1860's baseball

[bcw716]

This is really random but my son & I went to a baseball game put on by the Historic Foundation here. The game was played by 1860 rules. Some of the differences from the way the game is played today:

all barehanded
no steals
underhand pitching
you are considered out if a fly ball or line drive is caught on the first bounce
the umpire can ask the player or even fans for help on close plays(i can only imagine how that'd go over today)
the umpire can fine players on the spot for "ungentlemanly play"
sliding was considered ungentlemanly
foul balls are not strikes
ball is considered fair or foul based on where the ball first hit the ground
the umpire did not call balls and only called strikes on swings and misses or if he felt the batter was intentionally delaying the game
no betting from anyone involved in the game

some slang from then:

pitcher was called a bowler, hurler or feeder
basemen were called "base tenders"
catcher was called "Behind"
fans were called "cranks, bugs or rooters"
sharp ground balls were called "daisy cutters, grass clippers or ant killers"
fly ball was called a "sky ball"
batter was called a "striker"
the bat was called a "willow"

All in all it was pretty interesting. I think it'd take 5 hrs to play a game today using those rules though.

[azdbacks1998]

Very cool.