2 thoughts on “Contact”

1. Kyle:

   Vintage baseball has two great charms for me: 1. To freeze a moment in time and live in it, a wondeful exercise in acted out history. 2. To picture a game (or a world) where our familiar baseball (so American!) is not the cut and dried tradition that we know today, but a dynamic exciting NEW game, played differently from what we know now.
   Baseball players of your chosen day were acutely conscious that their game was not created out of whole cloth, but was a high speed new way to play cricket. Don’t let Hollywood fool you: cricket was an alternative to baseball until the Great Depression. There were active leagues throughout the South Coast, made up of American, West Indian, and British players. Older players would gravitate more towards the more leisurely paced game. There may have been a class based difference as well. Baseball stars would play exhibitions at cricket to show off their versatility and prowess.
   Concepts that we think of as dearly American came from cricket: at bat vs out, fly outs, scoring “runs”, innings, forceouts, strikeouts, although the English terms for them may differ from ours.
   The American language still contains cricket terms: “googly eyes”, an all-out effort, to be “stumped”, and to score a “hat trick.”
   Although I am interested in watching/playing your vintage baseball, this is a 2 way street: I am treasurer of the St.Columba’s Cricket Club in Middletown, Rhode Island. Should you, any of your VBB players, or anyone at all wish to watch or participate in cricket (we play weekly) please contact me. Our website is “www.stcolumbascricketclub.com” .
   Maybe an exhibition can be arranged where we try a hand at each others’ games.
   Please share references to 19th century cricket that you have found.

   Chuck Zalewski

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2. Would like to schedule a match with your team

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