GRAHAMSVILLE — Two Vintage 19th Century Base Ball Games will be held at the Grahamsville Fairgrounds on St. Rt. 55 in Grahamsville on Sunday, September 8th at noon, sponsored by the Time and the Valleys Museum in Grahamsville. The Mountain Athletic Club of Fleischmanns faces off with the Connecticut Base Ball Club of Hartford for a double-header of 1864 and 1895 rules base ball. 

Before each game, a brief talk will be given describing the differences between the rules in 1864 or 1895 and the rules today. “These are no ordinary ball games,” states Collin Miller, captain of the Mountain Athletic Club. “More than likely, the players and the style of play will resemble what your great, or great-great grandparents would’ve seen over one-hundred fifty years ago.” 

The first game will be played by the rules and customs of base ball (spelled this way in the 1800s) in 1864. Fielders do not wear gloves, at all; gloves would not come around until the 1880’s. The base balls are also stitched differently – often called a “lemon peel” – and made slightly larger than the modern “horseshoe” ball. And a batted ball caught on a “bound” or one bounce is an out. Of particular interest is that pitches are tossed underhand from a pitcher’s box 45 feet from home plate – a round metal dish ten inches in diameter. Umpires do not call a ball or strike on the batter until they issue a warning: either to a pitcher for not serving up a hittable pitch, or to the batter for being too choosy with what to swing at.

The second game will be played by 1895 rules. “Base Ball in 1895 had subtle differences to the modern game. For example,” states Miller, “the only balls landing in foul territory that are considered a strike on the batter are those that were bunted; they were referred to as a “foul strike”. The gloves were quite different as well.”

Admission is $5 per person with children under 10 free. Please bring chairs. Traditional base ball refreshments will be available for purchase at the concessions stand. For more information about this program, please call 845 985-7700 or email info@timeandthevalleysmuseum.org.

About the Mountain Athletic Club: Founded in 1895 by yeast magnates Julius and Max Fleischmann, the Mountain Athletic Club draws its name from the field where many former major leaguers played before it was donated to the community in 1914. They are located in the present day Village of Fleischmanns in eastern Delaware County, NY. www.macvintagebaseball.org More about Mountain Athletic Club: From 1895 through the early 1900’s, the young sons of famous yeast magnate Charles Flesichmann maintained a semi-professional ball club near their summer estate on the west end of the village of Griffin Corners (name was changed to Fleischmanns in 1914 following the donation of their private baseball park to the community). Over a dozen future and former major and minor league and collegiate players joined with brothers Julius and Max Fleischmann to form a power house of talent in the fledgling days of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad that enabled players from the many towns along the rail lines to meet throughout the summer. The current team was reborn in 2007 after over 100 years of dormancy through the efforts of Fleischmanns resident and player, Todd Pascarella. Following the floods of Hurricane Irene in 2011, the team went on hiatus and returned to form in 2017 and has been going strong ever since with at least a dozen or more games each season throughout the Northeast playing by the different rules and customs of the nineteenth century. In 2020, the M.A.C. Grounds at Fleischmanns Park were listed on the NYS and National Register of Historic Places to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Club. 

About the Connecticut Base Ball Club of Hartford: A tribute to the flurry of baseball teams that originated in the Greater Hartford area during the mid to late nineteenth century, the Connecticut Base Ball Club of Hartford also known as “The Hartfords” have been in operation since 2017 and bring a wealth of talent to the vintage game, having gone undefeated in 2023. FB@ConnecticutHartfords.

About the Time and the Valleys Museum: Connecting Water People and the Catskills, the Museum is open weekends Memorial Day to the end of September, noon to 4 p.m.. Located at 332 Main Street in Grahamsville (St. Rt. 55), Sullivan County, admission for adults is $5, children under 16 $2, and children under six are free. 

All Museum exhibitions are interactive and both fun and educational for all ages: 

• Water and the Valleys, an exhibit on the history of the Rondout and Neversink watershed area from early geological times to the 20th century. This exhibition includes interactives such as a Native American artifact guessing game, grinding corn with a mortar and pestle, videos and more. 

• Tunnels, Toil and Trouble: New York City’s Quest for Water and the Rondout-Neversink Story, an interactive exhibit on NYC water supply system and the towns that were removed to build the system, which includes computer interactives, games, puzzles, videos and building a dam and tunnel. 

• 1930s Lost Catskill Farm, a farmhouse, outhouse, barn, electric plant, milk house and working waterwheel help visitors experience life in the 1930s through displays, videos, games and hands on activities, including the new exhibition As the Wheel Turns: Water Powered Industries in the Catskills.

• Bittersweet Memories: Lost Towns of the Catskill Watersheds a collaborative augmented reality art exhibition of the buildings and homes taken for NYC’s water system. 

The Time and the Valleys Museum is proud to be a Blue Star Museum, a collaboration between the National Endowment of the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and over 1,500 museums across America to provide free admission to active duty military members (with ID) and up to five family members. This free admission for members of the military and their families runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. 

For more information call 845 985-7700, e-mail info@timeandthevalleysmuseum.org or visit www.timeandthevalleysmuseum.org. To schedule a group tour for children or adults, please call 845-985-7700.