Tag Archives: vintage base ball

6th Annual Presidents Meeting This Weekend

The MAVBBL will hold its 6th annual Presidents and Scheduling Meeting this Sunday, January 5th in Philadelphia, PA at 1pm.

At the annual meeting all of the full member clubs as well as prospective member clubs, Presidents and team representatives get together after not seeing each other for months to reconnect and go over items for the upcoming season.  At this meeting, most clubs round out their schedule as well.  In a scene reminesent of Wall Street, all of the clubs scramble to put together their schedules for the year and the whole process is done in about 15 minutes.  Before the scheduling section though, the Presidents are hard at work ironing out issues that may have occured in 2013 and what should happen in 2014.  Typical issues in the past have included safety, historical accuracy, approval of vendors, equipment, and even rule enterpretations.  This year with so many new clubs coming on board in the last year or two, it looks to be a little longer as the goal is to make sure that each club is in sync with all the others in the league as far as rules and customs. 

If you are interested in starting a club contact us before Saturday so we can get you on the invite list.  All members of each full time club are welcomed however there will only be 2 seats directly at the table for each club but we can set up seats behind your representatives if more are coming.  Each club regardless of the size of their delegation gets 1 vote in club matters.

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Rising Sun Downs West Chester

Rising Sun ventured accross the Mason Dixon line on Sunday May 18 on what was the last match for lead off man Memphis Jackson. The speedy Jackson leads the club in every offensive category and has been the standard for the defensively minded boys from Brick Meetinghouse. The club sent Memphis off to start his military career with a win over the freshmen from Brandywine BBC of West Chester 13-6. Rising Sun rode to victory on the striking of Cisco, Tex and the Mad Scottsman Lindsay Bruce and the speed of Memphis, Bolt and the returning Spider Edwards . Again defense was the order as the boys from south of the Mason Dixon were stingy on defense with many grand plays in the field and Greg Banker Rodenbaugh fanning a season high eight batters in the first contest between the two clubs. The match was officiated by John Medkeff of the Diamond State BBC. The two will meet again in October at the Annual Civil War Encampment in Rising Sun, Md in a special twilight match at 7pm on Friday evening October 4th.

ATLANTICS, RESOLUTES BRING BASEBALL BACK TO BROOKLYN

The Atlantics brought base ball back to Brooklyn on Sunday as they hosted the Elizabeth Resolutes in an exhibition of the national pastime to a large crowd gathered for the Brooklyn Cyclones home match later that afternoon at MCU Park in Coney Island.
Mike ‘Fatts’ Caliendo and Matt ‘Krawler’ Kouyoumdjian called the plays and explained the rule differences from the PA Booth, Rafael ‘Wickets’ Garcia spoke to the fans on the concourse and Ed ‘Pigtail’ Elmore enforced the rules of base ball as they were played in Brooklyn in 1864. Elizabeth managed a base runner in the first against Atlantic pitcher Marc ‘Nice & Easy’ Josloff but could not move him around the bases. Anthony ‘Dirty Pirate’ Cannino started the Atlantic rally in the bottom of the first with a single and then promptly stole second base. Dean ‘Dreambucket’ Emma stroked another single to move him to third and Kevin ‘Flash’ Harrison scored him from third on a bound out to the left fielder. Billy ‘Goat’ Kowalczyk followed that with a clean single to score the second ace of the inning.
While the Atlantic defense continued to suppress the Elizabeth bats the Atlantic offense came through again in the third inning as Chris ‘Pup’ Parente singled and Dreambucket hit the ball solidly for a stand-up double scoring Pup all the way from first base. With a three ace lead the pressure was on Elizabeth who kept threatening with long outs to the outfield. Finally in the fifth inning Elizabeth put their hits together and scored two times closing the score to 3-2. With a strict time limit the exhibition game was called after the bottom of the fifth inning and the match ended to the cheers of the crowd.
Next weekend the Atlantics play a round-robin of overhand and underhand matches against the Providence Grays and Elizabeth Resolutes at the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island and then travel to Connecticut to take on the New London Thames at Fort Trumbull State Park on Sunday.

Arundel Tops Chesapeake; Lewes & Elkton Split

Arundel 16 Chesapeake Nine of Baltimore 9

Jerusalem Mill Village in Kingsville, Maryland held their 8th Annual Civil War Weekend Encampment; commemorating CSA Major Harry W. Gilmor’s 1864 raid across Baltimore and Harford Counties from June 1st to June 3rd.  As part of those festivities, they held an official 1864 base ball match between Chesapeake and Arundel.  There were between 25-50 cranks watching the well-fought match, many asking questions throughout.  Some of the fans stayed for up to a hour afterwards to ask questions about the teams, vintage base ball and the game itself.

