Note: Dan Groman provided us with the following information. We thought it best to print it the way he explained it.
As a part of the week-long celebration (in the summer of 2011), Bluffton will host a baseball game using the rules from 1860. No gloves allowed, no running past first base (or you could be tagged out), and you can catch the ball on one bounce in the outfield for an out.
Beware if you let the ball bounce, though, as someone on base doesn't have to tag before going to the next base. The pitch is a nice, lofting underhand ball. Of course, the ball itself is a little different from today's regulation baseball. Wooden bats are used as well.
There are about 18 teams from Ohio that play this type of baseball, and we are making some plans to hold a game in Bluffton.
More information will be coming out as we get closer to next summer's special event, but for now, we would like to see how much interest there is in putting together our own team to represent Bluffton.
If you would like to play (this is open to anyone who thinks they can hit a ball, run the bases, and can catch and throw the ball to the right base), please contact Dan Groman at (419)643-5255.
We'll get a list together, and we'll probably have a few scrimmages in early summer of 2011. If we don't have enough interested baseball players, we could have two teams come in that we would all enjoy watching.
Finally, if anyone is really interested in putting together some nice sesquicentennial jerseys and caps, that would be great. If you go to the vintage baseball association's website (vbba.org), and click on the VBBA member clubs link, you can see photos of lots of clubs across the USA for ideas on uniforms. Maybe we could come up with some possible designs for consideration.
Of course, we will need an impartial umpire as well.
