May 31st Pioneers at Simsbury Taverneers

Today's game has become a media event because Jim Bouton, former New York Yankee and author of "Ball Four", will be playing for us today. Buck is pretty much a nervous wreck on the ride down, worrying about whether all our players will make it and whether his defensive plan make sense. We've got 12 players today if everyone shows so he's spent a lot of time figure out who will be playing where. He didn't get much sleep last night and he's eating his breakfast - oatmeal - out of the pot in the front seat as we pull out of his driveway. Spider is driving so Buck can focus on his breakfast - and worrying.

The basic game plan is to have Bouton pitch the first 3 innings, then have me come in for the next 3 followed by an inning of Slappie and closing with 2 innings of Turk. Buck was hoping to have Bullet close but he's not playing today. Buck also has me playing 2 innings in rightfield - based on my having played a couple of innings in centerfield against Hartford where I made a sliding catch on a sinking line drive.

We arrive at the field at about 9:15 for a 10:00 game which is just about right. Hammer & Nails are already in the parking lot and Albie pulls in just after us. Buck is starting to relax a little since we didn't get lost and other players are showing up too.

We unload the gear box - a huge plastic storage box that must weigh 80+ lbs - and carry it to our dugout. Some Simsbury players are already there working on the field. Simsbury's field is very nice and is totally enclosed with fences. Left center is about 390, right center is a little more reasonable - 360ish. The dugouts are the best I've seen anywhere -really spacious, with 3 steps up to the field the length of the dugout and no fence to obscure your view of the game. We get our cleats on and start warming up.

With about 15 minutes to game time everyone has arrived except Turk and Bouton. Turk, who was in New York on Saturday at a Mets game, comes running in followed by Bouton who appears to be in no hurry what-so-ever. As soon as the Taveneers finish taking infield we head out to take ours. I head to right which feels really weird. Bouton is getting dressed then starts warming up on the side with Nails. I get 3 fly balls hit to me during infield and two are over my head - one to each side. I catch all 3 - the ones behind me with over the shoulder catches. Not bad for a pitcher. It reminds me of playing home run derby in the back yard with Isaac using a tennis ball and no glove.

After taking my fly balls I head in and while the infielders go through their paces I watch Bouton warming up. I'm watching from behind Nails and a little to one side and he's throwing knuckle ball after knuckleball. There is almost no spin to any of them but they don't seem to be moving around a lot - a little drop maybe but not much else, at least not that I can see. Still it's really impressive to see how he can just throw one after the next like it's nothing.

After Buck wins the coin toss (again!) we take the field. In addition to the Taveneer's usual photographer (Susan D'Apice) there is a camera man from the local Fox TV station there filming the game. Bouton also has his own publicity guy there. They are filming and taking photos from wherever they please and seem not to be concerned at all about the fact that we are actually playing a baseball game.



Bouton starts off fine getting the first batter out on a pop up to 3rd but after that thing start don't go so well. The next batter hits a shot on the first pitch just to the second base side of short and it looks like Spider will catch it but it's been hit too hard and he can't handle it. (After the game Spider showed me the black and blue spot on his throwing hand where the ball hit it.) The next few batter seem to not have much problem with Bouton's knuckler and between that and some defensive misplays the Taverneers score 4 in the first.

We go quickly in the bottom of the first. The Taverneer's hurler is throwing fairly hard but, more importantly, he is quick pitching a lot. I head out to right for the 2nd inning and despite my 3 catches earlier I'm not really comfortable out there. It's such a long way from the plate it's really quite a different game from out there. Nothing is hit to me but the Taveneers do get another run.

I'm up second in the bottom of the second inning and come up with one out. From what I've seen so far it looks like the Taverneer's pitcher throws pretty straight and counts on the quick pitch to get batters out. I decide I'm going to look fastball on the first pitch and I get it and hit it pretty hard to short and just start running. Anything can happen in Vintage and appartently it does because I reach first safely. I never did find out what happened but I see in the book later it was put down as a hit so I leave it at that. I don't score that inning so we head to the 3rd.

The 3rd inning is when the combination of the Taveneer's hitting Bouton fairly well and some very poor defensive plays behind him put 7 runs on the board for the Taveneers. I'm sitting again this inning and keeping the book and it's not pretty. If my memory is correct there were at least 3 errors and possibly as many as 5 including an overthrow of third from left field that hit the Taverneers photographer's camera squarely on the end of her telephoto lense. That was scary but fortunately the lense absorbed the blow and was shattered but she was unhurt. Finally we get out of the inning but we're now down 12-0. I always say if your going to get down big make sure you get down big early. At least we have that going for us.

In the bottom of the 3rd we scoring a couple of runs so at least we're on the board. By the end of the inning i'm really itching to get on the mound but I have a feeling Buck hasn't let Bouton know he's only going 3 so I check with Buck first before taking the mound. He goes to Bouton and says "Do you want one go one more?" to which Bouton of course replies "Yes" so I'm sitting another inning. It was either that or go to 1st instead of Buck and I wasn't up for that.

In the top of the 4th the Taveneer's go quickly without scoring a run and we're back to the top of our order for the bottom of the inning. We score 3 (I think) in the bottom of the inning. I drive in one with a single with runners on first and third, steal second and score when the first baseman can't handle a low throw with two outs.

After 4 innings the score is 12-5 Taverneers and I've finally got the ball. After seeing Bouton's knuckleball my fastball must look extra fast so I have an easy inning and we're back up. I don't remember whether we scored or not that half inning but I now I gave up two in the 6th.

In the 7th the lead off batter for the Taverneers reach, stole second and went to 3rd on a wild pitch. Runner on third, no outs. I struck out the next two batters and the third out was a great catch by Murph on a pop up behind the plate almost to the backstop. It's hard enough to get there but then to catch it with that glove is awesome.

In the bottom of the 7th we score a bunch of runs on hits and errors. I drove in two more when their pitcher tried to quick pitch me but it backfired because I hit a line drive past their first baseman who wasn't looking. It turns out he was quick pitched. (Come to think of it this must have happened in the previous inning because by the 7th inning the quick pitcher was no longer pitching.) In any case, after 7 innings the score was Taverneers 14 Pioneers 13 and I handed off the ball to Slappie and headed back out to right.

Unfortunately Slappie walked the lead off hitter (which is hard to do given it takes 7 balls) and ended up give up 4 runs in his inning. We didn't get any back in the bottom of the 8th and heading into the 9th we were down by 5. Turk also walked the first batter he faced in the 9th but worked out of the inning. In the bottom of the 9th we couldn't get anything going and ended up losing 18-13.

The most best aspect of today's game was the amount of interest Bouton's appearance was able to generate from the local press. For us bush leaguer's who play because we love it (and secretly hope there's still a chance we'll be picked up by a major leauge team despite being several decades too old) it's really cool to have our entire game filmed just like in the bigs. It was also great to see Jim out on the mound at the age of 70 still throwing a damn good knuckle ball. If he'd been pitching into a slight headwind instead of with a tail wind I think he would have made the Taverneers look silly.

Here's the 3 hour game compressed into 2 minutes and 47 seconds courtesy of Fox61: