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Read About The 1st Annual Vintage Base Ball
JIM BOUTON ANNOUNCES 19TH CENTURY REPLICA BALLPARK PLANNED Westfield, MA, April 25, 2007 - Former Yankee pitcher and Ball Four author Jim Bouton, and MassMutual Financial Group, will stage the 1st annual Vintage Base Ball World Series, at Bullens Field in Westfield. The four-team double elimination tournament (August 16 through 19, 2007) will include clubs from the Northeast, Michigan, and California. The World Series will follow the Vintage Base Ball Northeast Regional Playoffs (July 20, 21 & 22 and July 27, 28 & 29), an eight- team single elimination tournament, also to be played in Westfield, and produced by Bouton’s Vintage Base Ball Federation, LLC, with help from the Babe Ruth League, Boys & Girls Club, and WOW. Vintage base ball (originally two words) is a fast growing sport (250 clubs in 32 states) in which amateur players adhere to the rules, uniforms, and equipment of the game’s 19th century roots. Young men in baggy uniforms wield fat handle bats at “lemon peel” stitched balls that are caught with gloves no bigger than a man’s hand. And it’s a “gentleman’s game,” in which the umpire (there is only one) is always addressed as “Sir.” The Vintage Playoffs and World Series will have a 19th century atmosphere, with period music, costumed actors, barbershop quartet, and hand-painted 1880s style billboards. Children wearing newsboy caps and suspenders will sell programs, and prizes will be awarded to fans judged best examples of 19th century manners and dress. BILL LEE & HIS GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS A # 7 admission ticket ($35) admits 1 person to seven games, or 7 people to one game, or any combination. Other options include: a # 5 ticket @ $30), a # 3 ticket @ $24, or a # 1 ticket @ $10. The FLEX ticket plan includes Bill Lee’s Green Mountain Boys’ exhibition game. All open seating. Bring a lawn chair. Tickets are available at any one of eleven Westfield Bank branches. 19TH CENTURY BALLPARK
VINTAGE BASE BALL TURF WAR Gentlemen, In response to recent criticism regarding the historical correctness of our new VBBF by certain members of the more established VBBA, I offer the following: The Vintage Base Ball Federation means no harm to the VBBA. In fact, on this website, we specifically reference the VBBA, and direct folks to the VBBA web site for more information. The Vintage Base Ball Federation is not in competition with the VBBA. The VBBF is a business and the VBBA is an organization, both forms of which are historically accurate, as is the current dispute about which rules should apply at any given time. What the VBBF can confidently state is that all our rules were in use by one or more leagues during the 1880s (or had roots in earlier years), and that all our equipment has been carefully researched and designed to 1880s specifications. Whatever claims the VBBA may make with respect to rules in a given year, it certainly can't say that the polyurethane balls many of its teams use are in any way historically correct. By this point, amused readers might wonder if we made up this argument to show what 19th century base ball was really like. Whatever the merits of the VBBA claims, the Vintage Base Ball Federation respects VBBA's choice to promote vintage base ball to history buffs and baseball fans by working to adopt the rules and equipment in use during selected years of the latter half of the 19th century. Meanwhile, the VBBF will seek to market vintage base ball to a wider audience by codifying the most interesting rules, and safest equipment, in use during the same period. The VBBF will make clear it is not presenting a historical snapshot. The VBBA can continue to play its predominantly 1860s gloveless game and distinguish itself from our VBBF 1880s gloved version, just as VBBA clubs now distinguish themselves from one another with respect to particular years. Unfortunately, the Associated Press did not make a distinction between our Vintage Base Ball Federation and the Vintage Base Ball Association, and many readers of AP stories went to the VBBA website, which promptly crashed. Sorry about that. The VBBF will do whatever it can to steer VBBA inquiries to the VBBA web site, and asks the VBBA to return the courtesy. Interestingly, the Vintage Base Ball Federation plan for a World Series includes a special attraction 1860s bare handed game. We had planned to announce this when we got closer to the date (after consulting with the VBBA), but it seems more helpful to mention it now. (Note: $350 of the VBBF $500 membership fee will go toward World Series prize money - the balance of $150 is for club Town Liability Insurance.) I have always had great respect for the game of baseball, and I respect VBBA's dedication to its history. As vintage base ball continues to grow (thanks in part to VBBA's efforts), we hope to share the field one day at a resurrected Base Ball Grounds, the ultimate destination for both entities.
