A newspaper of the day may have described it as "a memorable day in the annals of a grand game, in which two clubs of ballists took to The Garden for a sunny afternoon of spirited competition.
"Muffins, strikers and hurlers performed athletic feats before adoring crowds of cranks and rooters in Princeton, with the Low Balls Nine defeating Jacks Nine by a score of 15 to 9."
Ah, baseball.
Though it's 2011, and the vernacular and many rules have changed, the Flemington Neshanock Old-Time baseball team proved that the game was, and still is, grand, despite approaching its 200th birthday.
On a steamy Saturday afternoon, the Neshanock entertained families at Princeton High School's JV Field, donning old-style uniforms and playing a game by 1864 rules.
Sponsored for the second straight year by the Historical Society of Princeton, the event drew baseball fans of multiple ages to the field to watch how the sport was played.
"I'm really into the history," said Joe "Mick" Murray, the third baseman for the winning team. "You take for granted what baseball is today, but you get a perspective on what it was like and how far the game has come. It's a completely different game than what it was in the 1860s. There were a lot of strange rules back then."
Some fans experienced these rules first hand. As Flemington founder Brad "Brooklyn" Shaw explained, the stagecoach carrying the Elkton Eclipse, that day's scheduled opponents, was lost, so the Neshanock was seeking volunteers.
Several "muffins," or unskilled players, received a crash course in the rules. Fielders played bare-handed, since gloves weren't used until the late 1870s. Outs were recorded if a ball was caught before it touched the ground or on one bounce.
Balls and strikes weren't called, though the "hurler" or "striker" were warned by the umpire if he felt they were intentionally throwing poor pitches or not swinging at strikes.
"It's counter-intuitive to everything you're taught as a kid," said Larry "Ohio" Cleveland, a recruited spectator who roamed the outfield for the Low Ball Nine. "Catching the ball on one bounce is different. Foul balls can be fair balls. The balls are much softer, but the bats are much heavier."
The Neshanock, which revives the name of a team that was originally established in 1866, plays on weekends, traveling to states along the East Coach, including New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Players range in age from 19 to 60.
Flemington played in a Gettysburg Festival last week that featured appearances by Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, who clearly supported opposing teams. They're off to Delaware next weekend for another tournament.
"It's a lot of fun and you get to play baseball," said shortstop Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner, who played for the losing team. "There's a great historical aspect, too. It's interesting to see the changes that came along, and as you play, you learn why they made the changes that they did."
During the game, Shaw broke into a rendition of "Casey At The Bat," to the amusement of the crowd. On the field, the Low Ball Nine took control on a "Sockdolager" (long hit) home run by Mark "Peaches" Rubini, a former pitcher at West Chester University.
The score didn't matter. By the end of the ninth inning, when Jacks Nine's rally fell well short of victory, fans of the New York Yankees learned what it was like to play in the days of the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
