In Vintage base ball the home team is decided by a coin toss and Buck, who lost almost every call he made last season, was giddy after winning the coin toss. Was this a good omen?
Buck informed me I was to be the starting hurler (the vintage term for pitcher) and would go 4 innings, Slappy would go the next 2 and Bullet would go the last 3. Sounded sensible to me although my first thought was I'd rather go 5. I didn't tell Buck this. Modern baseball rules state the starting pitcher must go 5 innings in order to qualify for the win.
Since we were the home team we were in the field first. I went out a took my warm up pitches.
I've been playing all winter but this is the first "real" game of 2009. During the winter I play with about 20 other players in one of those inflated domes. We pick new teams every 2 or 3 weeks but I'm always facing more or less the same batters so I get to know how to pitch everyone pretty well. This only my second season playing vintage so I don't know many of the players on other teams. Position in the batting order tells me a little about a player but not a lot. The 1 and 2 hitter are usually pretty fast runners and generally hit for a high average or at least are good at getting on base. Numbers 3, 4 and 5 are usually the power hitters. Numbers 6 on down are generally declining in average as you work your way down.
Another way I try to get a clue about hitters is taking a look at their practice swings when they're on deck or when they take a swing or two before they get into the batter's box. I figure when you take swings when you're on deck you are swinging at your ideal pitch. Is it a long swing (probably likes the ball out over the plate), a short compact swing (could be good at hitting inside pitches), a golf swing (likes the ball low)?
Anyway, I don't have much to go on with the Senator hitters. I'll just have to pitch my game and see what I can figure out as I go along. The first batter hit a fairly routine grounder to short but nothing is routine in vintage. The ball was bobbled and then dropped and the runner was on. He stole second a pitch or two later and eventually scored. 1-0 Senators going into the bottom of the first.
Our lead off batter, Turk, hit a long double and in our jubilation we forgot the first rule of baserunning in vintage baseball: always know were the ball is. While we were celebrating on the bench and Turk's back was turned the shortstop put the ball in his back pocket. The hurler took his position in the hurler's box and prepared for the next batter. Turk took his lead off second base and the shortstop calmly walked over, took the ball out of his pocket and tagged out Turk. All perfectly legal in vintage. Always know where the ball is. With the wind taken out of our sails we went down fairly easily in the first without scoring.
My 3rd inning of pitching was a long one. I believe we had a 4-3 lead going into the 3rd but an error to start the inning and few hits and another error later led to 4 Senator runs and a lot of pitches for me. Foul balls count as nothing in vintage - not a ball, not a strike - unless they are caught. Essentially they are a "do over". A batter who can foul off a lot of pitches can really wear a pitcher down. There we a lot of foul balls in the 3rd inning. Finally we got the 3rd out after the final batter had fouled of perhaps 8 or 10 pitches. He hit a ball to short that was thrown low to first but, miraculously, Hammer dug it out of the dirt. Picks like that in vintage are very dangerous - a good way to break a finger.
As I walked off the field after the 3rd inning Buck came up to me and I thought he was going to say he was going to bring Slappie in an inning early or remind me that I had only one more inning to pitch but instead he told me I'd be going 5 innings rather than 4. Be careful what you wish for! Of course I said "fine".
We scored a bunch of runs in the 4th and 5th innings and only gave up only 1 more. My last 2 innings went pretty easily and I handed the ball over to Slappie with an 11-7 lead and the chance to pick up a win. Slappie pitched a good 6th and Bullet came on to finish the job. The final score was 15-11 Pioneers.
The first game of the 2009 season is in the books but the Pioneeers will be visiting Hartford next Saturday and I'm sure they'll be looking to avenge the loss. I'm looking forward to it.
Please pass the Advil.
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