By Ricardo Kaulessar

Many readers of this newspaper can relate to the sentiment that this especially brutal winter cannot end soon enough – and that baseball season cannot come fast enough.

Major league baseball players are already in the midst of spring training in warmer places while locally, boys and girls, young and old, are indoors (or even outdoors as the snow starts to clear away) with bat, ball and glove in hand getting in shape for games to come.

Meanwhile, fans are preparing to watch their favorite teams over the next few months, whether itâ€s from the bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium or in the living room staring at a plasma screen.

And for some, it is an opportunity to remember the landmarks and individuals from the Hudson/Bergen County area that have a significant place in baseball history.

Hoboken as the site of the first recorded baseball game in 1846 and Jersey City as the location of the legendary Jackie Robinsonâ€s debut in a professional baseball game in 1946, and as the birthplace of those who got to the “big show” including Joe Borowski (Bayonne), Willie Banks (Jersey City) and Johnny Kucks (Hoboken). Several aficionados of Americaâ€s pastime shared recently about how they await the start of another year where the worries are more about box scores than snowplows.

Prose for the pros

It may be hard to believe but baseball and poetry can be compatible. Jersey City resident Frank Messina is proof of that as both a fan of the New York Mets since birth and as a writer of numerous poems about the game, a number of which fund their way into his 2009 book “Full Count: The Book of Mets Poetry.”

He started off the interview with two haikus about his favorite activity: Spring Training – “Sun shines on diamond/two birds on a citrus limb/ball meets bat: a “crack!” and Ageless – “Grandpa opens gift/two tickets to the ballgame, a gray-haired child smiles.” Messina then shared about his anticipation for when play starts next month.

“Iâ€m looking forward to this season, especially after a torrential winter. The great thing about being a Mets fan in 2014 is having little or no expectation,” Messina said. “You can simply enjoy the game of promising young players along with watching a few veterans such as David Wright and Bartolo Colon. The same goes for the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves. Promising teams, but simply in a time of flux.” He then added, “As for the Yankees, itâ€ll be a year of saluting Derek Jeter, as it should be. Hopefully, that wonâ€t be a distraction to the Yankees†bigger mission: to win a championship.”

BasebALL the time

If baseball is your vocation, then it isnâ€t just for the springtime but it is year-round. Raf Hernandez is testament to that credo as the owner of the Hudson Baseball Center, a baseball training facility in Union City where players of all ages can come to the center not just in the winter but the other three seasons to work out and prepare. Hernandez, a Brooklyn native who resides in Union City, has been involved in all facets of the game for over 20 years going back to his days as a star shortstop for Brooklyn Tech High School. The longtime Yankee fan weighed in on the pros and cons of the upcoming season.

“There is the sentiment about what baseball symbolizes: itâ€s springtime, the winter is ending, and catchers and pitchers reporting to spring training. And for many fans, it gives them a fresh start,” Hernandez said. “But for me, it is a time when business starts to die off as it gets warmer, when people go outside to play. By the summertime, the center is pretty much dead.” Hernandez continued, “Unfortunately, people prepare for the season like theyâ€re cramming for an exam by coming in a month or two before when training should be done all-year. Thereâ€s no off-season.”

Throwback to another age

There was a time when baseball was known by two words. Frank Stingone knows all about that period as someone who runs the Hoboken Nine Vintage Base Ball Club. The team, in its third year of operation, specializes in playing base ball from April to October in compliance with 1864 rules that calls for no gloves, only balls and bats from the era, and classic uniforms. Hoboken resident Stingone said the Mile Square City, while having few available ball fields, is a great place to play for the Hoboken Nine and for visiting teams because of its place in the history of the sport, especially the intersection of 11th and Washington Streets where a monument marks the home plate of the famed Elysian Fields that held the 1846 exhibition. He then pointed out that the cold weather is having an impact on his teammates. “They have been itching to get out and they are excited to start playing,” Stigone said. “They are getting sick of the snow.”

For more information about the Hoboken Nine Vintage Base Ball Club, http://hobokennine.jimdo.com/, the Hudson Baseball Center, http://hudsonbaseballcenter.com/ and Frank Messina, http://www.spokeface.com/.

The post Baseball -Going from Snowballs to Baseballs first appeared on River View Observer.

Hoboken gave birth to baseball? Thatâ€s right. Just take a stroll over to 11^th and Washington Streets and youâ€ll be standing where Elysian Field used to be and where first, second, third and home bases were designated on June 19, 1846. Thatâ€s the day the first game was ever played and its cemented in Hobokenâ€s history and as well as those street corners – just read the plaques in the sidewalk.

Some folks disagree with baseballâ€s Hoboken origins, especially those affiliated with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which throws its own  curveball claiming the first game was played in Cooperstown in 1839. To most Hudsonites, though, Hoboken is the birthplace of baseball. The city even has its own vintage baseball team.

