25 Years Ago in Bonac Sports: 08.30.18

August 19, 1993

The pen again proved mightier than the palette knife Saturday as the Writers won the Artists-Writers Game for the first time in three years.

Seven homers, steady pitching, and some heads-up defense helped the Writers to their 9-6 victory. The win made it 17 for the Scribblers to 8 for the Etchers in the 25 years that the game has been played as a benefit.

. . . Howard Stringer, of CBS-TV, who was in the broadcast booth with Peter Stone, the playwright, Sherrye Henry, the radio personality, and Elaine Benson, the gallery owner, drew a laugh when he asked anyone on the field with actual skills to leave. Still, it was serious business.

. . . When the next batter lofted a fly ball to shallow left that was caught by Ken Auletta, the syndicated columnist and chronicler of greed in the political and financial worlds, Alec Baldwin took off for the plate. The Writers’ captain rifled a throw to Jay McInerney that was on the money. Baldwin dove head-first into the slim catcher’s midsection, bowling him over, but McInerney, who had made the tag, held on. “That is officially,” Stringer said, “a writer’s block.” — Jennifer Peltz

Fred’s Big Guns dispatched Tipperary Inn, the two-time defending East Hampton Town men’s slow-pitch softball league champion, by scores of 13-4 and 13-9 in a semifinal round series this past week. 

Tipperary could have retired the Terry King Cup with a third-straight championship, but was thoroughly beaten by the younger Guns. Rob Marto, the Inn’s chief home run threat, provided a ray of hope when he tied Friday’s game at 9-9 with a grand slam home run in the sixth inning, but the Guns came back fiercely with four runs in the top of the seventh, putting the game and the series away.

. . . Marto was heard to say, as he reached home plate after his grand slam, “They ain’t nothin’.” He was wrong. The Guns are something.

August 26, 1993

Joe Dooley, a Civil Service trainer who has been testing lifeguards on the East End since 1959, stood in front of 50 young swimmers last Thursday at East Hampton’s Main Beach, yelling through a bullhorn. Turning to the crowd, he boomed, “Ladies and gentlemen, these are some of the finest lifeguards in the U.S.A.!”

Among them was Robin Streck, of East Hampton, one of about five women taking the grueling test.

This summer, East Hampton Town has employed more women to guard swimmers on its ocean and bay beaches than ever before. Eight young women are ocean-certified, and at least five are working at East Hampton ocean beaches.

. . . Robin, who was recertified last Thursday and is a guard at Main Beach, practiced for the test with a 220-pound friend, Tom Cooper. As it happened, she was paired in the test with a 180-pounder, whom she had to carry out of the water and up the beach several times.

. . . Over all, she said, her male colleagues have been very supportive — it’s the bathers who have given her a hard time. — Sarah Koenig

Only one team, Fred’s Big Guns, was left standing following a shootout Friday at the Terry King ball field that decided the East Hampton Town men’s slow-pitch softball league’s final playoff series.

When the dust cleared, it was the Guns 19, Bistrian Gravel 16, a hard-earned victory that gave the Guns the championship three games to one.

. . . “Who’s better than us?” the jubilant Guns asked of each other as they received the handsome Terry King Cup from Rich Schneider. Answer: “No one!”

No one in this league, in this season, at any rate. The Guns, as was the case all summer long, simply had too much power for the opposition, even for the stiff opposition that Bistrian Gravel provided. 

Nine West’s two-hour “World of the Horse” celebration on the Hampton Classic’s opening day will feature a parade of breeds that will include an Arabian costume group, Roman and trick riders, miniature horses, Icelandic horses, Paso Finos, Bashkir Curlys, Andalusians, Lipizzaners, and Percherons.