Bay City Independents

World’s Tournament Game 2

Walnut Grove #1, Greenfield Village, Dearborn, MI

August 14, 2010

Bay City 8, La-de-dahs 11

After defeating the defending World’s Tournament Reserve Champion, Forest City Base Ball Club, in an emotional and energetic match Bay City was rewarded by playing the current Michigan State Champions, the undefeated Greenfield Village La-de-dahs on their home pitch.  This match had the feel of a championship game, rather then a mere second round pairing, and the game that would unfold didn’t disappoint the many cranks that lined the field.

The Bay Citys had lost the coin toss to start the match and the La-de-dahs had chosen to take the field allowing the Independents’ strikers to go to work.  Sean “Tanner” LeRoux began the striking with a well placed daisy cutter into the garden and easily made his first.  After the next striker lost his hand to a sky ball bottled by the right fielder, LeRoux would take his third on another drive into the garden from the bat of Al “The Kid” Garcia.  When Jason “Buttons” McInerney came to the plate the Bay Citys had Garcia on first and LeRoux on third.  After striking some foul balls “Buttons” connected on a howitzer to the long field that drove home LeRoux with ease.  Garcia took his second and third on the cannonade and then tempted to fate by trying for home.  The La-de-dah fieldsman attempted to nab Garcia at home, but threw well beyond the catcher allowing Kid to score and prompting McInerney to try for a home run, which he made while nearly demolishing the La-de-dahs pitcher who was valiantly attempting to stop this run away ox-cart.  The Bay Citys scored three aces on the smash but the scoring would end there for the innings.  The La-de-dahs would answer with 4 runs of their own in their first, so the score would stand at Greenfield Village 4, and Bay City 3 at the end of one.

The Bay Citys would start off the innings with a howitzer to the long field from Ray “The Banker” Banister that allowed him to make his second.  The next striker in the order, Dean “Sawmill” Koch hit a sharp ground ball to the Greenfielders third sacker, and captain, Mike Ossy.  Ossy threw across the diamond to nip Koch at first, when Ossy released the ball the runner at second sack made a dash for third hoping to place himself one base closer to home.  The fist sacker for the La-de-dahs saw this and rifled the ball back across the diamond killing the runner at third and making a neat double play.  The next striker would foul to the catcher and the whitewash was complete.

The fine defensive play would continue in the Dahs second innings.  The first striker in the order was “Beast” Moroz and he promptly drove a liner into the left field to make his first.  The next striker in the order hit what looked sure to be a safety up the middle, when the second sacker, Tom “Cat” LeRoux swooped in and knocked down the smash, chased it into the outfield, and then flipped to the covering short stop, Sean “Tanner” LeRoux to kill the hand.  The next two strikers would lose their hands to sky balls to the LeRoux brothers and end the innings with a skunking of the La-de-dahs. 

The play only got better in the third innings.  The lead striker in the Bay City order was Britt “The Mad Scientist” Venchura and he made his first on liner into the garden.  The next striker, Brain “Hooks” Freehling placed a neat safety into the center field where it was scooped up by Cougar Kozlowski.  Kozlowski fired the ball into second base to nip Venchura at the second sack, and the Bay Citys first hand of the innings was lost.  The next striker Jayme “High Steppin” Johnson hit a grounder to the second sack side of the infield.  The Dahs fieldsman, Nutmeg, fired to second base to apparently nail yet another runner.  The captain of the La-de-dahs, Mike “Oxbow” Ossy, protested that his short stop had pulled his foot off of the bag to catch the throw and demanded that the umpire reverse his out call and place the Bay City base runner back on second sack.  Both the crowd and all the other vintage clubs in attendance were awed by this act of gentlemanly behavior that is supposed to be a hallmark of this brand of base ball.  The Bay Citys now had runners on first and second sack with only one hand lost.  The next hand would be lost to a sky ball bottled in style by the Greenfield Village left field, but the next striker in the order, Cat LeRoux would not be denied.  LeRoux drove the ball deep into the garden, and with two hands down the runner on second sack, “Hooks” Freehling showed some fine ginger and tallied his ace.  That would finish the scoring though for Bay City and the match was now tied.

