Old time vintage baseball

[63impala]

Has anyone else seen the proposed vintage baseball league being pushed by Jim Bouton? Suposedly they will use rules from the 1880 era and use the olddead ball. I think it is a cool idea but I dont know if it would have the mass appeal like the game has today. I think it is more of a novelty think. What does everyone else think? Here is a link to the official site

http://www.vbba.org/

[raindelay7]

I've seen a few vintage games including the one that was staged by bouton (as part of his bid to take over Wahconah park...btw Bouton was really screwed by the city of Pittsfield - read about it in his book) and shown on espn classic a couple years ago. I have mixed feelings about vintage ball:

It can be very exciting - what would be routine outs in modern ball become very difficult plays with the tiny vintage gloves. There are usually a ton of runs - even a 5 or 6 run lead is not secure in late innings. And- if you are a uni freak like i am - all the uniforms are very cool.

That said, there is a very good reason the game developed the way it has. Vintage ball is just not very elegant. At bats drag on with the additional balls and strikes and the rule that says a batter can call whether he wants a low or high strike zone is interesting but (like a lot of the rules) makes the game more than a bit awkward.

I agree it will be more of a novelty thing, but definitely worth seeing if you ever get the chance.

[brutushayesosu]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gB7pdrKTDT4

[63impala]

That clip was hilarious.

[brutushayesosu]

yeah when i saw the topic I immediatly thought of that skit. One of my favorite clips from Conan. I saw that the vintage baseball holds a world series in Dearborn at the Henry Ford museum. I went there on a field trip. Had the chair Lincoln was shot in and JFKs assassination mobile.