A friendly game of baseball, 1861 style

Like Ray Kinsella looking out at his cornfield, Edward Baker had a vision during a visit to Fort Trumbull State Park in New London. I looked down at this field and I said, has anyone ever played baseball here? That idea ten years ago led Baker, then Executive Director of the New London County Historical Society, to found a vintage baseball team. Part of the motivation for getting the club started under the sponsorship of the New London County Historical Society was so that we could get some younger volunteers involved in the Historical Society and to share history in a different way than what we usually do. We play by rules from 1861 and there are several major differences. First is that the pitcher has to pitch underhand. Balls caught on one bounce are out. We don't have gloves. Those started coming in the 1870s, so we play barehanded. You've got to take a little pain with the broken fingers and stuff. Just the ability to be able to reach down onto the ground without a glove. When you have that glove on, it adds another six or seven inches when you bend down for those ground balls. You need to have some give in your hands. You need to bring it toward your body. If your hands are going toward the ball and you're trying to catch it, there's a very strong chance it's just going to bounce off. Clearly in the middle of the 19th century, the men's club aspect of baseball was really primary. I've read some newspaper accounts of a match between two clubs in 1865 here in New London. The newspaper spends more time talking about the arrival of the club at the wharf on the steamboat that came from Mystic. Then the parade of the teams from the wharf to downtown. Then the dinner after the games and the speeches that were made after the games. It was clearly, this is just a game and we're going to have fun and we're here to be together. I think that is an important part of what is the game's attraction today. Back then, it was still considered a gentleman's game. If you got called out at a base and the player knew that you were safe, he would raise his hand and say, Mr. Umpire, I'd like to call him safe. It's not like today's baseball, the big business. We like to get back to when it was a friendly game and the camaraderie was there. Three cheers for our famed baseball club. Hip hip. Huzzah!