| Veterans Cup Vintage Base Ball Tournament in Boerne, Texas Nov. 10, 11, 2007 |
On Veterans’ Day weekend, the Boerne Agricultural Museum hosted the first annual Veterans’ Cup Vintage Base Ball Tournament. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by a veteran of the original Boerne White Sox, Elmer Bergmann. Mr. Bergmann played for the team in the 1930s and 1940s. On Saturday, two games were played between the Boerne White Sox and the Buffalo Gap Chips from Abilene, with the Sox falling to the state champion Chips in both matches. However, on Sunday, the Sox rallied to defeat the ad-hoc Boerne All Stars in two games. Aggressive fielding on Saturday is credited for keeping the much more experienced Abilene club from scoring more than three runs in either game despite their sixteen hits in the first meeting and nine in the second. In the first game, the Chips scored three times while the Sox crossed the plate once and the Chips goose egged the Sox in the second game of the double header while scoring three runs again. On Sunday, the Boerne All Stars, a local team comprised of board members of the Boerne Youth Athletics Association and parents of the players on the Khaos baseball team (from the Select Baseball League). The All Stars donned vintage style uniforms and took to the field to try their hand at 1860 rules base ball but soon learned that playing with skills acquired in the twenty first century did little to help compete with players practiced with gloveless catching and swinging the heavy wooden nineteenth century bats. However, they quickly picked up on to the notion of catching a fly ball after one bounce to make an out and worked to apply that concept to foul tics made by Sox hitters. But even being quick studies, the All Stars could not match the skills of the White Sox, and although their hitting in the first game was on par with the Sox (7 to 8), they were outscored four to two. By the second game, the White Sox, filled with grilled hot dogs and surrounded by the musical ambiance of real old time baseball (The Boerne Village Band), the Sox made twenty hits (to the All Star’s four) and came home nine times, six more than the fledgling All Stars. The spirit and camaraderie of vintage base ball was evident the whole weekend with teams good- naturedly jeering and cheering their opponents and the spectators getting into the act root, root, rooting for their favorites just as in the old days. |
| The Boerne White Sox Host 1860 Rules Tournament |
| The ceremonial first pitch was made by Elmer Bergmann, a pitcher for the original Boerne Mustangs in the 1930s and '40s. He is presented with the ball by Boerne catcher Dave "Lemonade" Kovac. |
| The White Sox and the Chips pose for team pictures following their games on Saturday. |
| "Is this Heaven?" "Close...It's Texas!" |
| I finally caught up with the Chips at a time when I had my restored 19th century 8x10 view camera on hand. |
