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

The Tournament We've All Been Waiting For

It's been a long season already and we're not nearly done, but we have come to the point in this, my first season of vintage base ball, which I have been anxiously awaiting since the first 'Goodwill Match' back in March:  It's time for the Ohio Cup!

Believe it or not, that's an actual quote from Lincoln, not one
of those made up quotes from the Internet.

The Ohio Cup is not just another base ball tournament.  It is THE tournament for vintage base ball in the United States.  This year marks the 22nd edition of the Cup, held as always in lovely, downtown, Columbus, Ohio.  "Why Columbus?" you may be asking.  Heck, I don't know, other than the tournament is coordinated by one of the pioneering teams of the Vintage Base Ball Association, the Ohio Village Muffins.  It is held at Ohio Village, part of the Ohio History Museum site, and what started out as a three-team tournament back in 1992 has now ballooned into the largest gathering of vintage base ball teams in the nation, featuring 32 teams from around the midwest.

The Ohio Cup isn't a tournament in the sense that there are brackets that lead to an eventual champion, although it did start with that format.  But it has evolved into a two-day festival celebrating the game as it was played in 1860.  There is still a lot of competition and teams play to win, but because of the size of the festival and amount of teams, games are limited to one-hour time limits.  Nevertheless, my Perfectos teammates still talk about the time two years ago when they went "undefeated' in the tournament, with five victories and one draw.  Last year, they won all three games on the first day, celebrated too hard on Saturday night, and dropped all three games on Sunday (whilst taking breaks in the outfield to 'dispose' of the contents of their stomach...if I ain't being too subtle).

At any rate, from what I understand we've drawn a bit of tough schedule this year.  Our first game on Saturday morning at 9 am will be against the Columbus Capitals.

Legend has it that the Capitals have not lost a match in the Ohio Cup in over five years and their lineup features at least one former New York Yankee.  After the Capitals we will face two of the original three teams from the first Ohio Cup.

Great Black Swamp Frogs

At noon we will face the Great Black Swamp Frogs from Sylvania, Ohio, and then at 3 pm we will take on the tournament hosts, the Ohio Village Muffins.

We then turn around on Sunday morning, at 10 am, to face the Welkin Base Ball Club from Port Huron, Michigan.

Welkin BBC Stamp

And then at 1 pm we face the Union Base Ball Club from somewhere in Minnesota (seriously, they don't have the city listed...just Minnesota.)

Somewhere, Minnesota

Then we finish the tournament Sunday afternoon against the...wait for it...

That's right...the Frosty Sons of Thunder, hailing from Somerset, Pennsylvania.

I really have been looking forward to this tournament all season.  Although there is no overall champion awarded, and we still have the Missouri Cup on the horizon, this is the big one.  We want to do well.

We will be missing a few of our players as Pitchfork, Hammer, and Walnuts will not be making the trip. But we will be picking up three of the St. Louis Unions ballists: Mayhem, Noodles, and Beans.  We will be representing the city of St. Louis as the St. Louis Empires rather than the Perfectos.  Our sister clubs, the Lafayette Square Cyclones and the St. Louis Brownstockings will also be combining forces and representing the city as the St. Louis Maroons.

The official seal of the Greater St. Louis Base Ball Historical Society

It should be a great weekend...stand by for news.

Dixie

B*tches Be Trippin'!

So, me and ole Sweet Tea are dog lovers.  We share our house and our lives with a BEAST of a small, fluffy, white dog named Lucy.  Before meeting Lucy I was a confirmed "big dog" person and couldn't imagine myself ever having a "small dog" run my life.  When I met Lucy, it had been only about six months since my sons and I had said goodbye to our 13-year-old Black Lab and I didn't think I was quite ready to let another dog into my heart yet, much less a small, fluffy one.  But Lucy changed my way of thinking and though she's been with Sweet Tea for much longer, even Sweet Tea will admit that Lucy has become a "Daddy's Girl."

