Local teams compete in Civil War sports – Farmville

By Brian Carlton and John Karratti

The Farmville Herald

TThe scores were a little higher than what we’re used to. The uniforms were definitely different. Baseball was a different sport in the 1860s when it was invented. For one thing, your “prize” for winning was going home with the ball itself. The challenging team was responsible for bringing the ball, and the winning team went home with it. The bases were bags full of sawdust and the pitcher’s mound was a plate of iron. And after the Fourth of July celebration, families from Buckingham, Cumberland, and Prince Edward counties were able to experience this firsthand by playing baseball under the old rules at Appomattox Court House.

On Saturday, July 6, the state park hosted a series of impromptu games, all played under Civil War rules. That is, if you hit a ball and it was caught on impact, you were out. It also meant that “soaking” was allowed, which meant if you hit the runner with the ball while he was running between bases, he was out. In today’s game, we had players run past first base while trying to get a hit. No, that was not allowed either, which resulted in players sliding or diving to first base, just like we see today at home plate.

The umpires weren’t really there to call balls and strikes, either. Under the 1863 rules of the National Association of Base Ball Players, the pitcher didn’t try to put the batter out. The pitcher was supposed to throw the ball so the batter could hit it. The umpire only intervened when the situation got out of hand, such as when the pitcher couldn’t hit the catcher’s glove at all. At that point, the umpire could call a walk or ignore it. It was entirely his decision. Don’t expect all throws to come from the top, either. Most pitchers threw from the bottom in those early days.

In many ways, it’s a much simpler version of the game that was demonstrated at Appomattox. And anyone could come along and join in, and everyone did.

No gloves needed

And while some teams of friends and families compete against each other, residents can also just come along and join in on their own. They don’t need to bring anything, not even a glove. Why? Because you catch with your hands.

“The ball is much softer than it is today,” said Brian Miller, a senior park ranger at Appomattox Court House. “There was no need to bring a glove because they weren’t used.”

That was part of the challenge in the 1860s. According to the rules of the National Association, the ball had to be made of a mixture of rubber and yarn and covered with leather. Today’s version is much harder and consists of a cork core covered by two layers of rubber. On the one hand, the earlier version was much easier to catch. But it was also harder to hit. While today’s game is about high scores and home runs, it wasn’t as easy to hit a piece of yarn wrapped in rubber over a fence with a wooden bat. The bats were also unique. They all had to be made of wood, but that was it as far as the rules went.

“It must be made of wood and can be of any length depending on the needs of the club,” say the National Association rules.

Artists’ drawings from this period show all sorts of examples. Some preferred a tiny club that barely crossed the plate. Others preferred a long shaft that virtually guaranteed they could hit it when it did cross the plate.

History of Baseball

So what does baseball have to do with the Civil War? That’s when it really became a national sport. The game had been adapted from a British schoolyard game called Rounders, and in the decades before the Civil War it was basically a semi-professional sport.

According to Michael Mahr of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, the practice of this sport was practically ordered by Union doctors.

“Union soldiers played baseball while in camp or waiting for deployment, as soldier life was usually pretty boring,” Mahr said. “It was not only a way for the troops to be entertained, but also a way to get some physical exercise and was welcomed by regimental doctors as a way to keep the troops healthy.”