Last Sunday was the first-ever Chelsea History Fest at Timbertown. There were antique cars and craft demonstrators…and vintage base ball! It may come as no surprise to you that I spent most of my time watching base ball.

The first match was an exhibition between the Monitor Base Ball Club of Chelsea and a collection of locals given the name Scrub Nine. This is the Scrub Nine:

The team included representatives from Chelsea schools, the Chelsea library, Vogel’s & Fosters, and the Chelsea Alehouse. None of the players had experience with the vintage game, so Honest Jon game them an overview of the rules.

After the usual intros…

…the game got started.

(That’s Chelsea library director Bill Harmer swinging for the fences. Well, he would have been swinging for the fences had there been fences. Don’t worry: he doesn’t carry a bat in the library.)

The second match was against the Lumber City Base Ball Club of Flint. Here are the two captains having a chat during the exhibition match.

Are vintage base ball uniforms the best? Yes. Yes they are.

There were other cameras out, but unlike the ones at Sounds & Sights, they weren’t pointing at me!

After a break, the intros for the second match started. Uniform + mustache = YES.

They modified the bat toss just slightly for this match:

Then the match started.

As I mentioned at the beginning, there were other events happening, too. Many of the other events were wrapping up by the time I pried myself away from base ball, but there were still a couple demonstrators working.

The above gentleman was weaving the official tartan of the state of Michigan. Did you know there was such a thing? There is!