If You Like Vintage 'Base Ball,' Monmouth Furnace Team Wants You

If you love baseball and history, and love the idea of immersing
yourself in both, there is a group looking for more members to help it
celebrate vintage baseball.

The Monmouth Furnace "Base Ball" Club, which plays its home games at the Historic Village at Allaire, is
looking for more players. The club plays by 1864 rules, with wood bats
and without fielding gloves, and plays against other vintage baseball
clubs around the tri-state area.

An information meeting for interested ballplayers will be held at noon on
Sunday (Jan. 22) at Café Anna Bella, 1800 Route 34, Wall Township.
Current team members are from Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, and
they range from teenagers to senior citizens.

Club Captain Russ McIver said the meeting also will be a celebration of
Monmouth Furnace's 2016 season in which it faced vintage teams from New
York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, as well as three other New Jersey
teams.

way 'base ball' (two separate words back then) was conducted by the
sporting gentlemen of the 19th century. Now we welcome members of the
gentle sex on our team. Our uniforms include long-sleeved shirts and
cravats (ties), and the pitches are underhand, but it's a fast-paced
game.”

Vintage squads from other states consider the Historic
Village at Allaire hallowed ground. It was the spring training site for
the 1898 Brooklyn major league team which later became the Dodgers. The
village, in Wall Township's Allaire State Park, was an iron-making
“company town” in the 1800s. Today it is a living history museum with
guides in period clothing who take visitors through restored buildings.

Additional information about the Monmouth Furnace meeting is available from Russ McIver at 732-859-7643 or furnace@monmouth.com.