Jim Bouton
VBBF PRESS RELEASE 2007 VINTAGE WORLD SERIES SCHEDULED New York, NY, August 24, 2006 - Former Yankee pitcher and Ball Four author Jim Bouton, and partner Greg Martin, invite amateur baseball and softball teams to join their Vintage Base Ball Federation (VBBF) of clubs that play by 19th century rules and manners. Vintage base ball (originally two words) is a fast growing sport with 225 clubs - some have already joined the VBBF - from 32 states. Vintage games, in which players in baggy uniforms wield fat handle bats at lemon peel stitch balls that are caught with what appear to be gardening gloves, are a combination of theater, history and baseball. "With the small gloves," said Bouton, "there's no such thing as a routine play. In vintage base ball, the players make the play, not the equipment. A one-handed catch in the outfield is a thing of beauty." Local baseball and softball teams can convert to vintage base ball or just add vintage base ball to their summer play - most vintage clubs play between 8 and 12 games per season. VBBF clubs will schedule their own games, in leagues or not, and play as often as they like, against VBBF or non-VBBF clubs. Vintage World Series An inaugural Vintage Base Ball World Series - a four-day, all-expenses paid, round robin, double elimination tournament, featuring the four best VBBF clubs in the country - is scheduled to take place August 16-19, 2007, at a site to be announced. The VBBF anticipates that one or more of the games will be televised. All VBBF member clubs will be eligible to qualify for the World Series. The qualifying plan will be announced in the fall of 2006, and depend on several factors, including the number and location of VBBF clubs in the U.S. and foreign countries. The VBBF is a for-profit venture. VBBF clubs will pay a $500 annual membership fee, and buy VBBF uniforms and equipment (at below market prices), in exchange for the opportunity to compete in VBBF tournaments and World Series, and sell their club merchandise on the VBBF web site - www.vintageBBF.com. Bouton, VBBF Chairman and CEO, will be Commissioner of the Federation. He will have help from a diversified board that includes sports economist Andy Zimbalist, baseball historian John Thorn, commentator Frank Deford, media specialist Sam Hollander, investment banker Chip Elitzer, and insurance executive Dennis Donovan.
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED They are the Civil War reenactors of sports: groups of men who gather on grassy plains wearing 19th-century-style uniforms and flat, palm-sized gloves to speak of "daisy cutters" (ground balls) and "aces" (runs) as they toss around a sphere of horsehide deader than John Wilkes Booth. The aficionados of vintage base ball, as it's called, using the antique spelling, have organized themselves into about 225 teams across the U.S., and now Jim Bouton, the ex-major league pitcher and author of the classic 1970 tell-all Ball Four, wants to organize those teams into the Vintage Base Ball Federation. Bouton, 67, who is assisted in the venture by former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent and SI senior writer Frank Deford, says that 24 teams have already signed on, agreeing to abide by the rules and customs of pre-1890 baseball (no pitcher's mound, the bat handles are fat as fence posts, six balls is a walk) and, in a bow, to the post-1890 era, sell branded merchandise. Bouton would eventually like to have at least 50 squads, plus European and Asian representatives, playing toward an August world series. But vintage ball, he stresses, is not just a set of musty rules - it's an old-fashioned attitude, a humble approach he believes is highly marketable. "[Major league baseball] has become a game of 'Look at me; I just hit a home run,'" says Bouton. Pray there are no laudanum busts.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BELIEVE IT: BASEBALL ERA'S NOT DEAD YET Deadball Era Makes Comeback As 19th Century-Inspired Vintage Base Ball Federation Begins
By Ronald Blum Talk about turning back the clock. Former major league pitcher Jim Bouton announced Thursday the launch of an organization that will play by 19th century rules: The Vintage Base Ball Federation. Yup, back then baseball was two words. It will be six balls for a walk, and a foul ball won't count as a strike unless it's caught, in which case the batter will be out. A foul ball caught on a bounce counts for an out, and a hit batter is only a ball, with no base awarded. Gloves will be tiny, bat handles will be thick and the ball that's right, one ball will be used per game unless it falls apart or is lost will be dead. There aren't any pitcher's mounds, and there's no such thing as a balk on pickoff attempts. In a mixture of sport and theater, umpires must be addressed