Wahconah Park Update

Sunday, July 4, 2004 - Vintage baseball played before 6,000 at Wahconah
Pastime as it was in past times By DAVID FILKINS, Special to the Albany Times Union

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Wahconah Park in downtown Pittsfield is a minor-league baseball Mecca. Constructed in 1919, it is one of the oldest standing baseball stadiums in the country, and makes do without modern conveniences. Fans at Wahconah walk on wooden floorboards and plop down on bench seating. But on Saturday evening, the tiny, old park was right back in its element as the backdrop to a baseball time machine.

In a celebration of America's pastime, fans took a time portal back to 1886, and witnessed a vintage baseball game between the Hartford Senators and the Pittsfield Hillies. Both were actual minor-league teams in existence around the turn of the century. They last played in 1930, when the Hillies tasted victory in their final meeting. The Senators got payback, winning 14-12 before an overflow crowd of about 6,000.

The current Senators and Hillies are members of the Vintage Base Ball Association, an organization that includes 150 teams doing reenactments throughout the country. Many of the players are former high school, college, or minor-league ballplayers, or "ballists," as they were called at the time.

The game was broadcast live on ESPN Classic and was dubbed "America's Pastime: Vintage Baseball Live." It was organized by former major-leaguer Jim Bouton, who is leading the fight to protect Wahconah. Pittsfield was an ideal site for the first telecast of a VBBA game -- a document recently found in the town's public library refers to baseball in 1791, 32 years before the game's previous oldest known reference.

The teams took the field in vintage automobiles and included players in baggy 19th-century uniforms, using equipment and playing by the rules of the period.

Rather than soft, leather gloves the size of fishing nets, the players wore gloves that weren't much bigger than their hands.

"Gloves were introduced in the 1880s," Senators manager Greg Martin said. "We were playing with no gloves, but then we started to see a lot of broken fingers. That's when we moved from 1840s-style play to 1886."

Back in the days when baseball was referred to as base ball, batters could not take a base until receiving seven balls, there were no pitchers mounds, and a single umpire, referred to as "sir" by the players, often smoked cigars during the game.

In addition to playing under 1886 rules, the teams try to recapture on-field etiquette, giving fans entertainment as well as a historically accurate interpretation of the national pastime -- a feat much easier said than done.

"Without videotape, it's hard to recreate on-field practices," said Tom Shieber, curator at the Baseball Hall of Fame. "The rules are easy to abide by, but capturing the way players acted on the field is difficult." Andrew Shuman, president of the VBBA, said he has confidence in the teams' abilities to accurately represent old-time baseball.

"We do extensive research in order to be historically accurate," Shuman said.

The vintage theme employed on the field extended into the stands, as well. Participants dressed as paperboys, shoe shiners and megaphone announcers mingled with the crowd.

A barbershop quartet outside the stadium entrance sang turn-of-the-century tunes, serenading fans as they entered the past.

"I can't remember the last time I went to a baseball game," said 64-year-old Don Tambasco, who made the trip from Albany and sat in a lawn chair near the left-field wall. "This really is like an old-time game. The food is cheap, the tickets were $3, and I even got my program from a kid wearing a paperboy hat."

Tambasco was one of around 2,000 fans who were allowed to sit in the field of play, against the outfield wall. The 4,000-seat stadium was filled to capacity and standing-room-only was offered because Bouton had assured that no one would be turned away.