The 75th Artists and Writers Softball Game and Ellen’s Run are coming up this weekend — the Game at Herrick Park in East Hampton on Saturday afternoon, the run at the Southampton Intermediate School on Sunday morning.
If the Artists-Writers Game is anything like last year’s, which ended with the Writers scoring 17 runs in the ninth inning to win 19-18, a herculean comeback unrivaled in Major League Baseball history — the Detroit Tigers having scored only 10 runs in the ninth to defeat the Milwaukee Brewers on April 5, 1901 — the fans at the newly-redone ball field ought to be greatly entertained. The Game, whose participants since 1948 have included some of the leading lights in the art and literary worlds, benefits four worthy causes: the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, Phoenix House, the Retreat, and East End Hospice.
Ronnette Riley, who makes sure the Artists bat in order, and who tries — often without success — to make sure that the Writers do, says $10 will get you into the annual agon, though larger donations will be gratefully accepted. “There will be T-shirts and at least three raffle prizes given out every inning,” she said, with prizes including Hamptons Film Festival tickets and Yankees tickets. “One hundred percent of the gate and the money spent on raffle tickets go to the charities, so we’re hoping everyone will step up. Not everybody knows this, but all of our beneficiaries provide volunteers to help us run the game. Phoenix House sets up, cleans up, and barbecues the burgers; the hospice sells T-shirts and sells tickets, and volunteers from the Retreat and the Eleanor Whitmore Center also help. We’ve also got things for the kids, a face painter, a balloon person. . . . We want this to be a family affair.”
Last year’s super-surrealistic finish — a historic comeback that almost wasn’t, given that the Writers’ co-managers, Ken Auletta and Mike Lupica, had wanted to throw in the towel after eight, with the Artists up 18-2 — was capped by “the shot heard ‘round the Reutershan parking lot,” a two-out, walk-off double authored by the Jewish Center’s rabbi, Josh Franklin, that plated the tying and winning runs.
“No good deed goes unpunished,” said Riley, who — taking pity on the Writers and expecting the ninth, 10th, and 11th hitters to come up in the bottom of the ninth — made a pitching change only to see the Writers’ Murderers Row step to the plate instead. That’s when the fun began.
Still sticking in her craw, she said, is the fact that the Artists could have come away with an 18-14 win had the base umpire’s out call on a two-out force play at second base not been overturned by the balls-and-strikes umpire, who, she said, had been besieged by importuning Writers.
Batting practice is to begin at noon on Saturday, with the Game to begin at 2.
For a Good Cause
Ellen’s Run, in its 28th year, also raises money for a good cause: breast cancer prevention, treatment, and after-care. The Ellen Hermanson Breast Center at Stony Brook-Southampton Hospital offers state-of-the-art services that Dr. Julie Ratner, the late Ellen Hermanson’s sister who heads the foundation in her name, says are as good as those found at urban medical centers.
The race begins at 9 a.m., rain or shine, with online registration open at bit.ly/3KB3OVF through the start time. The cost is $50.
“We keep all the money we raise here,” she said last week. “We may not be the wealthiest foundation, but we have become very effective. . . . We’re in partnership with four local women’s organizations, OLA [Organizacion Latino Americana], the Retreat, the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, and the Shinnecock Indian Health Clinic, who help underserved and economically-challenged breast cancer survivors with the costs of transportation, child care, food, heating bills . . . life’s necessities. Often these women are heads of families whose income is worse still because they’re fighting a terrible disease.”
“Transportation is the biggest need out here. Taxis are very expensive, Uber too, very expensive. Most of these women don’t have cars and getting to treatment has an effect on someone’s life. Our goal, our mission is to provide state-of-the-art quality breast health care. Mammograms are just part of it. You need to have a wholistic approach. It goes beyond diagnosis and treatment.”
“The foundation gave out $360,000 in grants for projects here last December. . . . We need to raise all the money we can so we can give away $360,000, and we do so through several events: a spring party that we had in April, the annual Ellen’s Run, and a gala we’re holding this year at the Bridgehampton Tennis and Surf Club on Aug. 26. We’re honoring two fabulous people there, Victoria Schneps, the president and co-publisher of Schneps Media, and Dr. Edna Kapenhas, the breast cancer center’s medical director.”
As for the race (won last year by Sergey Avramenko of Hampton Bays), Ratner said, “It’s always a celebration. We want the elite runners to have good times, but it’s always about the breast cancer survivors, the survivors and thrivers. Breast cancer is just one part of who they are. These women are role models who have gotten through such a difficult time with grace and grit. They’re so supportive of each other. Last year, we had 38 survivors. Come out and have fun knowing you are doing something wonderful.”