In the end, Arundel won 16-9.  Arundel held a short lead throughout the early innings, until Chesapeake steadily rallied to tie the game at 7 in the sixth frame.  Arundel scored 5 runs in the seventh with some aggressive base running, well-placed hits and a few powerful drives into the gaps.  Chesapeake was unable to complete a final comeback.

There was some sterling defense played throughout.  Some of the offensive standouts include Vassar (4-4, 7 stolen bases and 2 runs scored), Moonshine (2-2, 4 stolen bases and 2 runs scored), Spanks (3-4, 2 doubles) and Turbo (2-4, double, stolen base, run scored, RBI).

There were a few bang-bang plays at a few different bases, but sportsmanship prevailed throughout.  Both teams gave their best efforts and appeared to have a grand time.  The fans appeared engaged and interested in this unique game they were watching.

Lewes at Elkton

The Lewes BBC made its way to Terrapin Station Winery for its first visit ever to see the Eclipse.  The new club felt right at home going out to a 6-0 lead after 3 innings.  Lewes was in the drivers seat the entire first game until the bottom of the 9th with a 14-9 lead.  The Eclipse made a furious comeback attempt though plating 4 runners and having runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs before Lewes got the Eclipse to ground out to hold on to win its inagural game in Elkton.  In the second game the Eclipse took it out on the newbies and piled on an 11-0 lead after 6 inni ings and finally winning 12-1 to split the match.  Elkton finished its season series with Lewes going 2-1.

 

 

Talbot Downs Diamond States in Front of Hundreds

Hundreds of fans and curious onlookers crowded in to the base ball grounds in Delaware’s capital city of Dover to witness a great match between the Talbot Fair Plays and the host Diamond State BBC of Delaware.  What promised to be a great match up was everything that was advertised as two great clubs squared off.  Terrific defense and timely hitting ruled the day in a very well played match.  Fittingly, the game went in to extra frames and in the 11th inning, Talbot broke though and then held off the Diamond States 10-9 to pick up the victory and improve to 6-1 and remain in first place overall in the MAVBBL.

Vice-President Johnson Throws Out First Ball of Season

Saturday was Opening Day for Vintage Base Ball on Long Island. On a beautiful sunny day with a light wind, the Vintage season began with ceremonial first pitch by the honorable Vice-President Andrew Johnson. To celebrate the season opener the Atlantics invited the Flemington Neshanock from New Jersey and the Gotham BBC from New York to take part in a round-robin triple header.
The first match between the Flemington Neshanock and the home club Brooklyn Atlantics was umpired by Rafael ‘Wickets’ Garcia of the Gotham BBC and featured a pitching match-up of Richard ‘Tree’ Ness against Robert ‘Bobby’ Ritter The Neshanock batted first but would not score an ace until the sixth inning.  Meanwhile the Atlantics offense methodically tallied aces in bunches to take an 11 run lead through five innings.  The Neshanock scored 5 aces over the last four innings but ultimately fell to the score of 12-5 to the home team. The second match featured the Flemington Neshanock against the New York Gothams umpired by Dean ‘Dream’ Emma. The teams went back and forth, tieing the game at 4 aces each after two innings and 6 aces each at the end of the four innings.  Poor defense by Flemington in the 5th and 6th innings allowed the game to get away and lead to a 17-9 victory for the Gothams.  Excellent defensive play by Oates of the Gothams kept the Neshanock players off the bases for most of the game. The third match of the day between the New York Gothams and Brooklyn Atlantics was umpired by Dirt of the Mutual BBC.  After both clubs scored in their first at bats, the Gothams tallied 7 aces in the third inning on timely hits and some poor defense by the Atlantics.  Meanwhile the Gothams played excellent defense and their pitcher Billy ‘Coach’ Piela kept the Atlantic batters off balance for most of the game.
The Atlantics scored four aces over the final two innings and left two men on base in the 9th to stage a late rally.  However it was too late as the Gothams were victorious by the score of 11-7. In a complete game effort, Frank ‘Hammy’ Obidienzo kept the Gothams scoreless in the final four innings but suffered the first loss of the season. The Atlantics next play on Saturday April 14th at 11AM at the Smithtown Historical Society Grounds against the Providence Grays.  There will be an underhand/overhand doubleheader featuring games played to the rules of both 1864 and 1884..