Lewes Base Ball Club to play home game June 29

Lewes will continue its 2024 campaign against the Deacons, a prison ministry baseball team for which a couple of Lewes players also play, in a doubleheader format with first pitch at noon, Saturday, June 29. Games will be played using 1864 rules. The game will be played at the field at the Villages of Five Points near the intersection of East Edgemoor Street and Old Orchard Road, Lewes.

The Lewes Base Ball Club plays by 1864 rules, which include balls being caught on one bounce for an out, no fielding gloves in use, and other fun, historically accurate, 19th century rules of America’s pastime. The games are free, and spectators are encouraged to bring a chair or blanket.

Next for the club after its matches with the Deacons will be a trip to the National 19th Century Base Ball Festival in Gettysburg, Pa., where the team will challenge clubs from New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and elsewhere.

The Lewes Base Ball Club traces its origins to around 1874, and 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. The club celebrates all baseball history in Lewes, the Cape Region and across Southern Delaware.

Throughout the years, the team played across Delmarva and even across the Chesapeake Bay, with at least one game in Baltimore. Lewes may have fielded a semi-pro team into at least the early 1940s, and other local and recreational teams have 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 team was reconstituted in 2010 and was crowned Delaware State Champions in 2016 and 2023. Interested players and volunteers are encouraged to reach out to the club's Facebook page or email lewesbaseball@gmail.com. The club is a nonprofit organization, and membership is open to all. Other activities include hosting speakers and programs relating to baseball on Delmarva with a particular emphasis on Lewes and Sussex County.

For more information, visit the club’s Facebook page @LewesBaseball or visit lewesbaseball.org.