Vintage Base Ball World Series

My brother Paul (from over at the Ultramontanist) and I attended the Vintage Base Ball World Series at the magnificent, recently restored West Baden Hotel in French Lick, Indiana (home of The Hick From French Lick, basketball great Larry Bird!). The hotel had been abandoned around the 1950's, and then an eccentric millionaire (my favorite kind) swooped in and poured some real money into it. As you'll see from the video, it really is splendidly oppulent (Al Capone sure thought so, anyway--he and many other Chicago mobsters reportedly spent much of their down time here in their heyday).

Anyway, the Indianapolis Blues played the Cincinnati Red Stockings (the Red Stockings prevailed, 15 aces to 12). As you'll recall from my earlier post, vintage base ball teams have been popping up all over the midwest in recent years, a very happy phenomenon indeed. The players conduct themselves according to 19th century rules, which means barehanding the ball (sans mitt), catching the ball on one hop is an out (although it is not called an out, but it is said that the "striker [batter] is dead"), runners are not given leeway to overrun first base, and there is no stealing, among many other disorienting deviations from the modern game. Needless to say, I was overtaken with unmitigated glee the entire afternoon--this experience is a little like a civil war reenactment being taken in by a history buff: a chance to geek out entirely among like-minded sorts, on an interest that is usually enjoyed all alone because no one else really understands. I guess it's also similar to what a Star Trek convention is for the painfully lonely trekkie nerd.