PORTAGE, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – It’s called America’s Pastime, but baseball hasn’t always been the same game we see today.
This weekend, on Portage’s softball diamonds at Ramona Park, you will be able to jump into the wayback machine and see how it was played 160 years ago. Teams from all over the region are coming to play at a vintage baseball festival Saturday.
Baseball has always been played with a ball and a bat, but even those have changed. The bats back then were thinner, and the balls were much softer than today’s version.
Event organizer Chris Fuschiardi with the host team, the Continental Base Ball Club of Kalamazoo, says they will be wearing hot cotton uniforms, and adhering to different rules on what constitutes an out, a strike, and a foul ball. They will also be playing without gloves, because it was a bare handed game back then.
Even back then the rules were changing, and those differences will be demonstrated on the different diamonds.
Even the name of the game base ball was different then, spelled as two words and not one.
The games will be played from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Saturday at Ramona Park, 8600 South Sprinkle Road.
reporting from John McNeill
