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Vintage Base Ball Season swings into action, ‘Hometown Teams’ exhibit opens at 6th Cavalry
See for yourself
Vintage Base Ball games this season at the 6th Cavalry MuseumMay 21 at noon: Nashville Maroons vs. Mountain City ClubMay 21 at 2:30 p.m. Emmett Machinists of Knoxville vs. Lightfoot ClubJune 4 at noon. Travellers Club of Brentwood vs. Lightfoot ClubJune 4 at 2:30 p.m. Franklin Farriers vs. Mountain City ClubJune 18 at noon. Lightfoot Club vs. Mountain City ClubJuly 9 at noon. Stewart’s Creek Scouts vs. Mountain City ClubJuly 9 at 2:30 p.m. Nashville Maroons vs. Lightfoot ClubJuly 23 at noon. Lightfoot Club vs. Mountain City ClubJuly 23 at 2:30 p.m. Quickstep’s Club of Spring Hill vs. Mountain City ClubAug. 6 at noon. Stewart’s Creek Scouts vs. Lightfoot ClubAug. 6 at 2:30 p.m. Travellers Club of Brentwood vs. Mountain City ClubAug. 27 at noon. Phoenix of East Nashville vs. Lightfoot ClubAug. 27 at 2:30 p.m. Highland Rim Distillers vs. Mountain City Club
Vintage Base Ball season is in swing with two local teams playing this season: the Chattanooga Lightfoot Club and Mountain City.
The Chattanooga Lightfoot Club is batting well this season. The players, all dressed in old-fashioned style uniforms, step up to the plate and prepare to swing at a softball-sized ball.
The Lightfoots won the 2016 Tennessee River Downstream Series and the 6th Cavalry Museum Cup May 7.
“Bats came alive at the end. It was a spirited match,” Lightfoot Captain Sean “Mac” McNally said of their face-off against the Knoxville Holstons, who traveled to the 6th Cavalry for the tournament games held in conjunction with the museum’s opening of the “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America” exhibit.
The Holstons fell 18-9 before the Mountain City Club took down the Emmett Machinists of Knoxville 18-0.
Both Chattanooga teams are 3-0 in the league.
Games are played by the rule book of 1864, explained Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball Commissioner Trapper Haskins. Players can catch a ball on a bounce. Players can’t run through bases. Professional or paid players are forbidden, and the game is “competitive without confrontation.”
In keeping with the way ball was played in 1864, the players don’t wear gloves. Last season, Scott Herpst, who plays second baseman and right-fielder for the Chattanooga Lightfoots, dislocated a finger, hyper-extended his thumb and jammed six different fingers playing vintage ball.
Still, he says, “The goal is to have fun and enjoy it. We want to show people what the game was like 150 years ago.”
Email Katie Ward at kward@timesfreepress.com.