Recent Match Games

July 15, 2007

A stunningly beautiful day greeted the members of the Welkin Base Ball club as they arrived on the field of Lincoln Park. The attending throng of over 200 spectators began arriving a full one-half hour before the scheduled starting time of 2:00 P.M. 

The Eclipse Base Ball Club of Northville arrived after a long journey in their horseless-carriages. After surveying the playing field, both clubs agreed on the local ground rules. Umpire, Mr. James Buckley, produced a 25¢ piece and tossed it into the air. The Captain of the visiting Eclipse club was heard to call "tails" but to his misfortune, the coin landed with the obverse facing up. Winning the toss, the Welkin Captain wisely chose to strike first.

The new ball proved to be exceptionally lively as the Welkin boys swung their mighty bats. Jim "The Bolt" Phillips started the Welkins with a well-struck single. Second striker Robert "Plumb-Bob" Arnold struck an impressive two-baser. The Welkins third striker, Trapper Haskins veritably crushed the leather orb over the heads of the Eclipse outfielders and scored an impressive four-baser. James "Pappy" Papineau and Mark "Goose" Henderson also tallied aces in the first innings. At the end of the first innings, the Port Huron boys had managed to ring the tally bell five times.

The tally sheet was blind in the second innings. In the third innings, the mighty gentlemen from Northville showed some amazing ginger holding our own Welkin club to only two aces while tallying five aces of their own. At the end of the third innings, the score was tallied to Welkin Club with seven aces and the Eclipse with six.

Therein the match settled into a very close race for victory, with each club demonstrating excellent fielding ability. Gentlemen from both clubs were seen to make amazing catches and showed excellent ball-throwing ability. Both clubs showed amazing sand during the hard fought match. While covering the third base, Welkin player "Uncle" Matt Farquhar caught a stinger for a spectacular out. His hand was later shown to the an amazing color resembling the blue water of the area. Dave "Gus" Bennis of the Welkin Club also had well bruised hands after the match. Eclipse hurler, Mike "Tater" Ladwig was bruised by a ball mightily struck by and unnamed Welkin player, and Al "Toes" Smitley of the Eclipse club was seen holding a bag of ice upon his knee.

In the ninth innings, the Eclipse club of Northville needed to score two runs to win the hard fought match game. First Eclipse striker, Greg "Inky" Palovich seized his hand-crafted bat and struck an impressive single. He was able to proceed to the second base on a passed ball. The next two ball strikers for the Eclipse Club struck mighty skyers, but they were caught and held by the Welkin fielders. With two hands dead, Eclipse base runner, Mr. Palovich tried to seize the third sack after another passed ball. Welkin catcher James "Pappy" Papineau was able to seize the errant orb and hurl it to third base tender Jared "The Bosun" Whalen who tagged Mr. Palovich out. It should be known that Mr. Papineau's mother, Evangeline Papineau,  had passed from the bonds of this earth the previous Sunday, and this match game had been dedicated to her memory. This author cannot help but wonder if the ball thrown by "Pappy" was guided into  the hands of Mr. Whalen by the late Mrs. Papineau.

After the match, the Eclipse Club was treated to an excellent picnic lunch and plans were discussed for the next meeting of these two mighty clubs.