St. Croix Base Ball Club


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Ohio Cup, Columbus, Ohio: September 3-4, 2005

Captain Sidewinder's official report:

Compiled by Jody "Sidewinder" Ebnet

The St. Croix BBC once again took the long journey to Columbus, Ohio to participate in the 14th Ohio Cup Festival. Participating this year were yours truly as acting captain, Dan "Basher" Cagley, Jim "The Count" Wyman, Jeremy "Crooks" Larsen, Dean "Deano" Thilgen, Patrick "Greenhorn" Pfundstein, Don "Pieso" Hammer, Erik "Sugar" Sjogren and new member Steven "Dude" Greenlow. Special contributions go to Quicksteps Rich Arpi, Paul Harris and Tom Wegrzyn as fellow ballists and Bob Tholkes as tallykeeper.

Over the past year, word had spread throughout the land of our club's fine striking ability and ginger in the field. Henceforth, some of the best clubs in the country had the honor to compete against The St. Croix's. Four matches were played that Saturday and three the following Sunday in the midst of some of the most beautiful base ball weather The Ohio Cup has experienced.

Saturday's matches were, for the most part, a baptism by fire. The Columbus Capitals, a veteran club, avenged last year's misfortunes against The St. Croix's by taking advantage of some early muffs by our club to claim a 14-6 victory. The following match did not fair better for our Mighty Nine as a combination of ginger, daisy cutters and fine hurling of The Indianapolis Blues BBC resulted in a St. Croix 15-5 loss. A familiar, yet friendly foe, The Cincinnati Red Stockings, challenged The St. Croix's to an 1869 "Fly Rule" match in the next encounter. Our true base ball spirit came to light in this match with many long sky-balls and daisy cutters and the St. Croix's were victorious 15-1. The final match was at "The Meadow" against the best Michigan Club, The Rochester Grangers. Despite valiant efforts each inning to make tallies, The St. Croix's could only come up with 1, while the Grangers bested 4.

The St. Croix's had better outcomes the next day. Facing a new rival, The Rochester New York Base Ballists, the St. Croix's displayed a lot of muckle while in the field and in the end, were victorious 5-2. The most competitive match was next, versus the dangerous Carriage Hill Clodbusters. An early rally by our men kept the fearless farmers on their heels and strategic pitching in the end resulted in a 5-4 St. Croix victory. The final match of the festival was a whitewashing of our club in the form of a 15-0 victory by The Akron Blackstockings.

Every ballist from The North Star State contributed favorably to the cause that weekend and it was a pleasure to be a part of the experience. Many thanks to our fine opponents and gentlemen as well. The St. Croix BBC are already looking forward to next year's festival. Huzzah!

MORE 2005 game accounts.