We are willing to lay some sort of odds that these fellas who made up the Greenport Baseball Club in 1907 didn't make a whole lot of money. Just a few months ago there was a World Series that produced drama by the inning, with payrolls that more and likely eclipsed the gross product of the North Fork in 1907 many times over, and the Cards and Texas guys are from what are called
secondary markets. We are in a secondary market as well and in 1907 they may have felt a little bit out in "left field" as we do in this pre-spring time.
So this ten member club with a "manager" (top middle - how fitting) showed up probably because it was a fun thing to do and maybe they passed the hat in the stands. Maybe Sterling Bottling gave them a beer afterwards. We don't know but club baseball, something of a rarity now, lives and thrives elsewhere and it is really something.
Some of us have lived elsewhere where businesses and factories, groups like the Elks or Masons, and towns like Greenport in 1907, field teams, put them in uniforms and devoted summer nights or weekend days to the pursuit of the ground ball. One of us played third base for Willman's Furniture in the Cincinnati 10-12 league years ago (many years we might add) and we played three games a week and lost in the city championship 8-6. We very much remember it like any of these fellas, non-living we are pretty sure, would remember their season, their key game, who was on first......
Now that spring training has started but with no games scheduled it is just another Saturday with chores and errands, but be assured that some poor fella will have to do so remembering Cincinnati 50+ years ago, the crisp baselines, a dugout with a water 'bubbler', and a real deal, paid umpire yelling "play ball".
