And Other Cool Stuff...

After finishing the first season of vintage base ball, and now heading towards the end of my first full year here in St. Louis, I thought it would be a good time to expand the focus of this blog to life here in "the 'Lou."  If you're not from St. Louis but you think you know St. Louis, I can assure you, you do not.

Yes, yes, it has the Gateway Arch:

"Don't blink...don't blink...damn!"

And it has a champion baseball team with a great fan-base that gets to watch games with this view:

Honoring Stan "The Man" Musial

But St. Louis is so much more than the Arch and the Cards.  In fact, it may just be the best kept secret in the country.  So, I'll do my best to introduce you to St. Louis through my eyes.

For instance, did you know that St. Louis has this really cool museum called "City Museum"?

City Museum.  Perhaps the real 'Happiest Place On Earth'

City Museum bills itself as "an eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects."  What City Museum actually is, is a huge indoor-outdoor Jungle-Gym/tactile learning center that is equally fun for children and adults.  And it's made up of almost entirely "re-purposed material"...aka "junk."

Don't believe me?  The picture above shows the outside of City Museum with an old Ferris wheel visible on the roof and an old school bus hanging off of one corner.  You can ride the Ferris wheel and climb on the bus, opening the door to look out on the ground 10 floors below.  In the picture, you can also see parts of the "MonstroCity" which is an outdoor jungle-gym anchored by a fire engine and two airplane fuselages, all connected together by wrought-iron "slinkies" and metal slides.

Kids and adults climbing on the MonstroCity

City Museum is equal parts harrowing, fun, and educational.

Yours truly hanging off of an airplane
wing four stories off the ground.

And as owner and designer Bob Cassily is quoted on the City Museum website: "The illusion of danger is essential for any kind of adventure."

City Museum opened in 1997, built out of the shell of an old shoe factory (St. Louis had quite a few shoe factories back in the day), and has been expanding ever since.  They never seem to be quite "done" with all of the attractions.  There are things to climb on, caves to explore, a giant aquarium, multi-floor slides, a miniature train big enough for children to ride, and even...

Not exactly "tighty" whities

...that's right, the world's largest pair of underwear.  I don't know why...but does it matter?

Go ahead...climb, explore, have fun!

That's just it...it's full of wonderment.  Most of attractions are made with leftover stuff.  Things that were thrown away, broken, not needed, or from a by-gone era.  There's a whole section of architectural artistry from over a century ago that was saved from being tossed in a land-fill somewhere.  There's one section that you enter by going through an old bank vault door, you know, one of those huge round doors that guard the gold in Fort Knox?

Did I mention the slides?

Sweet Tea takes a three-story slide

It's a place where adults and kids are not just encouraged to have fun together; it's expected.

Another view of the MonstroCity

It's not only (my favorite word) fun, but it's also my second-favorite word: cheap!  The price of admission is just twelve dollars.  $12...!  And after 5 pm, they knock a couple more dollars off.  Cheap enough to go more than once...and you'll need to, because there's too much to see in just one visit.

And if that's not enough for you yet...on the first floor is the Cabin Inn, a frontier log cabin that once belonged to the son of Daniel Boone and now is at the City Museum where the proprietors will offer you (among other things) an adult beverage!

Go ahead...go to City Museum and try to not have fun.  I dare you!

Outlaw

Banquet & Awards

No season is quite complete until the end-of-season banquet and awards presentation.  The Greater Saint Louis Base Ball Historical Society (GSLBBHS) held their banquet on Saturday, Dec 7th.  GSLBBHS is comprised of the Perfectos, Brownstockings, and Cyclone (although the St. Louis Unions and Belleville Stags are also considered "Greater St. Louis Area" team).  Sweat Tea and I attended the banquet in full style:

As a recap, the Perfectos finished the season with a record of 30-10, far outpacing the 2012 record of 23-10, despite starting the season with a poor record of just 2-4 in April and May.  We also won 5 of 6 in the Ohio Cup (after winning just 3 of 6 in 2012), and finished the season by winning our 3rd straight Missouri Cup Championship.  A season to be proud of, for sure.

