exciting 12-11 victory for the now Mighty Gothams.
This Gotham victory brought the team back to .500 at 8-8, with the 8th victory of the season acting as a new season high for the Gothams, before even a half season has been completed. Overall, 2 fine games were played by these 2 rival clubs on a beautiful summer day, meaning all is right in this world. Until next time…Huzzah!!!
Game 2 – Individual Statistics:
Collector – 1-4
Swampfox – 1-4, 1 Ace, 1 SB
Flytrap – 2-4, 1 2B, 1 Ace, 1 SB
Coach – 1-4, 1 Ace, 1 SB, 1 Win
Stacks – 2-3, 1 BB, 1 Ace, 1 SB
El Presidente – 1-4, 1 Ace
Wombat – 0-3, 1 BB, 1 Ace, 1 SB
Dog – 1-2, 1 3B, 2 BB, 3 Aces, 4 SB
Trolley – 2-4, 2 2B, 2 Aces
Shades – 3-4, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 Ace, 1 SB
