{image1}The Milwaukee Cream Citys Base Ball Club hosts a vintage baseball tournament on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 13 and 14 at Trimborn Farms, 8881 W. Grange Ave., Greendale. What is the Cream Citys Base Ball Club? Glad you asked ...
What's up with the funny hats? The Cream Citys wear replicas of the uniforms worn by Milwaukee's first professional team of the same name, which was founded by Milwaukee Sentinel editor Rufus King in the early 1860s. The company who made the replicas used the only known photograph of the team, taken in 1869, to pattern some vintage threads for Hetzel. The players wear cream-colored jerseys with a shield that buttons adorned with two large old English "C's." That funny looking cap, which has a black bill and a star on top, is what's called a Boston-style cap.
Gary "Handlebar" Hetzel, manager of the Cream Citys, welcomes newcomers to the club, but keep your curveball at home. The Cream Citys play by older rules that state a pitcher must lob the pitch underhand so that the batter can easily swat it. Early baseball was a gentleman's game, says Hetzel, and any attempt the pitcher made to deceive the hitter would have been deemed "un-gentlemanly."
With no curveballs allowed, it means there are no strikeouts. The umpire didn't call balls and strikes back then, so there are no walks, either. However if the umpire thinks the batter isn't swinging at good pitches, he can issue a warning, and then start calling strikes.
Uniforms from 1869 but no balls and strikes? Hetzel concedes that his Cream Citys club play by the rules of 1860 but wear uniforms from 1869, when the rules were slightly different.
There's more that's different, too. A batter is out if the ball is caught in the air or on one bounce; there's no over-running first base; and there were no baseball mitts, so fielders use their bare hands. All these things sound odd to us, but in 1860 baseball was still evolving from the sports of town ball and rounders into the game we know today.
Sure, scoring runs was basically the same as it is today. Baseball in 1860 was still played on a baseball diamond with 90-ft. base paths, there were three outs an inning, nine innings per game and nine players per side.
And you'll need a nickname if you want to play with the Cream Citys. But, be forewarned, "Handlebar," "Hurricane," "The Barrister," "Jeff the Gent," "Ace" and "Biff" are already taken.
Vintage ball sounds like fun, but there's some work involved, too, as the club uses baseballs they stitch together themselves. Hetzel says at first it took four hours to assemble one ball, but now they've cut that time in half.
There aren't any big-time jocks on the Cream City club, just a few Milwaukee Public Museum employees and their friends. But a big league star did make a brief appearance for the Cream Citys when they played an exhibition before a Twins/Brewers game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. A ball hit by the opponent headed towards Twins star pitcher Johan Santana who was stretching in the outfield. Santana, last year's Cy Young Award winner, swatted the ball towards the Cream Citys outfielder, turning an inside-the-park home run into a double, says Hetzel.
Hetzel says the Cream Citys were the first vintage baseball club in the state when they started last year. But two more Wisconsin teams have begun this year, one sponsored by Old World Wisconsin, the other founded by a group of Civil War reenactors.
The Milwaukee team is 3-3 so far, with about six games remaining this summer. To break it down they are 3-0 versus some Civil War reenactment groups, but 0-3 against experienced vintage clubs from out of state. "When we went up to Minnesota, we were taught a lot of things," says Hetzel. "They took no mercy on us."
If this sounds like your idea of fun, head to Trimborn Farms this weekend where you can see six teams play in a two-day tournament hosted by the Cream Citys. Admission is free, and the first games on both days start at 9 a.m. There should be some interesting people watching as some of the teams travel with an entourage of fans who dress up in 1860s attire.
The Cream Citys' Web site is creamcitys.org. The club is a member of the Vintage Base Ball Association, whose Web site is vbba.org.
