Comments on: Play Ball! Tell Stories!

By: Bill Kauffman

Bill Kauffman — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:21:28 +0000

Mr. Hecksel,
Yes, Bill found a photo of Maney with (if I recall correctly) Hughie Jennings that appeared in the Batavia Daily News. He’d be happy to send you a (rather grainy) copy. Drop him a line at 309 School St., Batavia NY 14020.

By: Vincent Hecksel

Vincent Hecksel — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:11:48 +0000

Mr. Kauffman,

Would you happen to know if Bill Dougherty’s research on Vince Maney unearthed a photo or image of the man, and if so, how might I locate it to view ?

Wonderful story, and kudos to Mr. Dougherty for the valuable research.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:17:36 +0000

Bill – It seems the ‘Dogs had a banner outing last night, crushing Jamestown 12-nil. We were on our way home from the French-Indian war “reenactment” at Fort Niagara (which was more of a paraphrase taking great politically correct liberties – I spotted a woman with a blackberry on the front line of the British advance in the Wilderness battle). Driving 31 or Ridge home makes for a much more enjoyable ride than that damned Thruway. I’ve finally located all of those towns who’s firetrucks were in the parade every summer.

By: Baseball Links « Questionable Answers

Baseball Links « Questionable Answers — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:27:49 +0000

[...] Play Ball! Tell Stories – Bill Kaufman (Front Porch Republic) [...]

By: Bob Cheeks

Bob Cheeks — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:30:58 +0000

I have come across an ancient photo on the East Liverpool Historical Society website of olde Patterson Field down by the Ohio river back at the turn of the century. There are old cars, horses and buggies, and the stands full of citizens watching a baseball game!
I’m pretty sure it’s the long before my time, City Merchants semi-pro team.
On Friday nites in the fall when the fightin’ Potters were getting ready to play high school football at Patterson Field we kids would line up at a certain place by the fence and Smitty-the-cop would saunter over, lift up the chain link fence, and say, “Now you kids be good and don’t bother people watchin’ the game.”
Smitty loved kids, white or black, and because of Smitty we kids learned that racism was stupid. He died before his time, he left a legacy among a great many of us. Funny, the things a ballyard can teach you.

I played ball (not well) on that field

By: D.W. Sabin

D.W. Sabin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:18:48 +0000

Although the most common manifestation of Muck in New Yawk appears to be within its sordid Statehouse, the Peat and Muck soils seem to crop up all over the place in the Empire State, Middletown and Orange County being another Onion and Spud zone with a deep and rich black dirt that makes the scabbed hands of any hardscrabble New England Farmer throb with desire.

As to the Minors, my favorite spot for this pure baseball was with the Ravens in New Haven, sadly gone for some time now . They played in storied Yale Field , a superb ballfield, exposed iron trusses dripping history and a place that has seen Ruth swat balls….not to mention the elder Bush. A game @ Yale field and then burgers with onions @ Louis Lunch and one could feel that they were American to the very core.

I keep threatening to try out the Bridgeport Bluefish if for no other reason than I find their baseball bat wielding Bluefish logo a keeper.

Thanks for the story about Ty Cobb…a magnificent spiking scoundrel who woulda made mincemeat of a certain number of today’s pampered stars.

By: Josh Cooney

Josh Cooney — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:33:24 +0000

The muck is certainly of regional significance. Most muckland, in fact, lies in areas north of Elba, especially Barre, NY. Historically, many Batavians worked on the muck either full time or seasonally. Further, I would assume that various Batavia businesses involved in hardware and farm machinery were, and still are, closely connected to Elba muckers.

By the way, the Muckdogs are off to a 3-0 start.

By: Bill Kauffman

Bill Kauffman — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:42:07 +0000

I proposed “Mighty Tonawandas” (after our creek) when we renamed the team but I must say “Muckdogs” has been a souvenir cash crop. Besides, how many teams are named for the soil from which the local wealth grew?
Nathan, my mom was a runner-up in the 1957 Onion Queen pageant. She still complains that the winner made eyes at the judges.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:29:10 +0000

My father regales me with stories of the Elba onion festival and their pageant every year. I found it hard to believe that any self respecting woman would fight to be the Onion Queen (or whatever royal mantra is bestowed on the winner – i profess ignorance of the actual details), until I heard locals here professing their delight in the local mosquito queen pageant.

Place is a curious thing.

By: Thomas G.

