Sports
Vintage Baseball Raises Money for Bacon Log Cabin
The St. Louis Brown Stockings and the Lafayette Square Cyclones raise money for the Old Trails Historical Society with an afternoon of vintage baseball in Manchester.
The Bacon Log Cabin and Museum was built between 1835 and 1840. Forty years ago, the cabin was going to be torn down to make room for a subdivision, but the Old Trails Historical Society intervened. The organization was allotted five years to restore the cabin and make it open to the public, according to the Old Trails Historical Society. The non-profit group has been responsible for the preservation of the cabin and grounds ever since.
This year to raise money, the historical society decided to do something fun and have a vintage baseball game in Manchester, where William Bacon, of the Bacon Log Cabin, did business and attended church in the 1800s.
Dee Dee Walsh, of the Old Trails Historical Society, said that from the beginning she wanted the game to be played on the ball fields of the .
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"It was actually a union encampment during the Civil War, and baseball has been played there since the late 1880s," said Walsh. She contacted Tony Wicker of the vintage baseball team, the St. Louis Brown Stockings of Kirkwood, and they worked to put the event together.
Saturday afternoon, dressed in vintage uniforms and playing without gloves, as was the custom in the 1860s, the St. Louis Brown Stockings and the Lafayette Square Cyclones entertained for the afternoon in an event that is considered one part competitive sport and one part reenactment.
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The terminology is slightly different- instead of pitchers you have hurlers, instead of batters you have strikers. There are tally keepers instead of score keepers, and arbitrators instead of umpires.
Vintage baseball is also more of a gentleman’s game. Players make honor calls in regard to whether or not they made their base. There is no sliding or base stealing. Chatter from the outfield is limited to “huzzah” and “strike well, sir.”
The St. Louis Brown Stockings won the first game 5 to 4, and went on to win the second game 6 to 4. When the games were over, Tony “Lightening” Wicker took a moment to say what a pleasure it was to play with the Cyclones, and the teams took turns applauding each other.
The Old Trails Historical Society hoped to raise $1,000 with the event, and Walsh says they came very close to making their goal.