Photo illustration, photos and story by Richard G. Biever

Vintage ball clubs bring the ‘past’
back to our National Pastime

A century and a half ago, gentlemen and ladies assembled on diamond-shaped fields playing a game of ball for pure pleasure. The game was a new sensation, an American creation, something called “base ball” — spelled as two words.

As the game quickly evolved, it became one word. But what a difference that space between symbolized — separating the leisurely formative game of the 1850s-60s from the competitive, professional game baseball became in the 1870s.

Thanks to groups of fun-loving good sports with an affinity for both history and our National Pastime, baseball's genteel two-worded forerunner is once again being played on village greens and fallow fields.

This early version is now called “vintage base ball.” It’s played in 16 states from Connecticut to Colorado and in one Canadian province. Vintage base ball even has its own association of more than 50 clubs. No where does interest seem stronger than here in the Midwest. In Indiana this summer, seven vintage teams are active in six counties.

Vintage ballists and umpires follow more than just the rules of the early game. Everything from equipment, uniforms, customs, language and manners attempt to replicate the time period. Vintage ballists don the long-sleeved blouses, some with neckties, and knickers or dungarees.

The ball used in a vintage game is slightly larger and softer than a modern-day baseball. Unlike the two figure-8 pieces of leather stitched together to form the modern ball, the vintage ball is just one piece of leather stitched together to form a large intersecting seam on one side. The balls are specially made to replicate the early base balls and are purchased online from companies that cater to vintage teams.

The replica jerseys worn by some of the teams are made by Amish clothing makers. Bats, like the one pictured, are often turned and marked by local craftsmen, just like in the days of yore.

Though some vintage clubs follow later rules of the late 1860s and even 1880s, most of Indiana’s clubs stick with the 1850s-60s rules. They use no mitts; players catch the ball barehanded. They utter strange words like “striker,” “hurler,” and “aces,” and every player is dubbed a nickname. Pitches are made underhanded, and fly balls can be caught in the air or on a single bound to retire the batter.

But foremost, the matches are conducted according to high standards of sportsmanship and respect for others. Players for each team compliment one another: “Well struck, sir!” is often heard from both benches on solid base knocks. No swearing, spitting, scratching, wagering, consuming of alcoholic spirits or chewing of tobacco is allowed. And the umpire's judgment is never questioned (at least out loud).

“It is a lot of fun. You get to step out of this century back to the 1858 times. It’s just totally respectful, and you get so much support from the crowds, or ‘cranks’ as we all call them,” said Jeff Casto, captain of the Door Village Prairie Dogs from LaPorte County. “It’s four hours you can get away from the worries of the world and share good times and good friends. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. It's just like when you were a kid — playing (baseball) in an empty lot.”

Playing ball in an old-fashioned manner is not a new idea. At the opening of the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1939, a game from an earlier time was played. Civil War battle re-enacting has long included ball games as part of the encampments. By the early 1980s, living history museums included old rules base ball as a regular part of their programming. Soon other teams began popping up.

Lake County’s Deep River Grinders became Indiana's first regular vintage club in 1991. Though not playing this season, Freetown Village, an African-American history museum in Indianapolis, has fielded a team on and off for many years. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Blues vintage club is playing an exhibition with locals in the Ohio River community of Madison July 31 to encourage the start of a team there. New teams are being sought all around the state to form a league.

Though many of the ballists come from baseball and softball backgrounds, experience is not a prerequisite. The game is more about sharing history and fun than it is about the outcome. “If you're a blood-and-guts softball player, I usually say ‘thanks, but no thanks,’” said Village at Winona Lake Blue Laws captain Bill “Naughty Waltz” Firstenberger when it comes to recruiting new players. “It’s more about camaraderie and having a good time.”

“We started the program here to portray the game and for everybody to have fun,” noted John Jenney, captain of the Elkhart Bonneyville Millers. “Competition always edges in there, but you’re out to do a show, really.”

The ballists play off each other and the umpire, who is as much a part of the entertainment. Vintage umpires educate spectators about the game's history and quirks as it unfolds and even provide comic relief. And all interact freely with the cranks that sometimes swell into the hundreds during festivals and celebrations.

At one recent match, umpire Rick Fedoruk halted play and fined the husband of Blue Laws Jolie “Moose” Miller a quarter after she revealed too much ankle while adjusting her long skirt during a time at bat. (Women play alongside men on vintage clubs; they just have to remember the norms of 1850s polite society and wear long skirts!)

When several male ballists on the opposing club whistled over Miller’s moment of indiscretion, the umpire fined them a quarter for enjoying the sight of Miller's ankle too much. “We have small children out here watching the game,” warned the umpire, tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Miller, a former collegiate softballer, just shook her head and smiled. “These rules are too weird,” she later muttered.

Weird. But, huzzah! What a grand and glorious old game!

