Month: November 2009

Big Easlakia Base Ball News Circa 1874

While I was over hobnobbing with the shaken and moved of the southern part of our Easlakian neighbo(u)rhood, I have actual stuff to do. Base ball stuff as I wanted to research the Watertown tournament of 1874 given that there were references to it in the Kingston papers of the time. I had thought that they went to play but in fact it appears that they went to watch as they are not listed as a team in the schedule.

Kingston’s rivals of the day, the Guelph Maple Leaf, win the event held in late June and early July over eight days before pop up here after for a game on 7 July 1874. But there are other notes that make it very curious:

  • There is a first and second class tournaments being played side by side making for a total of 14 teams. I do not know why you would have seven teams per class but there you have it.
  • Being or rather not being “daunted” meant something in the mid-1870s as there is a second class team called “The Undaunted” of La Fargeville, NY and another second class team called “The Dauntless of Watertown, NY. Careful readers will know that there was also a team called Dauntless of Ogdensburg, NY which the Kingston St. Lawrence played on Friday 8 August 1874 in Ogdensburg as well as the Dauntless Club of Toronto that Kingston played in 1872 and 1873 .
  • One team in the first class group was the Ku-Klux of Oneida, NY described as “the acknowledged champion club of Northern and Central New York” in the 29 June issue of the The Daily Times of Watertown. You will be comforted to know that the Maples Leaf of Guelph thumped them 13-4 and that the team was slagged in the paper as “the negro haters” who scored a “usual whitewash,” a “goose egg, ” a “cipher” and “skunked” in various innings.
  • Certain players of the Nassaus of Brooklyn, NY and some Eastons of Easton, Pennsylvania were reported in the 6 July issue as having taken a wagon to Sackets Harbor on Sunday 4 July and returning in quite a state: “It would have been proper if the whole crowd could have been unloaded at the jail.” They apparently were driven through Public Square as they sand “Mulligan Guards” and kindred songs.

Thrilling stuff. Need to do a little cross referencing but it looks like the Eastons of the 1870s may have been a rival to the Philadelphia Athletics which are now the Oakland A’s.

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The Last Time Someone Else Won, They Were Whigs

That was the line of the night. Apparently, the last time portions of New York state’s 23rd district of the US Congress were not represented by Republicans, they were represented by Whigs. It was the equivalent of a by-election for the House of Commons. But it had a very different feel. While party affiliation is huge here, so is personal contact as well as local issues that might, in Canada, be handled by someone else. So, in the bar I was invited to attend, local candidates for positions like municipal clerk were applauded in victory or supported in sad defeat by others with far grander titles and offices. I talked with union leaders, insurgent college kids from other states here to get the vote out as well as a very genial county court criminal judge who was elected to a second ten year term in a landslide.

The big news was the Congressional win for the Democrats. But the story for me was how this had the look of a church supper in a way, with local people of all sorts doing what they could to try to play a role in improving their community. Sounds smarmy but when you are chatting with a member of the New York State legislature bouncing he newborn as you hold the corner with the good cold cuts tray, it sorta has that feeling. Follow the results on NCPR and WDT.

Excuse Me… But Are You The Man From Prague?

I got myself invited over the border for tomorrow night to witness the special election for the 23rd New York Congressional District… well, to witness the election night party actually. It was a tale of a three way race until the left-wing Republican dropped out Saturday and then on Sunday threw her support behind the right-wing Democrat all in an effort to keep out the “conservative” Independent who was first rejected by the Republicans but may now have to be reckoned with:

Her position in New York’s Republican Party seems in doubt: The state party chairman, Edward F. Cox, condemned Ms. Scozzafava’s move. “Dede Scozzafava’s endorsement today represents a betrayal of the people of the North Country and the people of her party,” Mr. Cox said, referring to the state’s northern reaches. Ms. Scozzafava had been under siege from conservative leaders because she supports gay rights and abortion rights and was considered too liberal on various fiscal issues. Democrats appeared emboldened by the endorsement, but the outcome of the race in this Republican-leaning district remains unpredictable. Neither candidate is taking anything for granted.

Why do I care? Well, frankly, as I am locally sworn to be a neutral voice in my professional calling it is a conduit to engage my unnatural interest in elections. Plus, I just find northern New York culture fascinating – so similar to and well aware of their Canadian neighbours but also so different, sitting in a construct of governance which is utterly alien constitutionally. You know, I only learned this morning from my cousin in Boston as well as a US soldier in Afghanistan (Facebook is weird somedays) that in the US to give out a bag of chips on Halloween is an insult. Then, you know, its an hour away so why not and, finally, I have to do some vintage baseball research on that big 1874 Watertown tournament not to mention good beer needs to be bought and am combining interests.

But what is my plan? I only learned yesterday that this story is now attracting the international press. Maybe I will get interviewed by the Czech press for the Canadian position. What would I say?