They call themselves the Hoboken Nine Vintage Base Ball Club and they play baseball the way it was originally played – by 19^th century rules. They wear uniforms designed like the ones worn in 1846 and their balls and bats are replicated from that period, too. The Hoboken Nine competes against other vintage teams to promote the history of baseball and for the sheer pleasure of playing baseball as a gentlemanâ€s sport.

Their next game is Thurs, Aug 22 at 7:30 pm, where the Hoboken Nine plays the NY Gothams at Richmond County Bank Ball Park at St. George in Staten Island.  This is the first full season for the team – theyâ€ll play about 60 games this year – and for team founder Frank “Walnuts” Stingone and team Captain Chris “Lucky” Lutkin – thereâ€s a learning curve as they compete with other vintage ball teams who have been doing it a lot longer.

“So far weâ€re 6 wins, 15 losses,” Stingone says. “Some teams have been doing it 15 years; weâ€re still getting the hang of it.”

Last year, the team played exhibition games and this year, the team joined the Mid-Atlantic Vintage Base Ball Association (www.mid-atlanticvintagebaseballassociation.com) and the Vintage Base Ball Association (www.vintagebaseballassociation.com).

“We play a gentlemanâ€s game,” Stingone says. “Youâ€re not supposed to question the ump. If weâ€re really out on base, weâ€re supposed to admit that weâ€re out. Itâ€s more gentlemanly than competitive.”

Stingone describes it as “baseball with a twist”.

“Itâ€s a good time,” Stingone says. “It draws a lot of fans. They get a kick out of the 1864 rules and fans seem to like the ump. Heâ€s dressed as a 19^th Century gentleman in a black suit, black top hat and cane.”

Along with the 19^th Century rules, uniforms and gentlemanly behavior, thereâ€s also the lingo the players use. The teamâ€s pitcher is called a “hurler”; an out is a “hand” and the hitters are called “strikers”. Nicknames are also a team tradition and the Hoboken Nine has some doozies: Hereâ€s the roster:

Louis “Pig Pen” Crocco, Tony “T-Bone” Peters, Todd “Wrong Way” Montgomery, Martin “Hay Bale” Josefski, Dave “Double D” DaCosta, Pat “Corned Beef” Oâ€Leary, Henry “Falcon” Falconi, Dan “Grit” Jacobson, , Jake “Snake” Scott, , Jeff “IP” Radlin, Eric “Money” Feldmann, Jason “Q” Kulak, Damian “Devil” Nash, , Dave Nelkin, Rafael “Riff” Badagliacca, Mark “Mad Dog” Gasper, Luis “Sweet” Melendez, Ian Heller, Mike “Cabaret” DiMasi, Frank “Walnuts” Stingone, Chris “Lucky” Lutkin, and Dale Lawrence – the only team member without a nick.

“There are hundreds of teams that play different yearâ€s rules,” team captain Lutkin says. “We play 1864 rules. That game is played without gloves and youâ€re allowed to catch the ball on a bounce – on the bound – and if you catch it on the hop the batter is out.”

The balls back then were home-made, Lutkin says, and players couldnâ€t throw them very far and it was harder to catch a ball on the fly, so the game was more about fielding than hitting.

“Back then you had to make the ball available to hit,” Lutkin says. “The guys in the outfield were playing the running game — stealing bases – and the fielding game – the fielders try to field the ball or throw the ball back to someone to tag them out – and all with no gloves.”

One of the main aspects of vintage baseball is historical accuracy, which is maintained by the umpires who are aficionados of the rules and the behavior of the players of the day, Lutkin says.  All of the baseball clubs were social clubs back when it started and it wasnâ€t until the 1870s that they started charging admission and paying players. Thereâ€s a reenactment to the proceedings, Lutkin says, but the teams play a real game of baseball, and to be historically correct, teammates maintain a gentlemanly style of play.

“If a guy slides into second and a tag is applied, but the Ump calls him safe, the pitcher can ask the player ‘were you tagged sir?â€â€ Lutkin says. “If the player says, ‘yes I was,†he will walk off the field in good sportsmanship. It happened to me and it happened to end a game against us. This aspect brings a lot of people to the game. In the modern game thereâ€s a lot of competitive animosity.”

Lutkinâ€s father was a WWII veteran and a Civil War re-enactor who made military-style muskets. An amateur history buff, Lutkin researched his father and grandfatherâ€s history and how baseball affected their lives and Americaâ€s history.

“Baseball was a game used by a community of people to help them heal from the Civil War where 700,000 men died,” Lutkin says. “Baseball was a way to engage people, get them outside and moving on from the devastation of war.  Thatâ€s such an interesting connection and why itâ€s so ingrained in the culture of America.”

For more info, visit: www.hobokennine.jimdo.com.

The Teamâ€s August Schedule:

The post COVER STORY-Gentlemen’s Baseball: Hoboken Nine Vintage Baseball Team Plays by the (Old) Rules first appeared on River View Observer.