Recently some good friends, "Lockpick" and Sandy, moved to St. Louis with their two dogs, Oscar and Coots.  With Lockpick out of town, Sandy and the dogs joined us for this weekend's match.  This is what we call "foreshadowing."

Sweet Tea with a car full o' dogs

This weekend's match would be played at the Jefferson Barracks historic site and hosted by our good friends, the St. Louis Unions.  This would be our third match with the Unions this season, and we came into the match holding a record of 3 victories and 1 defeat in our head-to-head matches, while also sporting a current nine game winning streak.

Unions 1st Tender, "Mayhem" Moushey goes over the
ground rules with the two club nines.

This would also represent the second week in a row that we had our full outfield together, as both 'Hawkeye' and 'Pitchfork' were available.  We also had our substitute scout, 'Moonlight,' back from an injured leg. Since it was roughly 135 degrees, it would be nice to have an extra scout to rotate.  In other news...I got a new bat ya'll!

Hand crafted by the Pheonix bat company to
my specifications, this Birch wood bat is 35
inches long and weighs 36 ounces.

The Unions' field is a "bowl" with the outfield area on an incline.  This is both a blessing and a curse to outfield scouts.  It allows you to play a little deeper and get more generous bounds on most fly balls, but it also makes it very difficult to retreat on deeply hit balls because you're running up hill.  Something I would learn in the first game when the Unions' scout "Noodles" turned on a ball and drove it over my head in left field.  Even with a generous first bounce, running up hill I could not quite reach the ball to make the out but was able to hold Noodles to a double.

Pitchfork catches a fly ball and returns it to the infield as
the Unions' runner retreats to first.  You can see the "bowl"
that the Unions' field sits in.

Coupled with the bowl effect and a sun-baked, hard ground, our scouts had a more difficult time than normal and the first game was a very tight contest most of the way, with us taking a 6-4 lead into the bottom of the final inning...which was when all hell broke loose.

Lucy and her 'baby-faced assassin' look.  You can't trust this face.

Sweet Tea and Sandy were sitting under some tall shade trees just outside the foul pole down the left field line.  The dogs were sedate.  The ladies were sedate and trying to stay cool on a hot, summer day.  And just then...SQUIRRELS!!!  Before Sweet Tea knew what was happening, Lucy was off in a flash!

"Hair flyin' in the wind...no one can catch me!"

While she initially lept off of Sweet Tea's lap to chase the squirrels, once she realized she was free of anyone's grasp, she made a bee-line for the open field, dodging ballists, cranks, and any other innocent by-standers.  She did laps around the outfield, laps around the infield, totally enjoying her new-found "star" status...all eyes were on her, this small, fluffy, white streak.

Lucy's "star" turn in the ball game, with Sweet Tea in hot pursuit!  

She finally tuckered out and made her way off of the field and was captured by another 'crank' when Lucy went over to greet their dogs.  But she was the talk of the game at that point, and I may hear about it for some time.

The game itself turned at that point as well.  The Unions slapped enough hits together in the final inning to tie the score at 6, held us scoreless in the extra frame, and tallied an ace on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning to claim victory, thus ending our nine-game win streak.

Fielding a ball more cleanly in the second game.

The second game would remain close between the two teams as well, but in the fifth inning, some poor play by the Unions, followed by some timely hitting by us (including a two run double into right-center by yours truly) would allow us to claim an 8-5 victory and split of the double-header.

Mayhem tries to corral a poorly thrown ball.  We would take
advantage to tally four runs in the frame.

With my new birchwood bat I would reach base safely in five of my six times to the plate, so I think it's definitely a keeper.  The team's record now stands at 21-7 going into next week's major tournament, The Ohio Cup.

As for Lucy...well, she spent the rest of the day on lockdown.

Aunt Sandy and Lucy...on lockdown.

Dixie

Cranks!

