In researching my blog for the All Star game for emergingcivilwar.com, which should be up tomorrow--I finally found a photo of some of the guys playing ball at Fort Tejon.
I am thinking it was in the '80s (1980s) that the civilians were looking around for something to do on Saturday afternoons. We had many spectators who showed up looking for battles on the wrong day, and we felt they should get something for their efforts.
The Ohio Village Muffins had just been in maybe the Smithsonian Magazine, and the playing of Vintage Base Ball was relatively new. We set up some bleachers with boards and barrels, printed up a little pamphlet for the cranks who would be watching our games, and had peanuts-in-the-shell in cones made from repros of Harper's Weekly.
It was great fun. My favorite memory was when some striker hit the ball to the outfield, and then-Corporal Bill Agnew doffed his kepi and caught the ball in his hat.
Check out emergingcivilwar.com today for an addition (Thomas Nast) to my series on Civil War Artists, and tomorrow for my piece on Base Ball and the Civil War.
Huzzah!
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