ABBC at New York Mutuals

September 22

1884

L 10-6

The Atlantics joined the festivities at the Long Island Fair taking place at Old Bethpage Village Restoration on Sunday by playing the New York Mutuals in a single match by the rules of base ball in 1884. The Atlantics sent the battery of Frank 'Shakespeare' Van Zant pitching to Sean 'Toothpick' Ness against Tiger and Brushes of the Mutual squad. The match was umpired by Richard 'Fingers' Effinger and T-bone of the Excelsiors club. The Mutuals started off strong scoring two runs in the top of the first inning and another in the third but the Atlantics fought back scoring in the third, fourth and two runs in the sixth inning to take the 4-3 lead. Atlantic centerfielder George 'Blackjack' Pappas started the scoring by hitting a single, stealing second base, moving to third on an error and crossing the plate on a single by Richard 'Cuz' Baruso. Dean 'Dreambucket' Emma reached on an error in the fourth inning and promptly arrived at third after burgling two bases. He was sent home on a single by Matt 'Krawler' Kouyoumdjian who was playing his first game back since injuring his finger many weeks ago. The sixth inning showed the most Atlantic offense as Shakespeare, Dreambucket and Kevin 'Flash' Harrison hit back-to-back-to-back singles to score two runs. The Mutuals didn't back off though combining well struck balls by Tiger and Knuckles with inopportune Atlantic muffs to rally four runs across the plate in the top of the seventh. The Atlantics and Mutuals traded goose-eggs on the scoreboard until Dreambucket and Flash again hit back-to-back singles to score another run to close the gap to a two run Mutual advantage going into the ninth inning. Shakespeare's knuckleball couldn't quite knuckle enough as three more runs were scored in the top of the ninth inning. Blackjack led off the last Atlantic attack with a well struck single and scored on a double to left-centerfield by Cuz. Alas the Atlantics finished their game with two strikeouts in a row and dropped the match to the Mutuals by the score of 10-6. On the day Cuz led all Atlantics with three hits and played a solid third base, while Blackjack, Dreambucket and Flash had two hits each. "Tricky" Rick Stattler had a single, was on base twice and made a nice play filling in at third base in the middle of the game. The Atlantics next play on Sunday September 29th against the Hoboken Nine and the New York Gothams in a round-robin of vintage base ball at the Smithtown Historical Society.