Sports

Rough going for Ganymedes at 19th annual World Tournament of Historic Base Ball

Tough schedule, bad bounces plague Oregon’s vintage team

By EARLEEN HINTON ehinton@shawmedia.com

The weather was just about perfect on Saturday for the first day of the World Tournament of Historic Base Ball with temps in the 70s and just enough cloud cover to make fly balls easier to spot.

And for the first five innings, Oregon’s team, the Ganymedes, were very comfortable on the fields at the Henry Ford Museum’s Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, jumping out to a 8-1 lead over the Canton Cornshuckers.

Then the rest of the game happened.

“ W e d r e w a t o u g h o p e n i n g d a y bracket to say the least. In our first game against the Cornshuckers we jumped to a big early lead, only to let Canton catch us in the ninth inning to win 14 -11,” Coach Mark Herman said.

Some dropped balls by the Ganymedes and key hits by the Cornshuckers led to Canton scoring three runs in the sixth and five more in the seventh. The Cornshuckers capped the game off with two in the eighth and three in the ninth en route to the win.

The comfortable weather pattern continued for the rest of the tournament, but unfortunately for the Ganymedes, their playing pattern continued.

The Ganymedes fell to Flat Rock Bear Clan, which had beaten Canton earlier in the day 14-13.

“Canton was leading Flat Rock in the final inning 13-3 and Flat Rock scored 11 runs to win,” Herman said.

The Ganymedes fell behind early, trailing 3-0 in the first and never got back on track falling 9-5.

“Flat Rock jumped out to an early lead and we weren’t able to catch up,” Herman said.

T h e G a n y m e d e s t h e n f a c e d t h e Black Flags of Drovertown, Indiana, in an 8 a.m. game Sunday.

Again, they jumped out to a lead only to lose in the final innings.

“This was the seventh year that we have participated in this fine event and this year we had the toughest draw ever,” Herman said. “All three of the

Earleen Hinton/Shaw Media ABOVE: Oregon Ganymedes Mike Benesh, Matt Gecan and Bill Roschi react during their final game Sunday. BELOW: Mikki Heng dressed the part as she wore an 1880s-style dress to cheer on the Oregon Ganymedes at the World Tournament of Historic Base Ball in Dearborn, Michigan.

Earleen Hinton - Shaw Media LEFT: Ganymedes catcher Tom Lesniak catches a pop fly for an out at the World Tournament of Historic Base Ball in Dearborn, Michigan. RIGHT: The Oregon Ganymedes’ Brett Rogers lets his twins, Norah and Noah, run the bases after one of the games. More photos at www.oglecountynews.com

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clubs that we played made it to the championship game in their bracket. We got beat by some very talented clubs, but we were in every game and did not get blown out like many other lesser teams in the tournament. I can’t tell you how proud I am with the effort put forth by our club this year.”

Vintage rules base ball (spelled as two words in the 1800s) is played with authentic wool uniforms, no gloves, and gentlemanly conduct. Some spectators, such as Mike Heng of Oregon, wore 1800s-period clothing to cheer on her team.

The Ganymedes never gave up in their pursuit of winning a game.

“We let Canton come back to beat us in the later innings due to several key dropped balls, but we didn’t fall for that trickery this time. We held Flat Rock to the fewest number of runs scored by them in the entire tournament, but our bats were weak. Against Drovertown, give them credit, they had an amazing hitting inning at the end that broke open the game. We played hard with several Ganymede players with bent, dislocated or badly bruised fingers. Losing is hard but Drovertown is genuinely a nice group of guys and I was happy for them,” Herman said.

Flat Rock defeated Saginaw by a score of 16-11 in the Class A semifinals and then lost to the Walker Tavern Wheels 25-11 in the championship game in front of a thousand people, Herman said.

“Flat Rock just played terrible and were never in the game,” Herman said. “They got called for pitcher balks, didn’t know what to do when there was a dead ball and made numerous errors. They have now finished in second place for the past three tournaments.”

Canton won the 2nd Class Championship by easily defeating the Columbus Buckeyes 21-2. Canton’s 14-13 opening loss to Flat Rock was the first game that Canton has lost since 2021. They were riding a 34-game winning streak, Herman said.

In the 3rd Class Championship game, the Black Flags lost to the G r e e n f i e l d L a h D e D a h s i n e x t r a innings by a score of 9-8.

The Ganymedes received the Furthest Travels Award Mug and Bag of Peanuts Award for fewest victories (the Indianapolis Blues also got a bag of peanuts). Herman won’t know if the team will be invited back to next year’s 20th anniversary World tournament until October.

“The World Tournament ends our 2022 season, however, the Oregon Ganymedes Vintage Base Ball Club has been selecte d by the folks at Autumn on Parade to be the Unit of Honor in this years Harvest Time Parade on Sunday, Oct. 2,” Herman said. “We will be riding in a wagon (provided by Mike Benesh) in the parade in our uniforms handing out bubble gum, peanuts and Crackerjack to the crowd.”

Members of this year’s Ganymedes Base Ball Club 2022 World Tournament team were Michael “Mikey B” Benesh; Aaron “Two Bits” Berg; Eric “The Liberator” Berg; Justin “Butter” Early; Matt “Old Hickory” Gecan; Mark “Iron Chest” Herman, Captain; Tom “The Dandy” Lesniak; Brett “Shifty” Rogers; “Dollar” Bill Roschi; Kevin “The Kid” Stafford; Tim “Two B a s e “ S t r oh e c ke r ; M ik e “ T - B ag ” Thomas; and Steve “Scoop” Tilton.

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