The inaugural season of Bay Area Vintage Base Ball put on a show
for fans from Morgan Hill to Santa Clara
– all in one day. On Sunday, the league’s two teams – South
County Jaspers and the San Jose Dukes – hooked up in a game that
started at Morgan Hill’s Community Park and wrapped up at Santa
Clara University’s Stephen Schott Stadium. The Jaspers emerged with
a 13-12 victory to improve t
o 4-0 this season but this was more about the show. The BAVBBL,
which is as much about the vintage as it is about the baseball – or
“base ball” as the nostalgists would have it, features teams
playing by the rules of 1886, dressing in the baggy uniforms of
that bygone age and sporting nickname
s out of a Victorian penny novel.
The inaugural season of Bay Area Vintage Base Ball put on a show for fans from Morgan Hill to Santa Clara – all in one day.
On Sunday, the league’s two teams – South County Jaspers and the San Jose Dukes – hooked up in a game that started at Morgan Hill’s Community Park and wrapped up at Santa Clara University’s Stephen Schott Stadium.
The Jaspers emerged with a 13-12 victory to improve to 4-0 this season but this was more about the show. The BAVBBL, which is as much about the vintage as it is about the baseball – or “base ball” as the nostalgists would have it, features teams playing by the rules of 1886, dressing in the baggy uniforms of that bygone age and sporting nicknames out of a Victorian penny novel.
On Sunday, the Jaspers and Dukes were knotted at 11-11 after five innings of play at Community Park.
The teams and their fans – or “cranks” as they’re called in the lingo of the late 19th century – then headed north to Schott Stadium to wrap up the game.
Some 250 cranks were on hand to see Jasper “striker” (hitter) David “Skip” Rodgers come through. With two runners on in the bottom of the seventh, San Martin’s Rodgers belted a triple, two “aces” (runs) scored, and Bob’s your uncle – the Jaspers were winners.
It was the largest crowd the teams had played before, said Jasper skipper Gary “Pops” Cooper of San Martin.
“We’re used to having about 20 people, so it was different,” he said. “It put a little pressure on us. Even some of the college players (from SCU) were making some pretty good remarks about it.”
The Jaspers and Dukes renew their rivalry May 15, with a game at San Jose’s Hamann Park at 9:30am, followed by a trip down Memory Lane on the recreated 19th-century streets of Kelly Park’s “History San Jose.”
For more information about BAVBB, visit their steam-powered Web site at www.eteamz.com/BAVBB.
