Providence Earns the Churn at 5th Annual Cowtown Scramble

Kingston Guards and Providence Grays captains discuss ground rules amid a blaze of autumn sunshine at the Cowtown Scramble Vintage Base Ball Festival last weekend in Bovina. 

BOVINA - Organizers of last weekend’s Cowtown Scramble Vintage Base Ball Festival, now in its fifth year on the grounds of the former MacPherson dairy farm outside the hamlet of Bovina Center, have selected

the Providence Grays for this year's “Cream of the Crop” award. The award, an antique butter churn adorned with each year’s winners, is given to recognize a team’s sportsmanship, determination and teamwork - not necessarily the team with the best record in the games. 

The Grays are a historical team now in its 26th season of revival. Among other accolades, the Grays won the first “World Championship” in 1884 behind 59-game winning pitcher Charles “Ol’ Hoss” Radbourne. The team also counts Babe Ruth among its alumni who played for the Club in 1913 before debuting with the Red Sox the following season. 

In their first year of playing both days of the event, they helped organize the festival behind the scenes and came ready to play. On day one, Providence started strong with a win over the Brickmaker Base Ball Club of Saugerties before dropping an instant classic against a program coming into its own, the Kingston Guards. The notorious New England tough guys - known for their straight talk and hard-nosed baseball - took it in stride and gave a nod to the scrappy Hudson Valley youngsters.

On day two, the Grays - dropped another heartbreaker to the Rising Sun BBC of Maryland by a score of 10-9, and finished with a win over the Hamden Nine. The Grays are one of the most traveled teams in vintage base ball, and are captained by Brian Travers, one of the energetic founding fathers of northeast vintage ball, and Johnny Carlevale, he of the aforementioned straight talk.

Each year, the Delaware County Vintage Base Ball Association - all members of the Bovina, Fleischmanns and Hamden clubs host this event as a capstone of their seasons with support from the Livestock Foundation. This year was the most widely attended by eleven clubs from six states and throngs of spectators turned out to watch men and women compete on three fields. For more information and photos from the event visit delcovintagebaseball.org/festival.