In many ways, the championship game of the Nippon Club’s 40th annual President Cup baseball tournament was no different from a big game in any other Sunday league. Men who might wear coats and ties working as bankers, accountants and engineers during the week put on different uniforms, playing before a few dozen friends and relatives in the shadow of the concrete train trestles on Randalls Island.
A third baseman wore a clunky knee brace. Other players had paunches and receding hairlines. A number of others dived, rolled or tumbled in the dirt — intentionally or not — in pursuit of the championship trophy.