Vintage base ball

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vintage Base Ball is baseball presented as being 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 baseball 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, and in fact many teams are direct copies of teams that existed in the late 1800s. The styles and speech of the 1800s are also used while playing vintage base ball.

The game's name is typically written "base ball" rather than "baseball", as that was the spelling used before the 1880s.

[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 of years prior to the 1880s, 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. This lack of gloves, the underhand pitching and other rules make vintage baseball similar to the sport of British Baseball.

Because limited descriptive evidence exists to illustrate how live gameplay may have looked or sounded, researchers and vintage "ballists," or ballplayers, engage in an ongoing interpretive discourse about how the game may have actually appeared. There is continuous debate about such points of play 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.

One commonly held interpretation is that gameplay was marked by a spirit of gentlemanly sportsmanship. 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.

The politeness and sportsmanship observed in these games are more in keeping with the early days of baseball, which was considered a "gentleman's game". As the game progressed into professionalism in the 1870s, and money (and thus winning) became a primary motivator, the 19th century game became marked by rough play and cheating, which was relatively easy to accomplish, due to the lone umpire who might fail to see such infractions.

The Vintage Base Ball Association 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 United States 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, Hand down - put out or batter out
Dew Drop - slow pitch
Dish - home plate
Foul tic - foul ball
Four Baser - home run
Garden - outfield
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] See also

[edit] Organizations

CALIFORNIA

Bay Area Vintage Base Ball (five teams: San Jose Dukes, Santa Clara Stogies, San Francisco Pacifics, Oakland Colonels, Fremont Aces)
Santa Clara Stogies
Gold Country Vintage Base Ball (five teams: The Crushers, The Miners, The Bandits, The Highlanders, The Preston Nine)

COLORADO