Flemington
Neshanock Base Ball Club
If you would like a 19th Century Base Ball Match at your next event,
Please contact us at
neshanock@earthlink.net
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Flemington
Neshanock Base Ball Club
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America’s
Past Time The
Story of Vintage Base Ball by
Danny “Little Brooklyn” Shaw 5th
grade “CRACK!!!”
sounded the bat as the batter hit the base ball.
“It’s over the left fielders head and he gets away with a double”,
said the announcer. Does this sound
familiar? If this does sound
familiar, then I’m sure you know the game of base ball.
Base ball hasn’t always been the same.
In fact, in the 19th century, base ball was very different.
The history of base ball would start with this one mind bending question,
who invented base ball? I’m sure
a lot of you have different answers but the truth is nobody invented base ball.
Base ball sort of evolved. If
you went to Egypt and looked at the hieroglyphics, you may see a hieroglyph that
has people hitting a ball with a bat. This
wasn’t what base ball is now but it was a start.
Some people might also say that Abner Doubleday invented base ball.
The truth is Abner Doubleday had nothing to do with base ball. They only say he invented base ball because he was an
American war hero. They wanted base
ball to be an all American game when really base ball was taken off of English
games like Cricket and Rounders. Alexander
Cartwright, who played on a team called the Knickerbockers, wrote down the rules
for modern base ball.
My Dad plays on a vintage base ball team called the Flemington Neshanock.
Some of you may think what’s so interesting about that?
The thing that’s so interesting about it is that the rules are very
different in vintage base ball. In
today’s base ball there are three strikes and four balls.
Back then there were only three strikes and three balls.
Another difference is that you could have caught foul balls on one
bounce. In today’s base ball you
have to catch every ball on a fly. Another
difference in vintage base ball is the pitcher pitches underhand when today the
pitcher pitches overhand. The
batter gets to call to the pitcher if he wants the ball pitched high or low or
in the middle. The ball does not
have to pass first or third to be fair and runners cannot advance on a foul
ball. If they do, the pitcher can
throw the ball to the base that the person was on and if he beats him to the
bag, he’s out. The biggest
difference is that there are no gloves for any of the players.
The ball they use has seams making an X and it is about the same size as
today’s base ball, but softer.
Besides my Dad playing vintage base ball you may think that there is no
trace of vintage base ball left. Well
you’re wrong! In fact, traces of
vintage base ball are right in front of your eyes in Flemington, NJ.
If you look at street signs you’ll notice that a lot of them are names.
What you don’t notice is that some of them are names of vintage base
ball players. Some of the players that have street signs names after them
that were on the Flemington Neshanock are Vosseller, Bartles, Sulphin and Kuhl.
Another fact is that the Union Hotel in New Jersey has a lot more than
what meets the eye. George Crater,
the president of the Flemington Neshanock, owned that hotel. Another interesting fact is the way umpire signs got started. Umpire signs got started because in the 1890’s there was an outfielder who people called Dummy Hoy because he was deaf. Since he was deaf he didn’t know what the umpire was saying. So the umpires started using signs instead of words.
If you’re ever in the neighborhood of a vintage base ball game, stop by
and watch the game. You may learn
more. |
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Love Baseball? Love
History?
For problems or questions regarding this website, contact 'Brooklyn'
at neshanock@earthlink.net.
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