Striker to the Line: Yet another motivational speech

from Mark "Hutch" Lungariello

You hear some crazy and empty words of encouragement “at the dish.” Last Sunday, in the middle of what turned out to be a three game sweep, I dug in at at the striker's line. The Orators bench, discouraged from our cold bats, remained quiet. That is, except for Jay “Papi” Ortiz.

“Come on Mark, nice knees,” he said. “Nice knees.”

Every ballist has weird things going through their head while at the plate. And every one of them knows that thinking is the worst thing for an at-bat. The stranger the things swimming around in your noggin, the stranger that at-bat could be and the more important it is to clear your mind. I was thinking about how my knees looked .

Why is Papi telling me I have nice knees? A weird thing to say anyway, much less when I’m trying to get on base. Were they sexy? Should I tell him “thanks” or is that weird to carry on while I’m waiting for a pitch to be delivered by the hurler?

Or maybe Papi was being sarcastic - maybe my knees are deformed, too sharp, too small, too large, too bony. Had I put on enough weight since last season that my knees were showing extra pounds? Were my knees looking morbidly obese? Nice knees. Nice knees. Nice knees.

“Don’t think, that only does damage,” I told myself. And I was right. Last time I spent any time thinking about something was Friday and by 5 a.m. Saturday morning I found myself down 80 bucks and driving back from Foxwoods casino. Team Captain Matt "Howitzer" Lungariello suggests singing a song to clear your head while hitting, so i tried that. I cut myself off after a few bars of INXS's "I Kneed you Tonight." Ok, maybe I am trying too hard with that one but speaking of...

I realized Papi wasn’t telling me I had nice knees, he was saying “nice and easy.” You know as in “don’t try to do too much” “don’t try to crush it” – those kind of cliché things we tend to yell at batters especially in a game where you’re offense is sinking face. Well that made sense. But, it was too late, I had already hit an “on the bound” out to Newtown’s shortstop. On the sad jog back to the bench, I checked how my knees looked anyway.

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Sunday was one of those days for the Orators I guess. One of those confused and awkward “nice knees” days as I will call them from now on.

There was a time last year, our first year as a team, where we had a lot of nice knees days. But with a year of the vintage game behind us and some new guys on the squad we all hoped for the most part we had left that perennial losers thing behind. So, it was a disappointing result for some. By the end, people were calling for a do-over, their thoughts turning to other things like the score of the modern games going on. (I must digress as I just remembered the vintage joke of the day - CRANK: Do you know the score of the Yankees game? BALLIST: And just who are these Yankees?) Moving on…

I don’t look at this weekend as all bad. Sure we’re 1-4 to start off 2008, but come on we’re already one game better than we were last year. We also had some highlights. Remember, Cap hit the team's first homerun of the season. Mike Bielawa hurled his lil' heart out to a complete game victory... of course he did that while hurling for Newtown and against us, but let's not overthink that either. Thinking only gets in the way of fun. This is why kids generally don't like studying.

And besides:

A) By losing three games in the second week of the season we’ve gotten the first losing streak of the year out of the way.

B) We don’t have the added stress of trying to go undefeated on the year.

C) We’ve set up Act I of a good underdog story for the season.

A team down in the dumps, turns around and surprises everyone. These things always turn out to have a happy Hollywood ending. I’m sure some Orator will get the girl (or dude – note the vintage league don’t ask don’t tell policy), we’ll win the championship and somehow learn a valuable lesson about friendship, honesty and integrity. If we’re sober enough to remember the moral is a different story.

I even have a good last line for the film - just think of it, “Gentleman” Ben Fortney, fresh off his 2007 ankle injury is walking again and without crutches. I can hear him now. “God bless us, everyone!”

O's drop three straight at Waterbury tourney

4/27/08
Waterbury 1861 tournament f/Waterbury Connors, Meddowe BBC, Bridgeport Orators and Newtown Sandy Hooks
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GAME 1, LOST: Orators 2 - Waterbury 10
GAME 2, LOST: Orators 4 - Newtown 7
GAME 3, LOST: Meddowe 9 - Orators 1

Poll of the Week: We need some vintage sounding ballists

NPR coverage of Vintage Ball

NPR.org today posted an article about Vintage Base Ball. The clip features some photos of the O's from the home opener vs. Brooklyn, as well as a quote from Bridgeport's Own "Cap" Caparosa. Check it out here.

Captain's Corner: Offweek and getting practicing on 4/20

Each week, we will catch up with Team Captain Matt "Howitzer" Lungariello (pictured above) on his thoughts regarding the game of the week.

Last weekend on April 9, the Park City Nine had the week off and so gathered for some practice at Seaside Park. On the agenda? Gearing up for a big round robin tournament up in Waterbury. The opponents - Waterbury Connors, Meddowe BBC, and Newtown Sandy Hook.

We got the chance to chat with Howitzer today and go over practice and look to the big tourney for April 27:

KEEP IT VINTAGE: So, the turnout for practice was pretty weak?
HOWITZER: It is very important to notify Vintage Joe when you can't make it to practice. I know he sends about 14 e-mails a day, but sometimes he has some important info in them... SOMETIMES.

Last week's practice could have been cancelled or moved to a much warmer indoor batting cage. Joe and I factor in attendance to help us decide playing time.

