Vintage Base Ball
Vintage Base Ball is baseball played by rules and customs from an earlier period in the sport's history. Games are typically played using rules and uniforms from the 1850s, 1860s and 1880s. Vintage base ball is not only a competitive game, but also a reenactment of baseball life similar to American Civil War reenactment. Players dress in uniforms appropriate to the time period, with many uniforms bearing the style and logos of teams that existed in the late 1800s. The styles and speech of the 1800s are also used while playing vintage base ball.
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[edit] Rules and game play
Although rules differ according to which playing year is being used, there are some mostly common rules differences between the modern game and vintage base ball. In rules years prior to the 1880's, the ball is pitched underhand in a manner suitable to the batter, or "striker". There are typically no fences as base ball is mostly played in fields and green spaces. However, obstacles (e.g. trees, building, etc.) often come into play. In many of the rules sets the ball can be played off of one bounce to get a striker out. Catching the ball can be very difficult because no gloves are used.
Because limited descriptive evidence exists to illustrate what live gameplay may have looked or sounded like, reseachers and vintage "ballists", or ballplayers, engage in an ongoing interprative discourse about how the game may have actually appeared. Interpretations of points of play such as such as how frequently runners would steal bases, when sliding first became common and what it might have looked like, how strikers would hold or swing the bat, how the umpire's authority evolved, and how players would have conducted themselves on the field are continuously debated and refined. One commonly held interpretation is that gameplay was marked by a spirit of gentlemanly sportsmanship. Despite the insistence on "gentlemanly play" among modern vintage clubs, the true 19th Century game was marked by rough play and cheating was common so long as the umpire failed to see infractions. Fewer teams in the 1900's and the lack of a players union left little room for "gentlemanly play" in the true old time game. Contemporary vintage ballists will often observe this custom through friendly gestures such as cheering good plays made by opposing players, assisting umpires with making calls at bases, and conducting organized cheers for opposing teams (and often for the umpire and "cranks", or fans) at the conclusion of a match. Though these pleasantries demonstrate good sportsmanship, they are far from historically accurate.
The Vintage Base Ball Association ( [1] ) is an international association of vintage ball clubs which promotes the game through conferences, publications, message boards and listservs, educational resources, and links to leagues, clubs, tournaments and related activities in the U.S. and Canada.
[edit] Glossary
- Ace or Tally - run; crossing home base
- Apple, pill, horsehide, onion - the ball
- Artist - proficient player
- Baller, Ballist - player
- Basetender - an infielder
- Bench - manager or coach
- Blind - no score
- Blooper, banjo hit - weak fly ball, "Texas leaguer"
- Boodler - ungentlemanly maneuver
- Bound - bounce
- Bowler, hurler, thrower, feeder - pitcher
- Club, Nine - team
- Cranks (or Throng) - fans
- Daisy Cutter - sharp grounder
- Dead or Hand Dead - put out or batter out
- Dew Drop - slow pitch
- Dish - home plate
- Foul tic - foul ball
- Four Baser - homerun
- Ginger - enthusiastic play
- Ground - field
- Huzzah! - hooray
- Leg it - run swiftly
- Match - game
- Midfielder - centerfielder
- Muckle - power hitter
- Muff or Duff - error
- Muffin - enthusiastic but unskilled player
- Pitcher's Point - pitchers mound or rubber
- Player Dead - out
- Pluck - fine strike or play
- Plugging (or Soaking) the Runner - throwing the ball at runner to put him out (illegal after 1845)
- Rover - shortstop
- Scouts - outfielders
- Show a little ginger - play harder or smarter
- Sky Ball, Skyer - flyball
- Sky scraper - A high Pop Fly
- Stinger - hard hit ball
- Stir your stumps - run fast/hustle
- Striker - hitter
- Striker to the line - batter up
- Talleykeeper - scorekeeper
- Three Hands Dead - 3 outs, side retired
- Whitewash - team held scoreless for a match or at-bat
- Willow – bat
[edit] Organizations
- Ohio Village Muffins
- Melrose (MA) Pondfeilders Vintage Base Ball Club
- Chicago Salmon Vintage Base Ball Club
- Flemington Neshanock Base Ball Club
- Atlantic Base Ball Club
- Mutual Base Ball Club Of New York
- 19th Century Baseball at Old Bethpage NY
- Colorado Vintage Base Ball Association
- Boston Colonials VBBC
- Chesapeake and Potomac Base Ball Club
- Kent Base Ball Club
- Essex Base Ball Club
- Columbus Capitals
- Chesapeake and Potomac Base Ball Club
- Hartford Senators VBBC
- Newtown Sandy Hook Base Ball Club
