A Sparkling Fourth

The Wahoos made the journey into the town of Northville for the second consecutive year to take part in the pre-match parade with the host Eclipse club.  Families lined the streets and walkways intent of catching glimpses of the ballists this young nation has produced in a game so few have had the opportunity to see.  Young children waved Old Glory in the sunshine, while smiling at the entertainment normally reserved for circuses and minstrel shows.  Large iron objects flew overhead creating quite the disturbance for many settlers and their livestock.

The Wahoos won the toss and elected to play the field first.  With one hand dead, Toes, a strange character who plays the game with the Eclipse without leather bound to his hands or feet raced around the diamond after well-placed strikes of the lumber by Bender and TinMan, eventually tallying on a strike by the young kid, Louie.

An inning later, the Eclipse tallied two more runs when Jaundice and Postman touched home plate.  Jaundice showed progress while running around the bases to the delight of the on-looking crowd, while Postman rang the absent bell.  The Wahoos were not so fortunate while swinging the wood sticks.  Their attempts at safe passage were either fielded on the bound or on the fly by the Northville nine.  Their hurler, Stitch, offered gracious looks to the strikers from Royal Oak with nary a whizzer.

The fielding of the round sphere on the grass seemed quite humorous.  Some players reacted with glee while others displayed faces of consternation, but none gave the impression of fear.  An incident of this manliness occurred in the sixth inning when a red hot ball echoed off the bat of Frisco.  The knock raced towards third base and the awaiting fielder, Dizzy.  Throwing concern for his well-being and the possible care for his own family to the side, Dizzy casually reached out his two bare hands to stop the ball’s flight.  Time stopped only to be interrupted by the sound in the collision of the two forces.  The ball dropped to the grass, unable to finish the marvelous attempt and the cranks rewarded the effort with huzzahs and gasps.

The Eclipse tallied three more runs in the fifth and two in the sixth.  The Postman delivered all three runners on a double to center field in the fifth inning while TinMan and Chip singled runs home in the following inning.

After six innings, the Wahoos were still experiencing a whitewash.  They had a great opportunity in the sixth when the speedy Teddy led off the inning with a single.  He was ultimately thrown out at third base when Chip of the Eclipse gathered a hard single off the bat of Sparky and threw the lemon peel on one bounce to the waiting hands of TinMan who easily tagged Teddy.  A fine defensive play for the Eclipse center fielder in what is becoming the norm for the young ballist.  The Northville club continued to play well for the remainder of the game, fielding and throwing the ball to one another with precision.  The end result after a few more runs tallied displayed the Eclipse Base Ball club eleven and the Royal Oak club zero.