As base ball grew in popularity in the latter part of the 19^th century, it could be at once a gentleman’s game and a competition that would draw the attention of the gamblers, the roughnecks, and other ne’er-do-wells.  Witness the role of the arbiter in the early game:  He only called hits fair or foul, not balls and strikes, nor outs.  He kept the game gentlemanly by fining players for coarse language or unsportsmanlike play, but otherwise had little impact on the outcome of the game. 

"Judge" Showmaker asks the female cranks for permission
for the players to roll up their sleeves and "show their elbows."

Nevertheless, the local fans (as fans will do) placed their fate on the backs of the local nine and would express their displeasure with any call or play that did not go their way.  Since most of them also likely had money riding on the outcome of the game, unruliness from the fans was quite common, especially in big games.  Thus they became known as ‘cranks’ for their cranky behavior towards anyone who was not for the hometown nine.  In the 1866 portrait below, notice the detail in the cranks in the foreground, engaged in gambling, drunkenness, pick-pocketing, fighting, and general cavorting:

Magee's portrait of "The Second Great Match Game For
The Championship' between the Philadelphia Athletics
and the Brooklyn Atlantics.

This past weekend we traveled across the mighty Mississippi to Moose Meadow, the home field of the Belleville Stags, where we would play a round robin mini-tournament against the Stags and the St. Louis Brown Stockings.  The Stags, despite being a young organization, have one of the best groups of cranks amongst the local teams.

The Belleville Stags and a portion of their 'cranks.'

We go to great lengths to engage the cranks in the game and explain the vintage game to them; the differences in rules from then to now, and how the game that they are watching is not only different than a “beer-league” softball game but is accurate to a time period in our nation’s history.

The aptly named "Chatterbox" Waller explains the intracacies
of the game to the Perfectos "cranks" at Lafayette Park.

Cranks tend to come in many different sizes…

And species…

Sometimes they mingle...

But they never waver in their passion for the game…

…and speaking of the game…we came into the tournament riding a 7-game win streak and a record of 16-2 since the beginning of June.  In addition, this weekend would be the first time all season that our entire cadre of scouts (outfielders) would actually be together.  So far this season, myself, Pitchfork, and Hawkeye, had not played a single game together as a unit.  I had played matches with both of them, and they had played matches together, but we had never…all three of us…been on the field at the same time until this weekend.  Because the rules of 1860 allowed for outs to be recorded if balls were caught on the first bounce, having three scouts who could track down balls quickly gave us the advantage of taking hits away from teams on a regular basis.  To finally have all three of us playing in the same match gave our hurler (pitcher) a wide margin for error.

Danger, Turnpike, Pitchfork, Dixie, Hawkeye, and Hammer.
This was the first game that Pitchfork, me, and Hawkeye had
played the scout (outfield) positions together all season.

And that was quite literally how it played out.  A bad hop in right field that glanced off of Hawkeye’s hand and got behind both of us, led to the only ace (run) that we would surrender in 14 innings of play.

Our one miscue all day, a bad hop off of Hawkeye's hand
which got past us both and led to the only run that would be
scored against us in two games.

We put enough runs together to win the first game over the host Stags by a margin of 6-1, and then shutout the Brown Stockings in our second game to earn a second win, 3-0. 

Our best hitter, Hammer, will plate two runs with
a double to left to give us the lead.

Hawkeye and Cyclone score on Hammer's double as I watch.

After driving in Hammer, I look on from second base as
Stoney gets ready to drive me in for an ace as well.  Four runs
in the second inning would be all the scoring we would need.

We have now won nine straight games and 18 of our last 20.  We have this weekend off and just one match remaining before we head to the “Ohio Cup,” a tournament of 30 vintage teams from around the Midwest that is the largest gathering of vintage base ball in the entire country.  This is the 23^rd year of the Ohio Cup but my first…and I am very much looking forward to the competition and comraderie!

Dixie