“Vintage Baseball Arrives At Fort Trumbull” – The Day
“In baseball’s infancy, the game was played without gloves, without called balls and where fly balls caught on one bounce were considered an out.
That will be the version of the game that will be on displayed Sunday (1:30 p.m.) at Fort Trumbull State Park, where the Thames Base Ball Club of New London will host its first home game against the Connors of Waterbury.”
The Thames Base Ball Club will make its debut at the Vintage Base Ball Tournament at Old Bethpage Village on Long Island tomorrow. The tournament features 14-teams from New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Old Bethpage Village Restoration is the birthplace of vintage base ball, It was first played there at a Civil War Re-enactment in 1979 leading to the founding of a league in 1980.
“Vintage-Rules Baseball May Be Played At Fort Trumbull” – Karin Crompton/The Day
“A group of baseball enthusiasts hope to form a local club to play in a vintage-rules league, with Fort Trumbull as the “home” field. The team would be named after a past professional team in New London, the Pequots. Edward Baker, who played for a similar team in Mystic that disbanded last summer, said on Sunday that the team has permission to play at Fort Trumbull and would be sponsored by the New London County Historical Society.”
Vintage-Rules Baseball May Be Played At Fort Trumbull – The Day/Karin Crompton
The New London County Historical Society will present William Ryczek speaking on “When Base Ball First Got Organized” at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Shaw Mansion, Bank Street.
Ryczek, a member of the Middletown Mansfields Base Ball Club, is the author of “When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870” and “Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of Baseball’s National Association, 1871-1875.”
Admission is free for members and $5 for nonmembers. For more information, call 443-1209.
“Baseball Lecture Planned” – The Day