Vintage Baseball 4/29/18

Deep River Grinders, April 29, 1858

(for a link to my TARDIS companion/bride's blog, click here)

Three "HUZZAHS" for this most excellent time in the year 1858, or there about. When you have a TARDIS you can go anywhere, though I can never depend on the exact time of the landing. So I may be off a few years. 

I wanted to observe Vintage Baseball, and landed in Hobart of all places at the Deep River Park. Playing this day were the Deep River Grinders of Hobart, and the Indianapolis Blues of Indianapolis.

When I materialized the Grinders were on the field warming up. After them the Blues. This is a Genteel sport they said. Nobody questioned the umpire's judgement. They addressed one another with Sir, hinting at their equal and genteel status. They played with the hard baseball bare handed, frequently catching it one handed showing their level of skill.

Learning the early days of this sport in school, one could not imagine the real thing. Yet you heard words today that for some reason were familiar, probably from the education. Striker (batter), willow (bat) aces (runners), one hand (1 strike out) and two hand. I heard the word crank and first thought they were talking about my horseless TARDIS, then realized crank was used to identify fans of the game. Then I would hear "show Ginger", so I looked around and did not see Ginger. So the jest was on me, for it meant "play harder".

The striker is out when the ball flies fair or foul, and when it is caught on the fly or one hop. The striker can also be out should they run past first base and be tagged for over running the base. The ball must be pitched underhand in a fair way, and as near to the center of home. The striker I guess could keep standing there until they see the ball they want to hit, and on the other hand I would imagine if you did that too much the umpire would question the standard of sportsmanship.

There were various other rules like first, second, and third basemen need to be standing near their base. That a player crossing home safely needs to ring the bell and announce his name so that the scorekeeper is aware of the run for recording. Then the various home rules, like when the ball ends up in the creek, or when it has not hit the ground and is on an object making it fair play as if it were still in the air. Or at least that was my interpretation.

So I took these photographs back in 1858 then lost them during the fun. They did not turn up again until this past Sunday when I went looking for them. Some were a bit weathered like the first photograph above. Instead of the box camera I used in 1858 (see last 1858 photograph), I used the current century digital camera to photograph kids playing baseball at the same location this past Sunday. Enjoy!

 

 

 

First throw . . .

First swing . . .

My friend from 1858, Sandra, though I am still older . . .

I must write, I am impressed with the ball hitting and base running of these ball players of 1858. They took pride in every action, whether expertly performed or blundered.

 

Your Photojournalist

Time Traveler

Wes Bushby

Children's time to pay ball . . .

Indianapolis Blues

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Deep River Grinders

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Deep River County Park

9410 Old Lincoln Hwy

Hobart, IN  46342

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Vintage Base Ball Association
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