We sometimes crave for the things long gone, the things one would call vintage. Just like guitarists love vintage amplifiers that only go loud and louder, sports fans have a love for what their sport used to be like a hundred years ago. Not all sports are like that, because some sports didn’t exist one hundred years ago, or worse, they were really unsafe.
Baseball is a different sport. It has been around for about a century and a half and some people want vintage baseball back. Well, vintage baseball has been revived and is played even today. Here is everything you need to know about it.
Vintage Baseball – What is That?
Vintage baseball, according to its governing organization, the Vintage Base Ball Association, is a pastime, one that aims to persevere baseball as it used to be in its formative years in the 19th century. The VBBA has over 400 clubs that operate in over 20 states in the US, as well as in Canada. Baseball is a popular sport, so it comes as no surprise that there are people who want to play the game as it was played in its early years.
Vintage Baseball is played according to the rulebooks of 1859 until 1910. There are plenty of rulebooks from that period, often released annually. Some of them are available on the VBBA website.
How to Play – Where to Start?
In order to start playing vintage baseball, one should start by learning the current MLB rules of baseball and familiarizing oneself with the equipment. Then, moving to the VBBA site, one can learn all the terminology used in the 1850s and 1860s, which are considered the vintage years of baseball.
After that, one should read one of the rulebooks from the period, particularly one that contains interpretations from modern-day historians. This way, the rules, and terminology will be clear, leaving you with only one thing to do, find people to play with.
Is Vintage Baseball Going to Be Professional?
It is very unlikely that vintage baseball will become a professional sport. Current day rules are something that keeps MLB going, financially and in terms of the times. Not everybody wants to play or watch vintage baseball. It is in the nature of everything to change and evolve. While vintage baseball is a great way to preserve the history and culture of early baseball, it is not the optimal way to play baseball professionally.
The history of sports tends to leave some things behind. Baseball fans will have none of that, so vintage baseball has come to be, as a way to preserve baseball in its early days, and for fans of the sport to see and play baseball as it used to be.