as "sir." Fans called "cranks" will be encouraged to wear period costumes, so ladies get out those flowered hats and gentlemen doff your straw boaters. Amateur baseball and softball teams are invited to join the VBBF. Chris Moran, who plays for the Hartford Senators, said fans look at these games the same way as the spectators viewed old-time ballplayers in the movie "Field of Dreams." "Where did these guys come from?" he said was the reaction. Teams will play about a dozen games during the season. A six-team, double-elimination Vintage World Series is planned for Aug. 15-19 next summer at a site that hasn't been determined. "The game the way it was meant to be played," Bouton said during a news conference at Delmonico's, a restaurant that opened in 1836. "No batting gloves, helmets, wristbands, elbow pads, shin guards, sunglasses. No arguing with the umpire. No stepping out of the batter's box. No charging the pitcher or posing at home plate. No curtain-calling, chest-thumping or high-fiving. Just baseball." There will be some allowances for modern times, such as protective gear inside uniforms for catchers and lining under the short-billed caps when players bat. There will be relief pitchers, and uniforms will have polyester, because flannel isn't durable enough. "A night game is not forbidden, even though it's pushing the envelope," said Greg Martin, the VBBF vice president and owner of a company that produces vintage gear. While the Hartford Senators have a team spittoon, gambling will be prohibited 19th century baseball was marked by alleged fixed games. "The 1880s and '90s were characterized by very rough play and ill-mannered conduct toward umpires and opponents and spectators," said John Thorn, a board member who serves on the 19th Century research committee of the Society for American Baseball Research. Wearing a brown derby and a vest, Bouton said Vintage Base Ball already was played by 225 teams in 32 states. In 2004, ESPN Classic televised a vintage game between the Hartford Senators and the Pittsfield Hillies at Wahconah Park. The rules will be a mixture of those in use from 1860-90, with an emphasis on the 1880s. The ball will have seams in the lemon-peel style, which was replaced by the current seam pattern designed by Albert Spalding, adopted by the major leagues in 1877. Pitching will be overhand, and games will average about 2 hours, 15 minutes. Before each plate appearance, a batter will declare his "desired strike zone preference" belt to knee or belt to armpits. If the umpire misses a call because his view is blocked, a team captain can ask for a "gentleman's ruling," in which players involved in the play are to truthfully say what occurred. If a dispute remains, the umpire may ask the cranks for their opinion. "I'm intrigued by the concept of people playing baseball for fun," said former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent, a member of the VBBF board. "Someone said this will be an effort where the strike will be something that goes over the plate and doesn't involve a labor dispute." Because catcher's gloves are tiny and don't have much padding, most pitchers throw about 70 mph to avoid passed balls. "The pitching game is less a power game and it's more a skill game: changing speeds, moving the ball around, deception," Bouton said. It's certainly different than 21st century baseball. "What irks me about the modern game is the enlarging ballplayers and shrinking ballparks," Thorn said. "A home run at one point in baseball's history actually involved a run running around the bases. There weren't very many home runs hit out of the park where you could stand at home plate, watch the thing soaring over the fence, cast a menacing glance at the opposing dugout and then take your time around the bases." Copyright 2005-2006, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
NEWSDAY
By Joe Gergen If baseball's old rules had been in effect when Jim Bouton was ending his major-league career, he would have had to change the name of his best-selling clubhouse confidential to "Ball Six." That's the number of misguided pitches required for a walk in his latest venture, the Vintage Base Ball Federation, of which he holds the titles of chairman, CEO and first commissioner. The VBBF is the brainchild of former Yankees pitcher Bouton and Greg Martin, whose Vintage Base Ball Factory manufactures 19th century uniforms and equipment. Using the model of Martin's Hartford Senators, who - judging by their attire and tiny gloves - might have challenged the Mudville Nine back in mighty Casey's day, the organization is seeking to recruit teams by dangling the carrot of an inaugural VBBF World Series next August at a site to be determined. Bouton and Martin, the federation president, said they are confident at least one