September 27th, 2015 Walker Ranch Vintage Base Ball

While I've played a bit of baseball and my baseball playing kids call me "old man", I've never played "vintage base ball" ... until I got invited to play for the Walker Ranch Boys at their annual heritage baseball game on a gorgeous Fall Day in the Colorado Mountains - it was a BLAST!

There are a few differences such as no gloves (but the ball is slightly larger/softer) and if a fielder catches a batted ball on one bounce, the batter is out ... but runners may advance without tagging. The terminology is also different such as the "hurler" throws underhand to the "striker" ... with the umpire giving each a "warning" on good/bad pitches until he starts calling balls/strikes.

I started out at 2nd base ... and lets just say even with the meadow mowed and gopher holes filled in, some of the bounces were ... a bit interesting! I then offered to switch to Center Field ... good comedy chasing long balls into the tall grass and hoping you could find 'em. Finally, I pitched hurled the last couple of innings and at the end of 9 innings, the Walker Ranch Boys prevailed over the Central City Stars in a very enjoyable game. Read more about the Colorado Vintage Base Ball Association here.

Oh yeah, we all had nicknames ... so as I was driving up, I decided on Honus Wagner, a notable player from the very early days of baseball. My "story" was that I had just finished my rookie year with the Pittsburgh Pirates and I had come back to help the Walker Boys with the Fall harvest. Afterwards, I passed out a bunch of Honus Wagner Rookie baseball cards to the spectators cranks ... ;-)

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