News

News Articles

06:26:15 pm Vintage Club in Mattapoisett Looks to 'Play Ball' for 150th

Categories: Mattapoisett

While American lore would like you to believe that Abner Doubleday invented the game of Baseball in Elihu Phinney's Cooperstown, NY cow field one day in 1839, the truth of the matter is a bit different and not all together clear. The game has been played in one form or another almost since the day they pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock. An English book from 1744 included a woodcut of men participating in a Base-Ball game. In 1791, the town of Pittsfield, MA passed a by-law that prohibited the playing of baseball within 80 yards of town meeting houses. The first written set of rules to be published for a bat and ball game with four bases, pitchers and fielders was published in 1810 in Paris, France under the name poison ball. Old town maps from the Colonial period are dotted with unexplained diamonds that make reference to the ball game or town game field. As the country grew up, the game grew along with it from a child's game into a leisurely Sunday afternoon affair played by gentlemen who represented various clubs and towns. Official rules differed from city to city, state to state and town to town.

By the mid-nineteenth century, men like Alexander Cartwright, widely considered the true father of baseball, sought to set rules for a game that had been played for many years. In 1845 Mr. Cartwright published the first set of rules of what we would recognize as closely mirroring the game as we know it today. The game, though similar to what we know, still had many phases of evolution to pass through and is still evolving to this day.

The interest in the game's history has been an American obsession for at least 100 years. Over the last couple of decades, clubs have formed to revive the game as it was being played throughout the Northeastern United States prior to the Civil War.

One of these groups, the Ironsides Vintage Base Ball Club, is seeking to play the game as it was played in 1858. The Mattapoisett-based club plays using rules of both the New York Game and the Massachusetts Game from 1858. In these early versions of baseball an out could be recorded by catching the ball on a hop, the pitcher stood 15 feet closer to the hitter and threw a soft 10-inch ball underhanded as opposed to throwing a harder, nine-inch ball over handed as is the custom today. The club's name is derived from that of a New Bedford team of the same name that formed, again, in 1858. A news clipping from the August 21, 1858 Evening Standard Times read, "The Ironsides Base Ball Club, lately formed in this city, held their first meeting for practice yesterday on the City Common. The result was very satisfactory."

Kyle DeCicco-Carey, founder of the present-day Mattapoisett version of the Ironsides Base Ball Club, has been working for several years to form an antique baseball club in this area. His goal this year is to field a game that will be a part of the town's 150th anniversary celebration.

"I am still looking for more players as I am preparing to field a 'nine' for Mattapoisett's 150th celebration," Mr. DeCicco-Carey said, adding, "This event will most likely be the team's first game and will hopefully lead to opportunities to play for similar events and attract more interest."

In thoroughly modern fashion, the team has a website that will give you all of the information that you will need to know if you are interested in participating or would just like to know more about their plans. The website is located at www.scvbb.org.

By Robert Chiarito

Send feedback » • Permalink

Comments:

No Comments for this post yet...

Leave a comment:

[Contact] [Log in] [Admin]