It was a home game against the Stemtown Stinkers. The field was on a slight hill at the edge of Toledo near Oregon, enclosed by weeping willows that pushed in the wind like long bangs. Residents of the Lutheran Home, a retirement community, looked on with a few dozen fans, friends, and family while eating hot dogs and ice cream.
One of the Stinkers walked up to bat. He and his team, from Green Springs, Ohio, dressed more like soldiers than athletes, wearing gray slacks and white conductor hats with two, green wraparound stripes. The bat, which looked more like a broomstick than something the Mud Hens would use, made a hollow click when it hit the underhand-tossed ball. The ball bounced once before being caught by one of Sylvania’s Great Black Swamp Frogs, and before the fielder could throw the ball to first, the runner had already turned around. The inning was over. The umpire shouted to the audience to explain, “A catch on the bounce is an out in 1860s baseball!”
A part of history
The Sylvania Great Black Swamp Frogs have played vintage baseball for the past 25 years, using rules from the 1860s. During the mid 19th Century, the game changed rapidly as it gained popularity. The Frogs play a bucolic version of the game held in open fields, without running lanes, catching mitts, or base-stealing. One of the founding members of the Frogs, Brad James, didn’t even wear shoes for the first 16 years that he played.
The Frogs’ first game was held at Scott Park in 1991. Since then, they have played over 400 matches all over the country, from Bethpage, New York to Giants Stadium in San Francisco. For the past 20 years, they have traveled to play against the Woodstock, Ontario Hilltoppers on Canada Day, and have invited them to play in Toledo on the 4th of July.
One of the team’s founders was a baseball historian, John Husman. He and the Frogs made sure that their games are true to history. They drink water from metal canteens. They carve their own baseball bats. Their uniforms are loose-fitting collared shirts, with a white-and-green bib buttoned to the front that shows a calligraphic F. They don’t follow history in at least one regard, though— they encourage women to play. “It’s not historically accurate, but we welcome it anyway,” said Team President, Rick Fuchs.
A gentleman’s game
“It’s more a social gathering than a competition,” said Jeff Rice, a player and Vice-President of the team. Rice likes that he can bring his young daughter to games (she even has her own uniform). During the game at the Lutheran Home, a Stemtown player muttered a curse word under his breath. The umpire instantly fined him— they appeared to exchange a quarter right there on the field— and the player had to take off his hat and apologize to all of the women in the crowd.
“We’re there for the fun of playing baseball,” said Fuchs, who goes by “Sparky” on the field. All of the players have nicknames, as was the custom in the 1860s. Fuchs is called “Sparky” because the rest of the team incorrectly assumed that he was an electrical engineer (he works with chemicals). Jeff “Wrong Way” Rice got lost on the way to a game. Eric Kutchenriter was called “Buckshot” until he ran into a rope fence while attempting to catch a fly ball— now everyone calls him “Clothesline.”
Baseball is an ever-changing sport. Drug tests and instant replay may be the latest additions, but they will not be the final amendments to its rules. There will always be people who remember baseball as a simpler affair, a game amongst friends, with a ball and a bat on grass. A rookie player, Rob “Thunderbolt” Solt, told me that playing for the Great Black Swamp Frogs is like being “an actual part of living baseball history.”
For more information on the team, visit greatblackswampfrogs.org.
They will be playing several games at the Tiffin Heritage festival on September 20th.
greatblackswampfrogs.org/schedule.html
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Dorian Slaybod is an attorney happily living in Toledo.