The Monitor Base Ball Club of Chelsea welcomed the Union Base Ball Club of Dexter and the Welkin Base Ball Club of Port Huron to town for a three-team Gatling gun match. I know that sounds violent and potentially harmful, but it doesn’t involve any guns. Just three teams playing base ball.

As usual, the captains addressed the cranks before the match.

Port Huron brought a young Japanese team member who had arrived in the country just a week earlier.

Every ballist has a nickname, and his should come as no surprise: Samurai. He seemed to be having a great deal of fun — he had a smile on his face almost every time I spotted him.

One of the fun things about photographing sports is the potential of catching things you won’t see in real time, like the compression of the ball on the bat.

Sports: fun with physics!

Midway through the match I noticed Honest Jon showing a bat to the crowd. It turns out the bat had cracked during his last at-bat.

Hey look! It’s Mike and Bethany!

Okay, enough of that. Back to base ball.

I just can’t take the next picture seriously.

Great timing; not such a great angle. It’s funny, though, so I’m keeping it.

You can go ahead and caption the next photo yourself if you’d like.

(Don’t worry: he was just throwing to first.)

The Welkins were the last to bat, and they found themselves facing a deficit. Samurai decided to don the rally cap in an effort to bring his team back.

Was the rally cap was part of base ball in the 1860s? Let’s pretend it was.

Here’s a look at the final score:

And here are the clubs:

The Monitors’ final home match of 2013 is on Saturday, August 24. Don’t worry: it’s after the fair parade. Go watch the parade and then head to Timbertown to enjoy some base ball! You’ll be glad you did.