Baseball in it's early days....

[Kingspoint]

Cities across Pennsylvania nourished and cherished their teams. On November 30, 1868, Lancaster County’s Columbia Spy captured the central place of baseball in community life when it described Columbia’s Thanksgiving Day festivities, reporting that

Businesses of all kind were generally suspended, Divine services were held in all the churches, and able and eloquent discourses were delivered, appropriate to the occasion. The great feature of the day was the game of base ball between the Mutuals, of this place, and the Tecumseh, of Millersville. The affair attracted quite a crowd to the beautiful grounds at the head of Locust Street, where the Mutuals suffered a disastrous defeat at the hand of the Tecumsehs.

http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=995

[redsfandan]

A baseball game on November 30th?!? Was that the idea of Bud Selig's great grandfather?

[Chip R]

Shameless plug alert:

And if you are interested in seeing how base ball was played back in the 1860s, there is usually a game or two every weekend at Heritage Village in Sharon Woods Park in Sharonville.

1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings (http://www.1869reds.com/)
Cincinnati Buckeyes (http://www.cincinnatibuckeyes.com/)

And, if you don't want to go all the way up to Sharonville, Norwood has founded a team this year.

Norwood Highlanders (http://norwoodhighlanders.zzl.org/)

And, if you don't live in the Cincinnati area, check the Vintage Base Ball Association website at http://www.vbba.org/ and find a team near you.

[Kingspoint]

That's pretty cool.

[savafan]

The Tecumsehs...that's pretty offensive. ;)