By Ray “Shutta” Shaw

WATERBURY – It was cool and breezy Sunday morning as four area nines assembled at the pristine Chase Collegiate grounds in Waterbury to take part in the first annual vintage base ball round robin hosted by the Waterbury Connors.

The much-depleted Newtown Sandy Hooks joined the Connors and two clubs from western Massachusetts, the Westfield Wheelmen and the Meddowe Base Ball Club from Longmeadow in the 1861 affair.

With a total of six matches on the fixture, Jim Wigren’s Brass City nine with a decided home field advantage and years of success at this era game, seemed the likely choice for team accolades on the day. Yet, though they prevailed in the win column, by day’s end the rejiggered Sandy Hooks and upstart Meddowe clubs were to be the teams that receive the most attention and applause.

In the initial match the equally understaffed Hooks and Westfield clubs squared-off for the first time since last August, when Hooks bested the Wheelman in an 1886 event on the Westfield turf. On this occasion, only two ballists who played in that memorable match were in attendance to swing for the Newtowners.

Phil ‘90’ Keane, coming off the shelf after a year-plus rehabilitation from a serious leg injury, took the ball for the Sandy Hooks and began what would be a twenty-one inning hurling effort that may prove to be one of the gutsiest in Newtown Sandy Hook annals. With an amazing array of pitching techniques that kept the visitors off-balance throughout the match, the determined but hobbled hurler maintained his composure and good humor while his gritty new mates retrieved numerous potentially wayward orbs.

Of the starting nine, credit goes to newcomers ‘Honus’ Pernerewski, ‘Zack’ Wheat and ‘Bingo’ Long for putting the spark in the ball and tearing-up the turf with their non-stop barnstorming behavior, and to ‘BB’ Dieckman and ‘Sparks’ Marcucelli for patrolling ‘the garden’ with jaw-dropping skill. Paes, Norwich and Weiner secured the infield positions while ‘Mudcat’ Albano protected the ground around home plate.

Pernerewski, who counts his second job as a history teacher in New Milford, displayed his prowess with his 40-ounce (or so) tree limb, carved from a downed maple, to gain four hits in as many at-bats and drive-in two aces for the Hooks. ‘Zack’ created his own dust clouds on the verdant paths with hell bent for leather base running, while ‘Bingo’ lived up to his namesake by plating an inside-the-park round tripper based on a blast that caromed around the far reaches of the yard for what seemed like an eternity. Never to be overlooked or underestimated, veteran ‘Pudgey’ Dieckman drove in a four stunning aces on a two-for-three day at the dish in game one.

As the clouds parted and the warm breezes kissed the sidelines, the Sandy Hooks came away with a well-earned 12 to 7 victory over the Wheelmen.

In game two, the Sandy Hooks were introduced to newcomers to the vintage scene, Mark ‘Cappy’ Hurwitz’s upstart Meddowe nine from up the road in Longmeadow, Massachussets, which made the trek for the day to test the old guard. Yet, little did the local nine know from looking at the freshly clad rookies, this would be no ‘muffin’ affair and they were in for what would eventually become a dog-fight.

As the well-broken Sandy Hooks positioned themselves for game two, ‘90’ again manned the box and proceeded to hurl heroically as the newcomers teed-off his assortment of offerings.

On a numerous occasions, he fielded screaming come-backers that would force lesser men into early retirement. In spite of that fact, ‘90’ held his positioned masterfully while his mates responded with numerous missiles of their own that kept the match interesting. ‘Bingo’, ‘Zack’ and ‘90’ were the hitting stars for the Sandy Hooks with two hits each in game two but it wasn’t enough to overcome the hitting prowess of the upcountry strangers.

In the final analysis, Meddowe went on to score the first victory in their short-lived history, besting the Sandy Hooks by an 8 to 6 margin at the end of regulation. Admittedly, the dumb-down ‘61 game tends to neutralize many offensive threats (except in the case of the ever resourceful Connors). The numerous bound-outs that characterize the game, rendering well-struck long balls and heavily armored adversaries benign, snuffed-out potential rallies and kept the event from being a 23 to 20 affair.

In game three, the beleaguered Sandy Hooks took on the masters of ‘1861’ base ball. The Waterbury club has been a thorn in Newtown’s side since the club’s inception and today would be no better for the local nine. Keane and his teammates running on whatever fumes were still left in their tanks battled valiantly for five innings until the floodgates opened in frame six when the Connors found a hole in the Newtown defenses and scored six aces to salt the match away for the hosts.

The final tally of 9 for the Connors and 1 for the Sandy Hooks may be soon forgotten but, the twenty-one innings of stimulating hurling by ‘90’ Keane will be long remembered as one of the true highpoints in the day’s events.

visit www.vbbnewtown.com for schedules, pictures, and info on the game of vintage base ball.