Greenwood Meadows Park in Princeton, New Jersey held a unique event this past Saturday. The Historical Society of Princeton hosted an annual trip through time – their Vintage Baseball game. The game is played by rules from 1864 – differences like warnings being given before strikes and balls are called, pitchers tossing the ball to the “striker” (or batter as they’re known in today’s game) underhanded, and outs can be made after one “bound” (or after one bounce). It’s a gentleman’s game, where teams typically make their own calls – only turning to the umpire for close calls that can’t be agreed upon. This weekend, I was invited to participate in the historically accurate game.
Pulling into the parking lot, it looked like any other park in New Jersey. There was a playground, a soccer field, a walking path – staples of any public park you’ve enjoyed with your family. As I climbed the hill to the playing area, I felt as though I was sent through a time machine – almost as if I were in a reverse Pleasantville, walking from my colorful world into a game only seen in sepia tones.
The teams were already chatting and warming up as I arrived. Their uniforms, a combination of striped caps, knickers, and high socks, were found on both sides of home plate (an actual circular, flat plate). The Strakes, the newer of the two teams and the one I joined for the day, wore white button down shirts – their knickers held up by suspenders. The Neshanock, local veterans of the vintage game, wore a more official top – grey dress-like shirts, with their team emblem emblazoned on a pinned-on bib. As baseball first became organized, this was common place – much easier and cheaper to swap bibs if you moved to a new team than it was to purchase an entirely new uniform.
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Neshanock’s Club Vice President (or Manager) John Zinn spoke with me about why the rule set decided on was 1864.
“The appeal (for ’64 rules) was that ’65 was the year they changed the rule for catching the ball on the bounce (to record an out). They chose the year that had the most historical difference”
Zinn also spoke about the appeal of another rule form this year – the pitches were delivered underhanded. That welcomes a much wider variety of skill level, age, and experience to be able to participate in the games.
Equipment was as familiar as the rules themselves – the ball felt familiar, but the stitching was different as it didn’t connect all around. It was slightly larger – the internal thread less tightly wound. I approached the pile of lumber and noticed the bats were much longer and thicker by the handle than I had seen before. The game, while feeling near to what one knows today, started to reveal itself as something I would have to learn on the fly.
Umpire, Sam Bernstein, was donning a full suit and a top hat. He explained the rules to us with joy and a dearth of knowledge as if he walked off the Field of Dreams with the entire history of baseball at the tip of his tongue. Despite reading the rules before arriving, and having the most knowledgeable umpire, I still was faced with the reality of my instincts taking over.
Newtown was the home team, but as I ran onto the field there wasn’t a glove or mitt in sight. Because of the bound out rule, they were not used. During my first at-bat, I had to chance to beat out an infield grounder. Unfortunately, after I ran through the bag with a hit on my ledger, I found myself forced into a rundown. You see, If you run through the base, you can be tagged out. The game is a learning experience, but both your teammates and your opposition were more than happy to explain them along the way.
That is one thing, Vice President Zinn explained to me after the contest, that has kept his team alive for 25 years. “I think it’s people’s love of playing baseball,” he explained as the reason they’ve lasted this long. “As you get older, there aren’t many things to do – you can play in a uniform and all that, so people like it and they want to do it as long as they can. I’ve been doing it for 25 years and I love it every year because you get that joy of playing baseball, but you also meet some really nice people. The guys that get involved in this have been very pleasant. Then you actually learn history, but also enjoy history, and you can see how the game changed. I mean every year there’s a lot of the same which is the beauty of baseball. There’s always tomorrow, right? But then there’s also something new. We have new teams, we have new venues.“
I asked the Strakes manager, Kevin O’Shea, how his team came to be. They became official on a challenge of sorts. O’Shea played in what amounted to an intra-squad game from the Neshanock. After he reached out for another game in the future, he received a surprising answer:
“I asked their president (at the time), and he said ‘No.’ I said, ‘didn’t you have a great time?,’ befuddled by the answer. He heard a better response: “He’s like, ‘I’m not going to do it unless you guys have a team. It’s much more fun for everybody involved. If you guys put together a team, I’ll help you out. I’ll do whatever it takes. But, the bottom line is it’s so much better if you know you have that rivalry and stuff like that.“
Rivalry in the sense of the laid back format of the ’64 game, leads to community. That challenge from the Neshanock created the Strakes, and this weekend was the first road game in their 16 year existence. Another team is spinning off from a member of each squad, and they plan on adding home and road games to the schedule immediately. Newtown’s club has gone from one game a year to four, and are looking to expand.
