Sports

Vintage Baseball Game

The Town of Islip went back to 1864 on Saturday, May 1st at the Grange in Sayville with a double header vintage baseball game. Islip Town Historian, Robert Finnegan was on hand with many interesting facts and stories about Islip's role in the Civil War. There were local area historical societies, dressed in old fashioned garb and a display of vintage baseball gear. The crowd also enjoyed banjo and fiddle music by Maria Fairchild and Jack Dillon.

After some storytelling from Robert Finnegan, the umpire yelled "Play Ball!", and the main event started - the baseball game. Dressed in old fashioned uniforms, The Brooklyn Atlantics played against The New York Mutuals. Both teams are part of a vintage baseball league that plays according to the rules of 1864, which includes playing with handmade balls and not using baseball gloves. Although the game is recognizable as baseball, there are many different rules from today's baseball.

Besides being an exciting baseball game, the players, managers and umpires have entertaining banter that makes watching their games that much more interesting. Especially with names like George "Wild Horse", "Tricky" Rick, Vinnie "Bullseye" and Eric "Express".

The men of this vintage league have a great affection of baseball's years gone by. They participate in about 55 games from April to October. The players travel around to country playing other vintage teams and fund everything themselves. It is a pure love of baseball.

The day's events came about from Town Supervisor, Phil Nolan. He wants to bring more people out to enjoy Islip's parks. So look for more of these free family fun events in the future.


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