"Huzzah! " cried the cranks as the muffin nabbed the cloud hunter in the garden

Following the parade we mosied into the park proper, suprisingly just in time to view a recreation of a 1860 era baseball game. I've meant to check out these vintage games in the past, and I was very glad to finally get a chance to see them up close.



The game was hosted and played by the Milwaukee Cream City's (Cream City being Milwaukee's nickname at the turn of the 20th century, a reference to the distinctive color of our brick buildings).





We were early enough to see batting practice, which didn't exactly thrill my troops. Note LuLu's question rougly 47 seconds into this clip.



So my sister took the kids to play on a nearby playground while my Dad and I watched for three or four innings. (the kids returned to watch about two inning into the game)






At its heart it's not all that different than the baseball you know. The fundamental difference seems to be in pitching. There is no mound, and the ball is thrown underhand to the batter. There are no fielding gloves either, a painful experience tempered by a rule that says a "striker" (batter) is out if the ball is caught on the fly or on one bounce. I imagine you see a lot of 'one bounce' outs in lieu of busted fingers.

The child you hear on the clip *isn't* one of mine. BTW, if you can't make out what my Dad says, he's questioning the distance between bases. From my research it's consistent with modern basepaths (90 feet, expressed as 30 yards in vintage literature). They did seem awfully long though.



For most of what I saw of the game the crowd was tenative and disinterested. That changed when a batter skyed a high fly ball to right. The outfielder approached quickly, then slowed down to allow for catching the ball on the bounce. That was his plan anyway. Once it hit the ball had its own ideas and took a wicked hop to the right. The outfielder, still running, took a violent leap to his left and made a spectacular barehanded sliding grab.

"NIIIICE!" I yelled, and the crowd roared appreciately and gave the man a hand.









The verdict? I liked it. Enough to try and find a Facebook page for the team (it doesn't exist yet) and enough to consider heading out to see them again this summer.