So
you think baseball season is over
in St. Louis?
Think again, my rawhide friends.
Two local baseball squads will
meet this weekend to play a game
for 30 hours and six minutes. That
would break the Guinness World
Records mark and bring new meaning
to the word "rawhide."
The game starts at 8 a.m. Saturday
and, if the players hold up, will
not end until 4:30 p.m. Sunday,
breaking the world record by more
than two hours.
"After that, we'll need a few days to repair our arms, since our average age
is 41," said Steve Pona, 39, who helped organize the event. "And we'll need
a few days to repair our marriages, since the general reaction from the wives
is: 'You guys are idiots.'"
The game will be played at T.R.
Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon, Mo.,
home of the River City Rascals.
Admission is free, but a minimum
donation of $2 is requested. Concessions
stands will be open. The proceeds
will go to the Gene Slay's Boys'
Club of St. Louis, located in the
Soulard neighborhood. Club executive
director Tom Wild said the money
will be used to support programs
for more than 5,000 kids in the
area.
Pona and his players hope to raise
$100,000. With the help of corporate
sponsors, they're already about
halfway there.
"Fontbonne University and Ameren Corp. have stepped up in a major way as far
as monetary donations," Pona said. "And Rawlings has donated 400 baseballs
for us to use."
Chuck Williams, 42, of Wildwood,
helped Pona organize the event
after Williams got the idea last
year.
"I read about these two softball teams in Nebraska that got together and played
a game for 30 hours and got into the Guinness book," Williams said. "I thought,
what the heck? We could beat that."
So Williams and Pona, who play
in a 38-and-older baseball league
in St. Louis, asked other geezers
in their league if they'd be willing
to risk a torn rotator cuff or
a pulled hamstring to take a run
at the record. They were swamped.
"We got something like 150 people who wanted to take part," Williams said.
But the folks from Guinness are
sticklers about the rules. Each
team can have only 20 players,
and no one else can play, Williams
explained. Anyone who leaves the
field grounds can't come back.
Anyone who gets injured can't be
replaced. Players cannot switch
rosters, and teams must field at
least eight players.
What about sleep?
"We'll have air mattresses and sleeping bags in the clubhouse," Williams said.
Both teams must keep scorebooks,
and each will be scrutinized by
an official Guinness representative
who will arrive at the field Sunday
from London. And two digital clocks
must be used to time the game.
"The people at Guinness take this very seriously," Williams said.
To give the event the strongest
possible St. Louis flavor, the
squads will wear the uniforms of
two of the city's most storied,
but often forgotten, baseball clubs:
the 1928 Stars, champions of the
Negro National League, and the
1944 Browns, the only year the
much-loved but often-defeated Brownies
played in a World Series.
The bottom line for Pona?
"Where else does a baseball record like this belong than in St. Louis?"
Link to article
