Learning the rules of 1840s and 1850s baseball

WATERMAN – It’s not exactly going into a time machine when the Somonauk Blue Stockings take the field for a vintage baseball game – the players may not look as if they stepped out of the 1850s, but the game they play sure does.

The Blue Stockings use a set of unified rules agreed upon in 1858, one of the earliest sets of national rules put in use. No gloves. One-hoppers are outs. No balls or walks.

Even with those differences, many elements of today’s games are in place – three strikes are an out, last at-bats, nine innings and more.

Before an exhibition game at the Waterman Lions Summerfest and Antique Tractor Show on Saturday, team founder Mike Adrian and other Blue Stocking players talked about an even older set of rules – the Knickerbocker rules, developed in 1845. That set of rules is considered the basis of not only the 1858 rules, but the modern game as well.

There were more than 20 rules, but 11 applied to the gameplay where the others were mostly administrative. Here are the relevant rules, and the players’ thoughts on them.

4th: The bases shall be from “home” to second base, forty-two paces; from first to third base, forty-two paces, equidistant.

Not exactly set in stone like today’s 90 feet between bases, Adrian said it works out close to 90 feet between bases.

“It could have been basepaths as little as 75 feet to as much as 90,” Adrian said. “We guess that they took a long stride, not so much a pace as in walking, to establish what we call 90 feet. What was fascination was the diagonal measurement was within a foot. We pretty much assumed 90 feet.”

8th: The game is to consist of twenty-one counts, or aces; but at the conclusion an equal number of hands must be played.

One of the biggest changes between the Knickerbocker rules and the unifying rules the Blue Stockings and most vintage leagues use. In the 1840s and and 1850s, there was another variant called the Massachusetts rules that went to 100 runs, and had just one out per inning.

Even to 21 runs, games could lag. Hence the change to nine innings.

“They started that, but very quickly went to nine innings,” Adrian said.

9th: The ball must be pitched, not thrown, for the bat.

Adrian, 68, said he likes vintage baseball in general because it’s easier for someone his age to play. This rule is a big reason why, making the game more like slow-pitch softball.

That’s not to say pitcher’s didn’t – and don’t – game the system.

“They weren’t stupid. They weren’t some idyllic group of guys ‘Oh, let’s do this just for fun and exercise,’ ” said Adrian, who pitches for the Blue Stockings. “No. They wanted to win.”

Gina Lorusso played softball for a huge chunk of her life up until graduating from Sandwich. She’s also been playing in vintage leagues since she was 14, and said the slow pitch has its advantages.

“Underhand is nice, but it’s way slower than fast pitch,” Lorusso said. “It’s tougher for me ’cause I’m used to 50, 60 mph.”

10th. A ball knocked out of the field, or outside the range of the first and third base, is foul.

However, fouls weren’t strikes in either version of the game. And unlike today, balls that landed fair in the infield and went foul were considered fair.

“If it lands fair and goes foul, it’s a fair ball,” Adrian said. “You pretty much just play everything.”

11th. Three balls being struck at and missed and the last one caught, is a hand-out; if not caught it is considered fair, and the striker bound to run.

“It’s a 167 years old – the dropped third strike,” said Adrian with awe in his voice, admiring the age and longevity of one of the game’s oldest rules.

12th. If a ball be struck, or tipped, and caught, either flying or on the first bound, it is a hand out.

By far, the most popular rule of the game for the vintage crowd. Adrian said it adds an element of strategy when playing the field – the Blue Stockings use a house rule in which fielders play a stride off the bag in the field and straight away in the outfield.

Lorusso said it was her favorite wrinkle as well.

Brad Rogers, who has been playing vintage ball for eight years, said he loves the rule too – at least, most of the time.

“It makes it more fun, except when you tip it back to the catcher,” Rogers said. “It makes you feel about that big when you do that.”

13th. A player running the bases shall be out, if the ball is in the hands of an adversary on the base, or the runner is touched with it before he makes his base; it being understood, however, that in no instance is a ball to be thrown at him.

Different variations still allowed the ball to be thrown at the runner.

“It eliminated the Massachusetts rule of soaking a guy,” Adrian said.

15th. Three hands out, all out.

16th. Players must take their strike in regular turn.

These established the three-out inning and a batting order.

“Think about it – for a 160-something years, I need to do my math, but it stayed the same,” Adrian said.

18th. No ace or base can be made on a foul strike.

This is slightly different from today, as current players can tag up on a pop out.

The rule, even in the 1858 version, is vague on wild pitches and foul balls.

“There was question on whether they did back in the day,” Adrian said. “But we don’t.”

20th. But one base allowed when a ball bounds out of the field when struck.

Home runs weren’t a thing – at least not over a wall. A ball going out of play in fair territory – usually into a creek or some other natural obstacle – was an automatic single.

“That was the start of the ground rules,” Adrian said.

In all, it makes for a game everyone can play and isn’t as strenuous as the modern game – a drawing point for many players.

“It makes it an even playing field,” Rogers said. “It doesn’t matter how good you are, how bad you are. It makes it all equal for everybody.”

The Blue Stockings return to Somonauk at 1 p.m. Saturday for a game against Crestin as part of the village’s Summerfest, with those vintage 1858 rules in effect.

“If we jumped ahead to even the late 60s, the game would be too quick,” Adrian said. “Us older people would not be able to play.”