KIV: It was frigid and you guys had field issues?
H: It was cold and it looked like rain all morning. I think 21 fields were all being used when we got there, so we had to practice on a field we have never seen before. But the guys who were there were real troopers and roughed it. There is nothing quite as vintage as hypothermia.

KIV: Big weekend, first road game, multiple team tournament. You hoping to announce the team's improved presence this season?
H: In some ways, yes. Really, I am looking forward to the Newtown game. I thought we matched up pretty well against them last year, but we were never able to beat them. I can specifically remember blowing a three run lead in the bottom of the ninth on a walk-off homer by Pops. Heartbreaker.

We actually did beat them one Sunday but I think three of their starting nine were Orators filling in, due to the Hooks being short a few guys. Last season, we took any win we could get, but I don't really count that particular game. But any time we played each other, it was very competitive and a lot of fun.

KIV: What team are you most looking forward to seeing get vintage this weekend?
H: Like I said, it has to be Newtown, though I am excited for every matchup that comes our way. We are linked to Newtown like Siamese Twins. Very good looking Siamese Twins I might add. Those guys were at our field at our very first practice, teaching us the rules of the game, mentoring us. We always look out for each other in an emergency - if we're short a guy, the Hooks are always ready to gear up in the gray and blue. Same for us - a lot us O's have filled in when Newtown needed us.

KIV: Do you consider Newtown a rival?
H: Based on location, I would. We want to win every game we play, but because we are so close them distance wise and as vintage gentleman, I think you always want to have bragging rights.

KIV: It's an 1861 tourney this weekend. What do you think Bridgeport's forte is in terms of which rules?
H: I think that the '61 game is the easiest for us to play at the moment. So I would say we have the best chance in those rules as far as the underhand games go.

But if Cap, Kurt, and Goz are rested, we have shown we can be a great 80's team as well.

Atlantics recap

The Atlantic BBC have their own recap from our doubleheader last week, here. There's a little discrepency with the scores, but that's understandable - records from the period are spotty at best.

They did get right the fact that Park City is "vastly improved".

Vintage on NPR

Audio Some pics from the game

Did they have Youtube in 1864?

Poll of the Week: Vintage Joe in PED scandal

Captain's Corner: Home opener vs. Atlantics 4/13

Each week, we will catch up with Team Captain Matt "Howitzer" Lungariello (pictured above) on his thoughts regarding the game of the week. Last weekend, at the 2008 Seaside Park home opener, the Orators split a double-header with the visiting Brooklyn Atlantics.

Captain Howitzer wasn't at the game. But, I figured I'd break him for the season ahead and test him on his media skills:

KEEP IT VINTAGE: How about a few questions on the game this last weekend?

HOWITZER: I wasn't there maybe you should talk to the other captains...

KIV: What are your thoughts on the split?

HOWITZER (takes sophisticated tone): It was a good start to the year. This team beat us up early last year and handed us one of our most lopsided losses of the season. We have made huge steps in the last 12 months.

KIV: How did the new guys look to you?

HOWITZER: Mark, you know I wasn't there, remember you and me were both at a christening...

KIV: I SAID HOW DID THE NEW GUYS LOOK?

HOWITZER (clears throat): The new guys look great. They need some more time playing the game of "base ball," but you can see that they have skills in baseball. The only way to improve and adjust to the vintage game is to show up every weekend.

KIV: Would you categorize this as a good start to the season?

HOWITZER: Yeah, I would. Taking one is huge for us, and it's great to give a win on Opening Day to the home town fan. For the first time in our team's short history, we can say that we are a .500 ball club.

KIV: Predictions for the year?

HOWITZER: I think if we can play solid defense, we will be in a position to win every game. We can hit with any team out there, but what separates teams in this league is being able to field your positions. You won't win many games if you can't stop the other guys from scoring.

KIV: I was wondering - Could you name me a coach? I was thinking I could be the beer conditioning coach if there's an opening.

HOWITZER: No.

Vintro

Hello, how’s it going, how’s it hanging and of course, huzzah!

My name is Mark a.k.a. “Hutch” and this is the “Keep it Vintage” blog which I will be maintaining. This site will be dedicated to all things related to The Bridgeport Orators Vintage Base Ball Club. As we kickoff our sophomore year as a squad, you can visit this site for game results, profiles, team and captain comments, polls, and general smack-talking (of course, as per vintage base ball rules, the smack talk will be gentlemanly).

This will also be the home for my personal and very biased and opinionated rants. Some of you may remember I started my “blog” for our inaugural season on the official Orators page, but only one of my masterpieces ever made it to the web. Orators founder Joe “Vintage” Vigorito claimed that my numerous insightful (and quite funny might I say) posts never made it to his e-mail inbox. My theory is he was censoring me, I have proof that I received from {REMAINDER OF SENTENCE CENSORED FOR CONTENT]

Either way, we have established this blog as an easier method to regularly update the team and our numerous cranks (I think we’re up to three cranks now). It's also a forum to communicate, interactively. I'd say that last sentence sounded New Age, but that stuff didn't exist yet.

Well, this was quite a boring post and not quite vintage, but I figured we needed an intro of sorts. Y’all come back soon now, ya’hear?

2008 Season Opens With a Split

4/13/08
Brooklyn Atlantics at Bridgeport
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GAME 1, LOST: Brooklyn 14 - Orators 10
GAME 2, WON: Orators 12 - Brooklyn 8