Indiana’s 2004 vintage clubs

Bonneyville Millers, Bristol, est. 1999

Sponsored by Elkhart County Parks, the club takes its name from the gristmill at Bonneyville Mill County Park where it plays most of its home matches.
For info: (574) 535-6458; www.elkhartcountyparks.org/properties_locations/bonneyville_mill.htm.

Deep River Grinders, Hobart, est. 1991

Sponsored by Lake County Parks & Recreation, the club takes its name from the gristmill at Deep River Park, the club's home field.
For info: (219) 947-1958; www.geocities.com/deeprivergrinders/.

Door Village Prairie Dogs, Door Village, est. 1998

The independent club's nickname is linked to the historical idea of LaPorte County being the door to the great prairies of the West (LaPorte is French for "the door") .
For info: (219) 326-0260.

Indianapolis Blues, Greenwood, est. 2002

The independent club takes its name from an Indianapolis pro team from the 1870s. The club plays by 1868 rules at Craig Park in Greenwood.
For info: (317) 881-4149; http://indyblues.org.

Village at Winona Blue Laws, Winona Lake, est. 2002

Sponsored by The Billy Sunday Home, the club takes it name from the laws that restrict certain behaviors for religious reasons — for which Winona Lake was famous.
For info: (574) 268-0660; www.villageatwinona.com/bluelaws.asp.

Warsaw Fleetfoots, Warsaw, est. 2004

The club take its name from a semi-pro team that played in Warsaw about the time of the Civil War. Its president was Gen. Reub Williams, editor of the Northern Indianian newspaper. Today's club is sponsored by Reub Williams and Sons, owners of Warsaw's Times-Union newspaper. The team plays at the Kosciusko County fairgrounds.

White River Base Ball Club, Fishers, est. 2001

Part of Conner Prairie museum, the club plays mostly exhibition games with museum visitors using rules of 1886.
For info: (317) 776-6000; www.connerprairie.org.

TO LEARN MORE
Visit the Vintage Base Ball Association’s Web site: www.vbba.org.

Warsaw Fleetfoots “hurler” Lowell “Lefty” Hatfield tosses the ball to awaiting Blue Laws “striker” Jolie “Moose” Miller. Hatfield is a Marshall County REMC consumer; Miller is a Kosciusko REMC consumer.

Before the match, Village at Winona Lake Blue Laws captain Bill “Naughty Waltz” Firstenberger, right, goes over ground rules with visiting umpire Rick Fedoruk, of Berrien Springs, Mich., and the visiting club, the House of David Echoes. Firstenberger and Fedoruk were clarifying the foul line marked by a large tree past some shrubbery and a garden way yonder in left field.

Below: Tracey “Liver” Owen, of the Blue Laws waits his turn with the “ash.” He is a consumer of Kosciusko REMC.

Tabernacle Field, home to the Village at Winona Lake Blue Laws Vintage Base Ball Club Nine, is an open grassy lot just across the road from picturesque Winona Lake. The lot was where professional baseball-player-turned-evangelist Billy Sunday built his 7,500-seat tabernacle in the 1920s. Though the tabernacle later fell into disrepair and was demolished, the Village has undergone and continues major restoration on many historical sites, like the Billy Sunday home. The base ball club is just another aspect of the restoration of the historic community. The Blue Laws hosted a three-team round-robin tournament with the neighboring Warsaw Fleetfoots and the House of David Echoes, a vintage team from Benton Harbor, Mich., over Memorial Day weekend, and hosted the Fleetfoots and the Elkhart Bonneyville Millers in another tourney during the Billy Sunday Festival in June. The vehicles parked along a street in right field were described as “animals” or “locomotives that lost their way” by the 1850s-era ballists; they wouldn’t have known about cars and trucks.

Jolie “Moose” Miller legs it to first base. Though women play vintage ball, too, (just as they did in the mid-1800s), they are required to wear the long skirts of the day. During the match, the umpire fined Miller’s husband, watching from the side, a quarter when he ruled she revealed too much of her ankle and bloomer when she came up to bat.

First baseman for the Warsaw Fleetfoots, Mike “Wax” Beezley, clutches the ball in his bare left hand after making the grab of the throw and putout of the runner. In vintage base ball, mitts and other gear are not allowed. A batter, or “striker,” is out when a fly is caught in the air or on one bound off the ground. Also, strikers cannot overrun first or they can be put out.

In vintage base ball, a run, or “ace,” is not officially scored until the “ballist” who has safely crossed home plate goes to the tallykeeper’s table, asks the tallykeeper to tally his ace for his team, and strikes a bell — as Bill “Stick” Lehman does for the Blue Laws. The scorekeeper is Marie Owen: a volunteer at the Billy Sunday Home, wife of Blue Laws ballist Tracey Owen and a Kosciusko REMC consumer.

Another base ball tradition that’s honored by today’s clubs is the post-match meal the hosts prepare for the visiting club.