Oregon’s team finishes strong at World Tournament of Historic Base Ball

DEARBORN, Michigan – After 24 hours of experiencing the thrill and agony of “base ball” Oregon’s team found themselves locked in another extra inning battle for the Second Class Championship at the 20th annual World Tournament of Historic Base Ball.

Sunday started with the Ganymedes beating the Rochester Grangers of Rochester Hills, Michigan, 21-7 in a 9:30 a.m. game to advance to the 12:30 p.m. championship where they faced the Walker Tavern Wheels of Brooklyn, Michigan.

Vintage rules base ball (spelled as two words in the 1800s) is played with authentic-looking uniforms, no gloves, with “gentlemanly” conduct strongly encouraged. The tournament games are played on two fields at Greenfield Village, part of the Henry Ford Museum.

“This morning’s game was played as it should be,” Captain Mark Herman said before the championship game. “The Grangers were a worthy opponent.”

That game was a stark difference in sportsmanship seen in the Ganymedes’ last game on Saturday. The Grangers followed 1860s demeanor – no arguing of calls and no profanity. That was very different from the vocal Flat Rock Bear Clan who came from behind to beat the Ganymedes on Saturday.

On Sunday in their championship game, the Ganymedes jumped out to an 8-0 lead and held that until the third inning when the Wheels scored three runs in the fourth and five in the fifth to take a 10-8 lead.

But the Ganymedes scored four in their half of the fifth to take a 12-10 lead.

The Wheels scored two more in the sixth to tie it at 12-12. Each team scored three runs in the seventh inning, but the Wheels exploded for seven runs in the eighth inning. A couple of dropped balls by the Ganymedes, resulted in a 22-17, eight inning loss. Vintage base ball games at the tournament are played for seven innings or 90 minutes.

Brett “Shifty” Rogers, the Ganymedes’ shortstop and 10-year veteran of the team, said he was pleased with the team’s effort during the tournament despite the late-inning losses.

“We played hard. We had a couple of guys injured, but we battled through that,” the 37-year-old said. “We had a couple of tough losses, but I we had a good weekend. We were in every game.”

Herman echoed that sentiment after the nail-biting loss on Sunday. “I’m really proud of the team. They played well. We scored a lot of runs and like Brett said, we were in every game.”

Saturday was a day of ups and downs for the Ganymedes, winning their first game and then losing their second by one run in extra innings.

In their opening game, the Ganymedes got off to a slow start against the Columbus Buckeyes, but raced back to win the game 12-6 with line-drive hits and timely catches.

“When we were behind early, I thought oh no, not again,” said Herman referring to last year’s winless showing. “But then we started hitting the ball into the gaps, everything turned around. We had great team defense and hitting for the 11 Ganymedes players in this one.”

Next up was the Flat Rock Bear Clan, a vocal and boisterous team from Flat Rock, Michigan.

In the last time slot of the day, 3:30 p.m., the Ganymedes jumped out to a 12-1 lead through 5 innings and looked to be en route to a 2-0 day. But that began to change in the sixth inning when Flat Rock scored seven runs to make it 12-8.

The Ganymedes added a run in the seventh inning, but Flat Rock scored four more in the bottom of the inning with two outs and then gave up the final out to force another full inning despite reaching the 90-minute time limit for the game.

The game was sprinkled with modern-baseball emotion by Flat Rock including complaints about the ball, arguments about base running calls, and disagreements over plays at the plate.

But the Ganymedes still held a one-run lead, 13-12, going into the final inning of play, but went scoreless in their at bat.

They still held the one-run margin, but Flat Rock put a runner on first with no outs. The Ganymedes looked like they were still destined to win when Rogers fielded a “well struck ball,” tossed it to second baseman Justin “Butter” Early for the force at second and Early threw to Steve “Scoop” Tilton at first for the second out.

But Flat Rock loaded the bases on a couple of Ganymede miscues and drove in the winning run to win 14-13.

“What a heart breaker for Oregon committing two two-out errors to give the Bear Clan the victory,” said Herman.

“You’ve got to play defense out here,” said Early, referring to the tournament. “We caught balls in the first game on Saturday, but we didn’t in our second.”

The tournament was held inside Greenfield Village, an attraction next to the Henry Ford Museum that features historic 19th and early 20th century buildings items, and structures collected by Henry Ford.

Model A and Model T cars and horse drawn wagons buzz by on the village streets as visitors stroll past a steam railroad yard, farms and artisan shops.

Some base ball spectators, like Mikki Heng of Oregon, wore 1800s clothing to cheer on their team.

Herman won’t know until later this year if the Ganymedes will be invited to the 2024 tournament.

Members of the 2023 Ganymedes Base Ball‘s 2023 World Tournament team were: Michael “Mikey B” Benesh; Aaron “Two Bits” Berg; Eric “The Liberator” Berg; Justin “Butter” Early; Matt “Old Hickory” Gecan; Tyler “Timber King” Grant; Mark “Iron Chest” Herman, Captain; Tom “Dandy” Lesniak; Ryan “Morty” Mortlock; Brett “Shifty” Rogers; “Dollar” Bill Roschi; Kevin “The Kid” Stafford; Tim “Two Base “Strohecker; Mike “T-Bag” Thomas; Jay “All in” Throw; and Steve “Scoop” Tilton.

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Ganymede's Justin Early slides to catch a throw against Flat Rock on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023 at the 20th Annual World Tournament of Historic Base Ball. (Earleen Hinton/Shaw Media)