Artists vs. Writers Game Saturday
By Jack Graves
(Aug. 13, 2009) Leif Hope still can’t get it straight, but you could look it up.
It would seem commonsensical that the Artists, the allegedly blithe paletteers, would be brushed aside more times than not by the driven Writers in their annual clash at East Hampton’s Herrick Park. In fact, Hope, the annual agon’s impresario, said during a conversation over the weekend that he had a gut feeling that “the Writers win 6 out of every 10 times.”
 Jack Graves
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But, in reality, with last year’s 4-2 win, the Artists evened the count at 10-10 in games played over the past 21 years — one having ended in a tie.
While this year’s poster by Walter Bernard, alluding to President Barack Obama’s famous campaign poster, has “Hope” in block letters under a portrait of him at bat, Hope has no intention of bringing about change. The Artists are intending, he said, to make it three in a row.
“If you were to ask me for a prediction,” he said, “I would say the Artists would win if the Game were about character. . . . The Writers are greatly deficient in that respect. You know, they played a fisherman one year, and when we asked them how he qualified as a writer, they said, ‘He fills out his own tax returns.’ ”
Meanwhile, Hope said he had recently asked Boomer Esiason, the former Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets, and Arizona Cardinals left-handed quarterback, if he would play, “and he said yes.”
Asked if he would claim him for the Artists’ already-powerful lineup, Hope said, “He wielded a mean brush on the football diamond, so yes, I’d say he was an artist — if he can play softball, that is.”
Esiason, now a commentator on television and radio, played for East Islip High School before going to the University of Maryland. Should he play for the Artists — the Game is to be played on Saturday at Herrick at 3 p.m., preceded by batting practice at 1 and a home run hitting contest at 2 — Esiason would follow in the formidable footsteps of other former Jets Wesley Walker and Marty Lyons, who still holds the record for the longest Artists-Writers Game home run ever hit, over one of the nets in the tennis courts abutting the Ladies Village Improvement Society’s property.
Hope hopes the home run hitting contest, from 2 to 2:40, will be a crowd-pleaser. “It will probably be four of our guys against four of theirs. I expect their guys will include Richard Wiese, Bill Collage, and Lee Minetree. We’ll have Boomer, Ed McCarthy, John Longmire, and Tom Clohessy.”
Alec Baldwin is expected to show, “though he doesn’t know yet whether he will play or umpire,” Hope said. “Jerry Seinfeld and Billy Joel have been asked, but we’ve gotten no response. Chevy Chase won’t be coming because he’s making a movie. Lori Singer will be there, and maybe [Representative] Tim Bishop. He’s a good player. He played third base for us last year, the whole game. He passes the Artists’ character test.”
Often, Hope fields an all-female lineup for an inning or two, but this year, he said, “too much has been going on. I haven’t had a chance to get one together.”
Bert Sugar, the boxing writer, and James Lipton of the Emmy Award-winning “Inside the Actors Studio,” along with Juliet Papa of the radio station WINS, will be among the Writers. Among the umpires will be Ben Bradlee, Dan Rattiner, and Jean Reno, a French actor.
Mort Zuckerman, the publishing and real estate mogul, is expected to pitch for the Writers, and Joe Sopiak, last year’s most valuable player, is expected to be on the mound for the Artists.
Game time, as aforesaid, is 3 p.m. The rain date is the following Saturday, Aug. 22.
Now in its sixth decade, the Game’s net proceeds are divided among the East Hampton Day Care Center, Phoenix House, and East End Hospice. The suggested contribution is $10.