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Summer means vintage baseball

Lewes Base Ball Club keeps national pastime’s history alive playing by 1864 rules
July 14, 2021

Although the vintage Lewes Base Ball Club plays in the annual Gettysburg Base Ball Festival each year, they have never played the host team. That changed this past weekend.

The Lewes team hosted the Gettysburg Generals during a July 10 doubleheader at the Villages of Five Points field. Playing with a depleted roster, Lewes lost both games, 12-4 and 12-1.

Playing under 1864 rules, Lewes is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Vintage Base Ball League and the Vintage Base Ball Association. The earliest known reference to baseball in Lewes is from February 1874, when a match pitting Lewes against Milton was advertised for March 1, 1874. Lewes and Rehoboth Beach had teams in the Eastern Shore Baseball League in the early and mid-20th century.

The most notable differences in the rules of 1864 and now are the ability to catch fair and foul balls on one bounce – or bound – for an out, and fielders do not wear gloves. Pitchers throw underhand, outs are called hands, three balls is a walk, batters are called strikers, and strikes are called when a striker does not attempt to swing the bat after a warning from the umpire.

Lewes’ next home game is against the Mohican Club of Kennett Square, Pa., at 2 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 7. The team travels to Gettysburg to play four games Saturday and Sunday, July 17 and 18.

The Lewes team will host the first Base Ball at the Beach Festival and the Eastern League Mid-Atlantic Championships Sept. 25-26 at Cape Henlopen State Park.

See 1864 rules at vbba.org/beadles-1864. For more information on the team, go to lewesbaseball.org.

 

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