Hip, Hip, Huzzah! (Ludington, MI - Part 1)

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In the wake of this year's mildly satisfying All Star Game (or ASG as MLB Acronymists would have it) I bring you news of a chance encounter we had with the Grand Olde Game on the shore of Lake Michigan...


Mariners third at own vintage baseball tournament

LDN STAFF -
Monday, July 15, 2013
The Ludington Mariners Old Time Base Ball Club picked up its first victory of the summer in a 6-3 win against the Petoskey Mossbacks in the consolation match of the Mariners’ tournament Saturday at Historic White Pine Village.

The Mariners were sent to the consolation match after an 11-3 loss to the Fallassburgh Flats in the tournament opener. The Flats went on to defeat the Kent Baseball Club of Grand Rapids, 10-8, in the title match. Kent reached the finals on a 14-1 victory in the other semifinal match.



Here "vintage" is a euphemism for 1860's Rules Baseball...when Men were Men, and The Game was played with bare hands, not in a digital electronic din, but amid Nature's splendor.  

Outs are "hands" and runs are "aces", and the Umpire commands respect.  If the ball is fielded on the first bounce, or falling from a tree, or off an umbrella (spectators are literally IN the game)...you're OUT!

The RFer took his position behind a large tree to defend against a sluggling "wrong-sider" (lefty) so as to play to ball off a intervening limb or 2.  The gambit worked at least once...
   

I did not properly appreciate the consequence of an unmowed, unrolled field:  ALL hops are bad hops...or perhaps "random" is more to the point.  Waiting for the bounce is a strategy fraught with risk.

And without preening batters and pitchers scratching at the mound, the pace is brisk.  Our trip in this verdant sun-drenched time machine lasted only 90 minutes!

HIP, HIP, HUZZAH!    

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