Vintage Base Ball takes center stage at Joe Becker for sesquicentennial
Apr. 15—On a day when baseball returned to being "base ball" and hitters became "strikers," the St. Louis Brown Stockings defeated the Westerns Base Ball Club of Topeka 8-6 on Saturday at Joe Becker Stadium in Joplin during a Vintage Base Ball Association game.
VBBA Players wear period reproduction uniforms, use equipment authentic to the period, and follow baseball rules from the 19th century.
Saturday's game was sponsored by the Robert S. Thurman American Legion Post 13 at the historic Joplin stadium as part of the Joplin Celebration Commission's ongoing sesquicentennial events for 2023, many of which were over the weekend.
Fans could immediately tell something was a different as they noticed players without gloves — a luxury for many when the game of base ball began, so many of the early players played bare-handed.
That wasn't the only difference. In keeping with the original game rules, pitchers threw underhanded and a fielder could catch a ball after one bounce and it would still be an out.
The two teams competing — St. Louis and Topeka — play in the Vintage Base Ball Association with a seven-game schedule against teams like the Farmers Branch Cattlemen of Oologah, Oklahoma, and the and the Wichita (Kansas) Bull Stockings.
According to the VBBA website, there are more than 200 vintage base ball teams around the country.
The teams play under rules adopted in 1860 by the National Association of Base Ball Players in hopes that fans enjoy experiencing the game as it was originally played.
Brown Stockings player Mike "Capo" Youngstrom said he began playing vintage base ball in 2013. His dad, Greg "Swede" Youngstrom, began in 2009 and introduced his son to the game. Mike said he played high school baseball and started playing baseball in fourth grade.
"We play teams from all over the U.S., " Capo said. "We have an event in St. Louis (The St. Louis Cup) that draws teams from all over the country."
The celebration in Joplin Saturday featured numerous other baseball events at Joe Becker, including high school baseball games (with renamed teams for the day) pitting the Galena Miners against the Columbus Bombers, and the Joplin Miners against the Pittsburg Coal Diggers.
"We're focusing on historical Joe Becker Stadium today," Joplin Celebration Committee Co-Chair Pat Tuttle said. "There's a lot of history here. A lot of amateurs, a lot of pros have played here. The cool thing is the high school kids get to play at Joe Becker Stadium. Our local kids get to a lot, but the fact that these kids from Pittsburg and Columbus and Galena get to play where Mickey Mantle played is a big deal."
