Lewes Base Ball Club sets first home game April 21

The Lewes Base Ball Club will host its first home game Saturday, April 21, against the Fair Play Club of Talbot County in an 1864-rules doubleheader. First pitch is set for noon at the Villages of Five Points on the field along Old Orchard Road.

There is no admission fee, and spectators are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets and picnic lunch as they take in vintage base ball. Some notable rules differences include batters being out if a batted ball is caught on the fly or on one bounce, no fielding gloves used, and the pitcher standing 45 feet from home base. There are still nine players to a side and the bases are 90 feet apart. 

Lewes has additional home dates throughout the season, including the Base Ball at the Beach event in August, and the club will once again take part in the National Base Ball Festival held each year in Gettysburg, Pa.

The club will open its season on the road Sunday, April 14, at the Cecil County Farm Museum when it takes on the Eclipse Club of Elkton, Md., in a doubleheader beginning at noon.

Tracing its origins to c. 1874, the Lewes Base Ball Club will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the earliest recorded baseball game in Lewes throughout the 2024 season. On Feb. 28, 1874, Lewes took on Milton in a match, the results of which are currently unknown. There were likely earlier matches, but no written record of them has been discovered as of now. The club celebrates all baseball history in Lewes, the Cape Region and across Southern Delaware.

A vibrant baseball history took the team across Delmarva and even across the Chesapeake, with at least one game in Baltimore. It is not currently known if the team ever traveled to Cape May for a contest. Lewes may have fielded a semi-pro team into at least the early 1940s, and other local and recreational teams called the First Town home. Anyone with Lewes baseball information, artifacts, photographs, scorebooks, uniforms and equipment, or news clippings is encouraged to contact the club.

The current iteration of the club was organized in 2010 and was crowned Delaware State Champions in 2016 and 2023. Interested players and volunteers are encouraged to email lewesbaseball@gmail.com.

For more information about the club, go to lewesbaseball.org. For game-day information including weather-related advisories, check out the club's Facebook page.