19th Century Baseball Is Alive And Well In Newbury

WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel reports. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The diamond is packed with players wearing scalley caps and
collared shirts. It's like an old timey photo.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I mean, I'm wearing an eighteen nineties Baltimore Orioles uniform.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
That's because they're playing baseball, the ancient predecessor of the
modern game, with rules that are quite different. This version
dates back to eighteen sixty four.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And for one, it's a little bit softer. I mean
obviously not wearing gloves. That people are hitting pretty like
preheart's a little bit softer.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
That's right, no gloves, and you're allowed to catch the
ball for an out even if it bounces, which means
people are really trying to hit line drives, not bombs.
Brian shehe's the president of the Essex Baseball Organization, which
plays its games at a farm in Nuver. A couple
hundred people turned up to this one, so if.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
We try to bring some history to it, like we're
obviously playing and competing, but we're really trying to educate
people too on the history of the game.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
He says. There are teams and leagues all over the
country at this point. Kyle Shaffle w BS Boston's news
radio