What is more American than baseball? Whether your interest is playing or learning about the historical aspects of the game, this weekend Hoboken has something for everyone.
Co-ed softball league
The co-ed teams in town play more for fun than for competitive reasons, but watching a Sunday game at JFK Stadium in Hoboken, it looks pretty serious. There are 12 co-ed teams in the Hoboken Division. All the teams follow the strict rules enforced by the i9-sports franchise.
To the onlooker, some of the rules in effect may seem odd. All the teams play seven innings, but cannot exceed an hour and 15 minutes. If there is a walk to a male batter, then the next batter, who is always a female, has a choice to walk or hit. There has to be a minimum of four females on the field. If there are two male batters hitting in a row, then an out will be recorded.
Last Sunday, Applied Housing, the team now tied for second place, played Oddfellows, the team that is trailing in last in the division. Israel Merced, captain of Applied Housing, said his team is successful because they practice a lot. Merced said that the women on the team play on an all-women’s team during the week. He said his team is competitive and he admires some of the other teams in the league.
“Some teams are really, really good,” said Merced, “like Jugs & Juicers, Before & After and The Crazy 88’s. But still it’s a lot of fun. It’s not a testosterone competition.”
Even if they played for fun, they shut out Oddfellows 14-0 in Sunday’s game. Applied Housing has hitters. Even with some excellent defensive fieldwork by Oddfellows members John Mcauley, Dave Broslaw, and Jeff Bilsky, they just couldn’t carry the team with their regular pitcher and catcher missing from the game. “I’m always competitive,” said Bilsky. “I go out with 110 percent.”
Yet Bilsky’s drive wasn’t enough to help his team, which wasn’t able to score. Oddfellows was also discouraged by what they said were a few questionable calls during the game. To cheer on a team or find out how you can join, check out: www.i9sports.com.
Vintage Base Ball
The Vintage Base Ball festival gets started with a presentation at City Hall on Friday, June 17 at 1 p.m. Alexander Cartwright IV will present the mayor with a commemorative plaque of the first organized game played at Elysian Fields. Cartwright is the great great grandson of Alexander Cartwright, who was the first to write down the rules of the game. On Saturday, June 18 at 10 a.m. there will be a parade down Washington Street, and then the vintage games will begin at 11 a.m..
19th Century rules
Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr., founder of the New York Knickerbocker Ball Club, specified many of the rules and regulations that are in effect today. But some of the rules have changed considerably (see sidebar). Brad “Brooklyn” Shaw is the captain and founder of the Flemington Neshanock Base Ball Club. The Neshanock team will play the New York Gothams at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 18 at JFK Stadium in Hoboken. They will play with the 1864 rules.
Shaw, the pitcher of Neshanock, started the team in 2001 and took the team name from a team that originally played in Flemington in 1866 and 1867. Shaw played softball for years and was always a history buff. Playing vintage baseball was a way to combine the two interests.
The team consists of 15 members, who play from April to October throughout the tri-state area. The members age range is from 12-53, with most of the players in their thirties and forties. The team also plays at other Vintage Base Ball Festivals, like the Hartford Tournament in Connecticut and the Silver Ball Tournament in Rochester, New York. In addition to playing, Shaw will also recite Casey at the Bat and give a short history of the changing rules in baseball.
For more information on the team or the history of baseball, check out: www.neshanock.org or call (201) 420-2207, for Saturday’s schedule.
‘7th Inning Stretch’
Mile Square Theatre will be performing seven 10-minute plays about baseball at DeBaun Auditorium in Hoboken on Saturday, June 18 at 8 p.m. This is the third year that the company is performing baseball plays, but this year, Chris O’Connor wanted to include Hoboken.
Chris O’Connor, artistic of the company, said that playwrights are very eager to write a play about baseball. He commissioned seven successful writers to write their baseball stories. “I told them to write me a play that includes their take on baseball,” said O’Connor, “and they came up with some wonderful things.”
The writers and plays include: Steven Dietz, September Callup; Richard Dresser, Chin Music; Dano Madden, The Save; Melanie Marnich, A Boy, a Bat, and a Ball; Rogelio Martinez, Asphalt Green; Theresa Rebeck, The Base; and Mike Batistick, Beer and Ear Rings.
O’Connor said that all the plays have comic elements but some are serious dramas. There are thirty people involved in the production, including four core members of the company. Rose Swan is the managing director, Rachel Fowler is the artistic associate and casting director, Jerome Hoppe is the light designer and production manager, and Chris O’Connor is the artistic director.
For two years in a row, baseball plays from the company were picked for the Humana Festival in Kentucky. Only four 10-minute plays are picked each year. O’Connor hopes that a play will be picked this year and that they will continue to be successful.
Mile Square Theatre is the only Equity Company in Hoboken. He hopes that the theater community in Hoboken will continue to grow and hopes that one day they will have their own performance space in town. “You want to be able to perform regularly in a space,” said O’Connor, “so people realize that there is talent.”
For ticket information please visit: www.milesquaretheatre.org
Vintage Base Ball facts
They did not play 9 innings until 1857. The winner was the first team to hit 21.
Gloves were not used until the late 1870s.
Before 1865, an out was made if the ball was caught or on the first bounce.
Until 1876, a batted ball was fair or foul depending where it hit.
Balls and strikes were not called before the early 1860s.
Pitchers could only serve the ball from below the waist until 1883.