Another Belleville200 event that we’ve been really looking forward to is the 2014 Gustave Koerner Belleville Vintage Base Ball Festival. There are nine games scheduled over two days, and we went to see our hometown Stags play the St. Louis Brown Stockings this afternoon. It was just as much fun as the last time we went, and, like last time, the Stags were victorious! Huzzah!
This has been a very busy “term” of summer school! I originally planned to wrap up each week, like I do during the standard school year, but there were many weeks when we only had school two or three days. That’s the beauty of homeschooling, but it’s not very conducive to weekly reports!
We had a great book list for the basis of our lessons. This created a great scope of baseball and American history, for our purposes. We also studied geography, focusing on the locations of all of the MLB teams, as well as some other notable baseball locations. The coloring books I got for the children not only encouraged them to color carefully and in details in terms of uniforms, but also taught them a great deal about individual players. We studied math and the science of baseball, as well, and watched several baseball movies.
The highlight our summer school was field trips. We went on a Busch Stadium tour, and learned more history.
We also visited the new Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum, and were immersed in hands-on history.
We went to a Cardinals game, you know, to get the full baseball experience (not that we’ve never done that before!).
We also went to a vintage baseball game, to see how the game has changed over the years.
And we toured the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, where we learned not only history, but the practical how of how baseball bats are made.
And we visited the Louisville Slugger Walk of Fame. Even more history!
I truly believe that this was our finest year of summer school ever. It covered a topic everybody is interested in, and because it was history-focused, something about which I am especially passionate. I hope my children will always remember the lessons they learned this summer!
This afternoon, we drove down to Waterloo to see a vintage base ball game (that space between base and ball seems to be an important distinction in the vintage game). The Belleville Stags were playing the St. Louis Perfectos. We got there just in time to see the players line up on the field:
Things looked familiar, yet different. For example, the bats and balls generally looked like they do now, but both were a little bigger than today’s models:
The terminology is different, too. For example, there were arbiters, instead of umpires:
And the mayor of Waterloo “hurled” the first pitch:
The rules can also make it seem like a different game. No sliding, spitting, or cussing, or the arbiter would throw you off the field. There’s no such thing as a foul strike, no players wore gloves, and the batter was out if the ball was caught off of one bounce (which makes sense, as they don’t wear gloves…you wouldn’t expect them to catch fly balls barehanded, although some players did occasionally!). But looking at the game on the field, you do still know it’s baseball!
As far as I could tell, this bell was rung every time somebody scored:
I loved the uniforms:
Especially the high socks!
And the tally keeper for the Stags was wearing a long dress and carried a parasol…I think I’d like that job!
I also loved the…well, today I guess we’d call it trash talking…that went on between the players. It was all very good-natured, and quite clever. There was a lot of laughter at that ballgame! I also appreciated that one of the players walked around and explained the game and answered questions…that helped clear up some of our confusion!
The Stags won the first game of the doubleheader 6-5. It was too hot for us to stay for the second game, but honestly, we didn’t even care who won…it was just fun to watch the players perform!
And, for those of you who couldn’t be there with us today, a little something special to help you get into the vintage spirit:
We will definitely be going to another Stags game when we get the chance…it was a blast!
“For the glory of the game! Huzzah!”