Matt Valant began the striking for the La-de-dahs in the third innings, and he struck a brilliant fair/foul into the hillside near the third sack.  Branden “The Rope” Revette, the third sacker for Bay City, pounced on the ball and fired it across the diamond nearly nipping the hard charging Valant.  The bench and the crowd gasped as the ball bounded just barely out of the grasp of the first base tender, and Valant was safe again.  The next striker in the order was Cougar Kozlowski, the mighty center fielder for the Dahs. Kozlowski drove a howitzer into the garden, which seemed destined to find the gap between the left and center fieldsman.  Fortunately for the Independents the left field was being manned this innings by Brian “Butterfly” Beceril who flew in and made a sliding grab of the Kozlowski sky ball brining the cranks to their feet and killing the Greenfielders first hand.  The next striker would bound out to the first sacker, Justin “Doc” Garcia, but Mike “Oxbow” Ossy would drive Valant home with single of his own.  The scoring would end there though, and La-de-dahs would again lead the match at 5-4.

The Greenfield Village gents whitewashed the Bay Citys in the fourth innings leaving two runners on the bases, and Bay City would return the favor taking three hands in a row from the La-de-dahs.  The Bay Citys would also be skunked again by the Dahs in the fifth innings, this time leaving runners on first and third. 

When the Greenfielders took to striking in their portion of the fifth innings they sent Mr. McLabe to the line, and he promptly bounded out to the third sacker to lose the first hand of the innings.  The next striker was Pirate Lawson, and Lawson came through for the Dahs with a neat hit that allowed him to make his first.  Mr. J. McVicce was next in line, and he dropped a ball just over the pitcher’s head which seemed like it would most assuredly find a place safely in the pitch when a sliding Sean “Tanner” LeRoux took the ball on the fly, and then fired over to Doc Garcia at first to try to force the surprised Pirate Lawson, who had wandered too far from the base.  The throw was true and when Doc gathered it to place a tag on Lawson he seemed to employ some maneuver not seen here before when he dropped to the ground feet first and threw up a cloud of dust only to find himself apparently safe.  After this miraculous feat of base running the Greenfielders were apparently re-charged, and they tallied 6 runs in the innings with some fine striking and aggressive base running.  The innings would be ended when Mr. J. Allen tried to stretch his triple into a home run and he was killed at the plate by a rifle shot from the arm of Brian “The Butterfly” Beceril who was manning the long field.  The score in the match was now well in Greenfield Village’s favor at 11-4.

Bay City now had a mountain to climb in order to get back into the match, and as all journeys begin with the first step, so this one would begin with their first striker.  Tanner LeRoux hit a drive that allowed him to make his first, and then his brother Cat LeRoux did the same.  That was followed by yet another safety by Kid Garcia that drove both brothers home.  The next two stirkers would lose their hands in the innings, and the rally appeared to stall, but that was simply a mirage in the ever increasing heat that was swallowing up the field.  Brian “Butterfly” Beceril would move the Kid over to third as he took his first, and Kid would score after a drive just over the infield by Rope Revette.  Ray “The Banker” Banister then took to the stripe, and drove a ground ball deep to short stop.  The throw to first base pulled the base tender, and Banister made his first, but Rope Revette took advantage of the bobble and made a play for third.  The first base man saw this and hurled the ball to third; the throw was off line and hit the ground where a miraculous grab and tag by a diving Mike Ossy made a close play of it at third.  The umpire was flabbergasted by the play, and hesitated in making his call, but there was no need, for Revette, ever the gentleman, simply walked off the base acknowledging the fine play by Ossy and ending the match.  The rally would die prematurely, but the respect earned by some bully play would more than make up for the shortfall in the ledger.

Both clubs acknowledged their mutual admiration to the crowd and many cheers were shared, but the real pay-off was hearing the crowd leaving the hill after the match make numerous mentions of how it was the finest game they had seen in some years.