Statistically speaking, vintage ballists didn't keep track of things like Batting Average or Runs Batted In.  The most important things to vintage ballists was getting on base and scoring runs, or "aces."  Getting on base did equate roughly to hits in today's game, since there were no walks, and the On-Base Percentage was calculated similar to Batting Average today but the game was so different it's not a true equivalency.  So, for the important categories in 2013, the Perfectos leaders were:

On-Base:  Chatterbox - 83; Cyclone - 78; Hammer - 64
On-Base Pct:  Chatterbox - .624; Hammer - .593; Cyclone - .591
Aces: Cyclone - 41; Chatterbox - 35; Hawkeye - 35; Hammer - 34
Aces per Game: Pitchfork - 1.41; Hawkeye - 1.40; Hammer - 1.21

The only player to show up in the leaders in all of those categories was Hammer, and for his efforts he was recognized as the Most Valuable Player.

Sean "Hammer" Kennedy

In the Most Improved Player category was a man who hardly missed a game, is one of the top hurlers in the game, and finished with 35 times On Base and 14 Aces, with percentages of .455 (On Base) and .58 (Aces per Game)...King.

Mark "King" Kennedy

And finally, the Rookie-of-the-Year.  Finishing his inaugural season with the Perfectos with 44 times On Base and 17 Aces, with percentages of .512 (On Base) and .63 (Aces per Game)...yours truly.

David "Outlaw" Curry

You'll notice a different nickname on that there plaque that GSLBBHS President Brad "Chatterbox" Waller is handing to me at the banquet.  That was then, this is now.

Chatterbox and the ballist formerly known as "Dixie"

Outlaw






 

The Base Ball Championship Of Missouri

After the 5 wins against 1 defeat showing in the Ohio Cup, we had strung together quite a summer of base ball; the 2-1 loss to the Columbus Capitals was just our 4th defeat in 28 matches since the 1st of June.  We would lose just twice more on the season and found ourselves coming into the final weekend of the season with a record of 28-10.  With two more wins we would reach the 30 victory plateau, but even more importantly, we would win this:

The Missouri Cup plaque (the actual Cup
is behind the plaque, with the golden ball.)

The Missouri Cup - the Vintage Base Ball Championship of the State of Missouri.  This was the 9th year of the Cup.  In the previous eight cups, the Perfectos had won three, the St. Louis Unions had won three, and the Columbus Crawfords and University City Lions had each won once.  So this would be a rubber match of sorts, possibly breaking the tie in number of Championships between ourselves and the Unions.  Even more importantly, the Perfectos were defending champions as well, having won the Cup in 2012 and 2011.

Unfortunately, due to some unfortunate circumstances, the Unions would not be playing in this year's cup.  It would be a three-team tournament between the Perfectos, the St. Louis Brownstockings, and the Lafayette Square Cyclone.  Up first on the day, Perfectos vs Brownstockings.

Danger addresses the 'cranks' before the first match
with the Brownstockings.

The Brownstockings are a fleet-footed club but without much power.  The key to beating them would be keeping them off of the basepaths and take away their scoring opportunities.  To do this we needed our quick and sure-handed scouts to play well in the outfield.  Pitchfork had been unable to play since before the Ohio Cup due to nagging ankle and elbow injuries.  Luckily we were able to make up for this loss with the play of one of our youngsters, Moonlight, who made a number of nice plays in the outfield.

Moonlight joined the Perfectos about half-way through
the season and filled in admirably for Pitchfork.

Then it was just a matter of getting hits and scoring ourselves.  With Hammer back in the middle of the lineup after missing the Ohio Cup, this gets a lot easier.

Hammer gets ready to, uh, 'hammer' the pitch

Scoring in each of the first two innings took some of the pressure off of us, and we want on to hold on for a hard-fought 9-6 victory.

