President’s Cup vintage base ball tourney to begin

Vintage base ball teams across Ohio are coming to Fremont to compete in the State of Eight Presidents’ Cup vintage base ball tournament Saturday, July 31, and Sunday, Aug. 1, at fields in Fremont.

The tournament, which brings together teams representing the regions from where each of Ohio’s eight presidents originate, is being played in honor of Sandusky County’s bicentennial. 

It will take place at Spiegel Grove, the grounds of the Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, and at Naderer Field, 206 Sullivan Rd., Fremont.

Admission is free. Attendees are asked to bring a chair or blanket for seating at both fields. Concessions will be offered at Spiegel Grove. The Sandusky County Bicentennial traveling museum also will be at Spiegel Grove throughout the tournament and open to visitors.

The Spiegel Grove Squires, the vintage base ball team at Hayes Presidential, are the hosts, as well as Hayes Presidential and the Sandusky County Bicentennial Committee.

The Spiegel Grove Squires are baseball devotees who bring to life the sport during its early years. It was in the 1860s that base ball, as it was spelled back then, became an organized sport with rules of play and standards for base ball clubs. 

Members of the Spiegel Grove Squires are volunteers. They have studied and learned the methods of play used in the 1860s, including playing bare-handed and using a bat that looks more like a broom handle. Players are called ballists, and they wear period-style uniforms and adopt the language of 19th-century base ball during their matches, as games were called back then. The club dates back to 1991, became inactive in 1998 and restarted in 2001. Since then, it has been consistently active.

The team has a full schedule, including several home games at Spiegel Grove, the grounds of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums. Admission to home games is free. Home games take place on the lawn behind the Hayes Home.

The tournament will follow the rules of base ball in the 1860s, when it was first becoming an organized sport and spelled with two words. 

 

Participating teams include:

Alliance Crossing Rails, representing William McKinley.

Tippecanoe Canal Jumpers, representing William Howard Taft.

Cincinnati Red Stockings, representing William Henry Harrison.

Clodbusers BBC, representing Benjamin Harrison.

Cleveland Blues, representing Ulysses Grant.

Akron Black Stockings, representing Warren G. Harding.

Spiegel Grove Squires, representing Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield.

Due to the tournament being short one club, the Squires will represent Garfield in addition to Hayes. Garfield and Hayes were political allies. 

 

The schedule includes:

Saturday, July 31

Noon – Squires vs. Cincinnati Red Stockings at Spiegel Grove

Noon – Cleveland Blues vs. Akron Black Stockings at Naderer Field

1:30 p.m. – Alliance Crossing Rails vs. Clodbusters BBC at Spiegel Grove

3 p.m. – Squires vs. the Tippecanoe Canal Jumpers at Naderer Field

3 p.m. – Cleveland Blues vs. Cincinnati Red Stockings at Spiegel Grove

4:30 p.m. – Alliance Crossing Rails vs. Akron Black Stockings at Naderer Field

  Sunday, Aug. 1

9:30 a.m. – Squires vs. Clodbusters BBC at Naderer Field.

9:30 a.m. – Cleveland Blues vs. Tippecanoe Canal Jumpers at Spiegel Grove.

11 a.m. – Alliance Crossing Rails vs. Cincinnati Red Stockings at Naderer Field.

12:30 p.m. – Squires vs. Akron Black Stockings at Spiegel Grove.

12:30 p.m. – Cleveland Blues vs. Clodbusters BBC at Naderer Field.

2 p.m. – Alliance Crossing Rails vs. Tippecanoe Canal Jumpers at Spiegel Grove.

3:30 p.m. – Championship match.

For info, call 419-332-2081, visit rbhayes.org or follow HPLM on social media.

The Sandusky County Bicentennial Committee is comprised of local community members. 

After the COVID-19 pandemic postponed most of the bicentennial events planned for 2020, the committee has offered them this year in the county’s bicentennial plus-one year celebration. 

A schedule of remaining events and details is available at www.bicentennial2020.org and on Facebook at @SanduskyCounty2020.

 

 

Category:

The Press

The Press
1550 Woodville Road
Millbury, OH 43447

(419) 836-2221

Email Us

Facebook Twitter

Ohio News Media Association