of the games at the four-day, round-robin series will be on TV. In their first collaboration two years ago, Bouton and Martin promoted a vintage game between the Senators and the Hillies, a team Bouton assembled through local tryouts, at historic Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, Mass. "The Senators won, 14-12, and don't ask who the losing pitcher was," Bouton said at a New York media gathering this past week. The game drew more than 6,000 paying customers and was telecast by ESPN Classic. Now they hope to expand the format throughout the country. For $500 and an agreement to purchase uniforms and the fat-handle bats, softer balls and mini-mitts in vogue during the 1880s, a team can begin the qualification process for an all-expenses-paid trip to a six-team championship series next summer. Current membership, according to Martin, includes about 25 clubs in 10 states, but they hope to enlist some of the thousands of amateur teams engaged in softball or hardball. The spectacle of vintage games encourages even the fans (or "cranks," as they were called at the time) to dress in period costume. "And because the gloves are so small," Bouton said, "there are no routine plays. In vintage base ball, players have to make the plays, not the equipment." With a board of directors that includes ex-commissioner Fay Vincent and rules drawn from the most favorable regulations used from 1860 to 1900, the federation (www.vintageBBF.com) seeks to return small ball, gentlemanly behavior and old-fashioned fun to the national pastime. Copyright © 2006, Newsday, Inc.
By Daniel Trotta Former major league player Jim Bouton wants to go back to the 19th century to recreate a gentlemanly game when sportsmanship was paramount. Bouton unveiled the Vintage Base Ball Federation on Thursday, a league including teams from the U.S., Japan, Netherlands and Latin America that will stage its own World Series next year. The sport was known as base ball (two words) in the 19th century, when the uniforms, equipment and rules made it a different game. "It's a theatrical event. It's a historical event. It's much more than a game of baseball," said Bouton, author of the classic book "Ball Four," an insider's account of Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1969. Bouton, 67, a pitcher for the Seattle Pilots, Houston Colt 45s and Atlanta Braves who also reached the World Series with the New York Yankees, is chief executive of the federation, a board which includes former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent. "Guys don't like playing on teams with guys throwing helmets and screaming at umpires. They love the distinction of calling umpires 'sir' and congratulating the other team," Bouton told reporters. That spirit is more reflective of 19th century base ball. The new league will play with thicker and heavier vintage bats, small flimsy gloves and softer balls, recreating a game with less emphasis on power and more on speed and strategy. "There is no berating the umpire, the fans or the opposing club," the federation rule book says. "Celebrations are limited to handshakes. No posing at home plate, curtain calling, chest bumping or high fives. Applauding an opposing player is proper and the umpire must always be addressed as 'sir'." Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
By Tim Arango Jim Bouton, the ex-Yankees hurler who penned the classic insider account of a big league season with the book "Ball Four," is turning back the clock. Bouton, who is persona non grata at Yankee Stadium these days for his opposition to a new ballpark, thinks he can make a business from "vintage base ball" (it used to be two words) - in which clubs play under the rules and customs of the 18th century game. Last week, Bouton launched the Vintage Base Ball Federation, which aims to centralize a sport that he says now counts some 225 clubs nationwide. "It combines old-time values with modern business practices," Bouton told On The Money. He aims to make money by charging a $500 entry fee for teams, which will purchase equipment and uniforms from the federation. Bouton has a host of heavy-hitters involved: former Major League Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent; commentator and author Frank Deford; former Yankees p.r. man Marty Appel; and renowned sports economist Andy Zimbalist. The game provides a respite for purists turned off by the modern, power-obsessed game. The vintage game is played with fat-handled bats, dead balls and baggy uniforms, and emphasizes small ball. Mitts, meanwhile are the size of a gardening glove. Copyright 2006 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Business of Baseball Report Watch the MLB.com Vintage Base Ball Documentary Trailer 
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