Walnuts drives the ball

The Brownstockings would get knocked off in the second match by the Cyclone, setting up a winner-take-all final match between us and our 'sister' ball club - many of whom began as Perfectos.

The championship match between the Perfectos and Cyclone

The Lafayette Cyclone BBC was created in 2009, carved out from the St. Louis Perfectos club that had simply gotten too large.  With over 30 players showing up most weekends, playing time for everyone became difficult to manage, so a new club was formed.  Both clubs still share Lafayette Square Park as their home field and have a friendly rivalry between us.

Hawkeye runs down a drive in left-center

The championship match started out as a very close affair as the underdog Cyclone stuck close with some sleight of hand and good defense.

Shakespeare juggles

Ultimately we pulled ahead with surges in the late innings and went on to a 14-3 victory, capturing our 4th overall Missouri Cup and third championship in a row!  Huzzah!

2103 Missouri Cup Champs

The St. Louis Perfectos -- the 2013 Missouri State Vintage Base Ball Champions, posing with the Missouri Cup:  standing (L-R), Chatterbox, Danger, Hammer, Cyclone, Outlaw, DJ.  kneeling (L-R), Moonlight, Walnuts, Hawkeye, Stoney.  Not pictured: King, Pitchfork, Turnpike.

Ohio Cup, Day Two recap -- Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

Up and at 'em bright and early on Sunday morning for the coin flip against the Welkin Base Ball Club from Port Huron, Michigan. Our Captain, Danger, wins more coin flips than he loses.

Welkin BBC was short a few players on day two and picked up the Columbus Capitals best player "Kid" Frias -- as monstrous a hitter as he looks. Legend has it that Kid played in the Yankees organization with Derek Jeter; I didn’t get the opportunity to talk much to him about that, mostly because I was busy chasing his drives over my head and into the next county.

Noodles drives in Stony from third, and though we spotted Welkin a couple of runs, we quickly took control of the game.

Our catcher Stony. They were referred to as "behinds" in 1860 (for behind the batter) and as you can see he had only a couple of hay bales as a backstop.

Checking in with the scorekeeper to ring the bell and 'tally my ace.'

We were victorious over Welkin, 7-2, and would next take on the Union Base Ball Club from Rochester, Minnesota. Mayhem scoops the throw from Cyclone to nip the Union runner at first during Game 5.

Mayhem gets directions back to first on a foul ball. In 1860, fouls were considered "live" for runners and you could be thrown out if you did not get back to your base before the ball was returned to the hurler...a dicey base-running issue on deep drives down the left field line.

After defeating the Union BBC they give us their traditional 'spinning hat' cheer.

Taking a shade break before our final game. With a record of 4-1 in the tournament so far, we would finish the tournament with a match against a long-time rival and tough club, the Frosty Sons of Thunder from Somerset, Pennsylvania, who had also lost just one game in the tournament.

Defense would be the name of the game in the final, as Mayhem just gets to the bag before the Thunder runner, as our hurler, King, and the Thunder squad look on.

Cyclone made a couple of acrobatic catches in right field to preserve the victory.

A hard-fought 2-0 victory over the Frosty Sons of Thunder! According to their Captain, it was the first time in their history any team had held them scoreless.

Five victories and only one defeat for the Empires (also known as the Perfectos), representing well the city of St. Louis in the Ohio Cup!

Only one thing left to say...

Outlaw

Ohio Cup, Day One Recap (Or How We Almost Slayed Goliath)

So, I left ya hanging with the teaser for the Ohio Cup, the largest Vintage Base Ball tournament in the country, which we played in over Labor Day Weekend. I know all two or three of the readers of this blog have been anxiously awaiting an update, so here goes:

The Ohio Village Muffins were one of the first teams to
revive Vintage Base Ball back in the early 1990's

The first thing I found out at the Ohio Cup is that there is another tournament called the “World Tournament of Historic Baseball.” That tournament takes place in August every year in Dearborn, Michigan, is by invitation only, and limited to 16 teams. It is a tournament under the normal definition in that it has brackets all leading to a championship game. The Perfectos have never been invited to participate in the World Tournament, which has been held since 2003. In fact, near as I can tell, no team outside of Michigan, Ohio, or Indiana has ever been invited to play, which is a shame because it appears to be a very competitive tournament.