O’Shea invited both new and existing players to his home after the game. I spoke to him after being welcomed into this group about what the community aspect has meant for him over the years:
“The appealing thing to me is, I really do love seeing the community. It gets me a little verklempt a little bit,” he told me while tapping his hand on his heart. “So, you stand out on the field and you take it all in…I think that like Memorial Day, for instance, it’s not just the game…we had someone right across the street raising money for charity, we’ll do 50/50s or something like that, and the community always gives so that’s awesome.“
Community was present everywhere Saturday. The team was filled was family – something unique to a more casual game. How often can you see a grown man perform in a sporting event with their fathers or grandfathers? It isn’t typically a realistic scenario in today’s game, but in a game with underhand pitching and outs recorded on bounds – ages from 25-75 participated with each other with relative ease.
On top of that, the knowledge of the history of the game was shared with fans and media outlets alike during the contest – bringing the community together as roughly 100 fans lined the boundaries of the field to take in the action for a free, family friendly event.
I asked O’Shea if he felt the impact on community, and how people come together during their games:
“It’s absolutely huge because I mean, so we’ve been in Newtown for over 30 years, but we are basically newcomers to Newtown. It’s multi-generational, and it’s great because when we’re playing these games, we’re playing with guys in their 30s and their dads are in tears on because it’s the first time that they saw their kids play together (on the same team), even though they’re 30 It’s just incredible. And it’s funny, I’ll run into people and they’ll say, ‘Oh, I saw this vintage game over in Newtown’, not even realizing that I was involved in it, so it’s great to hear, like you hear a lot of people talking really about the game, about the (Memorial Day) event, and people flock to it every year. We have kind of like a following, you know what I mean?
As the traditional community continues to change and to some extent, erode, this afternoon felt like a return to a time where the neighborhood kids and parents would get together for some fun, holding a pick up game while their families enjoyed watching the jubilance spread from their faces to across the field and beyond.
Eve Mandel, the Director of Education and Outreach at the Historical Society of Princeton spoke to me after the game about the impact on their, and other communities, the game has had:
“(The vintage baseball game) is one of our free events we do every year, and it’s great because it shows the history of the game, how the rules evolved – but it’s also just fun to watch and obviously unique when compared to watching baseball today.” She continued, “Fortunately for us, we’ve been doing it so long it runs pretty smoothly. We work with the Princeton Parks and Rec Department, which makes it even easier…The field’s always a great location for the community…So we just advertise it and put the word out and community comes. It’s a nice thing about a free event and people will stop by. I saw a couple of people here for an inning or two, they see what it’s like. And some people stayed the whole game.”
The Historical Society of Princeton also does a weekly walking tour, taking folks through historical downtown Princeton, into the less rural areas. Their future events include a 4th of July Jubilee, a Nature Hike at Institute Woods, and more. A full calendar and how to participate can be found at princetonhistory.org.
Restoration of community is an important factor in my attempts to participate in the event moving forward. It is a primary reason both teams have future events scheduled – a main reason the landscape of teams playing by such unique rules continues to expand. At a time where brotherhood with your neighbor doesn’t feel as natural as it did in 1864, the excitement around these events across the tri-state area continues to grow.
No glove, no equipment, no elite skill needed. Just engagement, the willing to learn, and a promise to embrace the unusual – a time long passed – is all you need, to join those 1864 inspired heroes as they aim to resurrect the game, and community, they highlight in their renaissance of a time once forgotten.
