If You Like Vintage 'Base Ball,' The Monmouth Furnace Club 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.

The club is organized by Rich Wieland of Toms River and Frank Siracusa of Manchester.

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 like Wieland and Siracusa.

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. The local club's members will be on hand Sunday to field questions.

“We have good old-fashioned fun,” he said. “We re-enact the 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.

Photo via Monmouth Furnace Base Ball Club Facebook page