Phoenix Bats are a major supplier of vintage bats and a
sponsor of the Ohio Cup.

I bring the World Tournament into the discussion for this reason: One of the teams we lost to this summer, the Indianapolis Blues, was the “Reserve Champion” in the World Tournament this year, and our opponents in the first game of the Ohio Cup, the Columbus Capitals, were Champions in 2010 and Runners-up in 2012. Another club we would play in the Ohio Cup, the Welkin Base Ball Club was invited to the 2013 World Tournament. This gives us some way to measure ourselves against top teams from around the country.

The Columbus Capitals were World Tournament Champions in 2010.

The Columbus Capitals are a very good base ball club, widely recognized as one of the most talented in vintage base ball. They are young, swift, big, and can mash the ball. The tournament organizers honored us by matching us against the Capitals in the opening game of the tournament, on the main field known as Muffin Meadow. I admit that I was nervous and excited, not just to be playing the Ohio Cup, but to match our skills against the Capitals.

Opening match of the 2013 Ohio Cup, Perfectos vs Capitals

The interesting thing about Muffin Meadow is that it has this apple tree right smack dab in the middle of left field. One of our hits landed in the tree and fell harmlessly to the ground as the Capitals short scout and left scout dove after apples that they thought were the ball. It was quite humorous and a sight you only see in vintage base ball because the ball can be caught for an out even off of objects.

Muffin Meadow and the notorious apple tree in left.

We won the coin flip and chose to be home team, holding the Capitals scoreless in the first and then breaking through for an ace in our half of the first.

Chatterbox to the plate in early game action.  Both teams
played exceptional defense in this game.

The Capitals would score once in the third and once in the fourth to take a 2-1 lead. The score remained locked there until we took our final at-bats with a chance to score runs and beat the Capitals. We got our lead-off man “Mayhem” on base but unfortunately he was immediately doubled off on a line drive and we ended the game with a “respectable loss.”

Yours truly singling to right against the Capitals.

After the first match, we had a two hour break and Sweet Tea and I took the time to wander Ohio village, the site of the Cup and a complete reconstruction of an 1860’s era Ohio town.

Ohio Village main street

"The Colonel" and mayor of Ohio Village.

1860 School house, complete with outhouses in the rear

Inside the school house...it's all very well recreated.

Folks really do their best to dress in period garb and speak in period language during the tournament, which really adds to the experience.

Down to the last detail.

Second Tender (2nd baseman) from the
Deep River Grinders (Hobart, Indiana),
another long time Vintage club.

Member of the Ohio Village Muffins,
our hosts for the weekend.

I did my best to look the part with Mutton Chops...gray as they are.

I didn't have any adorable entourage though...

There were even three women's teams that played each other in the Cup this year; two from Ohio, one from Michigan.

Game two of our schedule featured a showdown with one of the original teams from the first Ohio Cup, the Great Black Swamp Frogs from Toledo, Ohio. I had to get on my horse and go get one in deep center field against the Frogs, but made the play.

They did score an ace on this play but we limited any other damage.

The real star for us on day one of the Cup was Hawkeye, who made tons of plays filling in for Hammer at Short Scout.

Hawkeye normally plays next to me in left
but was exceptional at short scout this
weekend.

After beating the Frogs 5-1, we finished day one against the Ohio Village Muffins.

We dispatched our hosts 10-1 to finish day one with 2 victories against 1 defeat.

Cyclone drives the ball against the Muffins as we look on
from the "bench"

Sweet Tea and I took a trip into Columbus city, to walk the cobblestone streets and sidewalks of the historic German Village.

A bite to eat and a little something to drink
with the lovely Sweet Tea.

To Be Continued…

Outlaw