Thomas G. — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:57:17 +0000

D.W.

Captain Abner Doubleday was born at Ballston Spa, New York, in 1819, and attended schools at Auburn and Cooperstown. Hence the link to Auburn’s past, and why they are nicknamed the Doubleday’s. He’s also the reason why Cooperstown is in Cooperstown, as the somewhat fictitious claim that it was there in 1839 that he invented the game.

Alas though, as a staunch Unionist and Lincoln supporter, Doubleday may not have been anymore of a Front Porcher than Branch Rickey.

As for the Muckdog name, as a former Batavian I still wince when I hear it. Any Batavian will tell you that there is no muck in Batavia. The muck is in Elba, where only writers and onion farmers live. Not that there’s anything wrong with either one ;-)

If it had been up to me I’d have named the Batavia club after a piece of Batavia history. The “Batavia Anti-masons” has a nice ring to it.

Tom

By: D.W. Sabin

D.W. Sabin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:04:28 +0000

Oh ..my bad, there I go, spouting off again, forgetting my distinctions between the beloved Doubleday and the reviled Walter O’Malley, worsest person in history. Still though, beat Auburn because your name is better.

By: D.W. Sabin

D.W. Sabin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:59:58 +0000

The Chief Benefit of the Umpire in Baseball is not, as is commonly accepted to keep the rules and regulations of play followed….a dim prospect at best…. but to act as the most important lightening rod uniting the drunken fans of opposing teams so that they might not murder one another on the way home.

Nobody seems to care a whit what the refs at a Soccer game in Europe have to say but afterwards, its always the salting of Carthage when The Dutch Play the Limeys. If they barked at the Umps more colorfully, the chain link fences might last more than a game or two.

Here in Peace-Loving Puritan America, we revile our Umps, thus preserving civilization for its better expressions.

Any team with the name “Doubledays” should be taken out and pistol whipped on principle. Beat them and the doublecross they rode in on. Maybe they could change their name to something less reprehensible ..like say…the Auburn Ted Bundys maybe.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:59:38 +0000

Bill – great story. Keep them coming. As a Brockport native, and big baseball fan, I suppose my ignorance of the Muckdogs can be mostly attributed to my Yankee/Columbus leanings, and having the Rochacha Red Wings slightly closer (with, no doubt, a much larger advertising budget that reaches the “far” western villages and towns – I think even to Holly!).

On a tangent…I turned my father on to your books, and he informed me that he recognized your name because he was your daughter’s AP or Honors English teacher at Elba a couple of years back (he’s the head of the department there), and cast her in the school play as well, I believe. So the world is small, and as an FPR hanger-on I hope to have a chance to make your acquaintance one day, as I will no doubt be able to convince my dad to hit a Muckdog game.

The world is small, and I’m glad you’re the one chronicling our sliver of it (or at least my former sliver). You’ve given me a greater appreciation for the region I roamed for so many years and love to get back to regularly.

By: John Willson

John Willson — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:47:47 +0000

Bill knows some of this story. My uncle, Vincent Callahan (what better Batavia Irishman could there be?) was the founder of Batavia Little League and the business manager for the Batavia Clippers in the late forties, when they were a Cleveland farm club. That position got me to Cleveland in 1948 to be part of the largest crowd still ever to see a baseball game, something over 88,000. I saw Satchel Paige pitch. And I plan to take my son-in-law to Batavia in just over a month to see the Muckdogs, and take Bill up on his offer of the first round.

By: Bill Kauffman

Bill Kauffman — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:52:32 +0000

Thanks, Tom. That’s a good series of articles. The names conjured up memories. For instance, Jack Cassini, manager of the Trojans in 1976, was the most unorthodox strategist I have ever seen. He loved to call steals of home. If memory serves, he managed AAA Toledo the same way a year or two later and unnamed players slammed him as “bush league”–a great compliment in my book!

By: Thomas G.

Thomas G. — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:06:28 +0000

Bill,

I recently came across this series of columns from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, written by Bill Nichols. They are about hsi experiences with the Batavia Trojans organization in 1980, and are quite well written. As a Batavian they are like a time capsule to me, recording life in Batavia at the time, with comments and mentions of many of the Batavia Baseball Club men, like Ed Dwyer. I thought you might enjoy them as well.

Here’s the link:
http://www.lkwdpl.org/nworth/nwtoc.htm#Baseball

Tom