More than 300 athletes in period wool uniforms will take over four fields at the Westerville Sports Complex this weekend for the Ohio Cup, a vintage base ball festival that plays the game exactly as it was played in 1860 — underhand pitches, bare hands, and no gloves in sight. Games run Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission is free.
The festival is hosted annually by the Ohio History Connection, and this year's edition draws teams from Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and other states surrounding Ohio, according to WSYX. The event is considered one of the largest gatherings of vintage teams in the country, and organizers expect food trucks on site while encouraging families to bring lawn chairs for the day.
Anchoring the host lineup are the Ohio Village Muffins, the men's club the Ohio History Connection established in 1981 as the nation's first vintage base ball club to play a regular summer schedule, according to background from the Ohio History Connection. In 1996, the Muffins hosted the founding convention of the Vintage Base Ball Association, the organization that today helps preserve 19th-century rules across member clubs nationwide, per the Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball. Alongside the men's team, the organization also fields a women's club, the Ohio Village Diamonds, who play in period attire to spotlight 19th-century collegiate women's base ball history.
Why the Name Muffins, and What the Uniforms Mean
The Muffins wear belts stamped with the team name and shirts featuring a shield bearing a monogrammed M, per WSYX's reporting. Those chest shields and backward leather belts were adapted from 19th-century volunteer firefighter gear, since volunteer firemen originally wore chest shields to keep embers from burning through their clothing, according to Ohio Magazine. The team's own name comes from mid-19th-century baseball slang, when amateur clubs split rosters between skilled first-nine starters and casual, error-prone recreational players known as “muffins,” as Hoodline has previously reported.
The rules governing this weekend's games come straight from the 1860 Beadle's Dime Base-Ball Player, the first published annual baseball rulebook. Under those rules, pitchers deliver the ball underhand from 45 feet away, and fielders catch barehanded with no gloves, chest protectors or face masks, according to 1808Delaware. Gloves would not enter the sport until the 1870s, per WSYX. A batted ball caught on the first bounce still counts as an out under these 1860 rules — the so-called bound rule — even though that rule was officially eliminated from the broader game by 1865 as fly-ball catching skills advanced, the Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball notes. Vintage pitchers also aim simply to put the ball over the plate so batters can make contact, since there are no balls or called strikes in this version of the game.
A Gentleman's Game, With Cheers for the Other Side
Vintage base ball carries its own etiquette on the field, with players and opposing teams cheering good plays regardless of which side made them, per WSYX's account. The friendlier tenor traces back to Victorian-era codes of conduct that governed amateur play in the 1860s. That history took root locally after the Civil War, when organized baseball expanded rapidly in central Ohio — growing from zero clubs in Columbus before the war to six shortly after returning Union veterans brought rulebooks and equipment home with them, according to 614NOW.
The festival's roots have also spun off a local manufacturing story. Plain City-based Phoenix Bats was founded in the 1990s by former Muffins player Charley Trudeau, who began hand-turning custom 19th-century wooden bat replicas and single-seam “lemon peel” balls for his own teammates before expanding into commercial production, per Inc. Magazine.
Moving to Westerville for More Room
While the festival has historically been tied to Ohio Village in Columbus, this year's move to the Westerville Sports Complex allows organizers to run four simultaneous fields and accommodate larger crowds while keeping admission free, per the Ohio History Connection. The Ohio Cup includes teams from across multiple states surrounding Ohio playing simultaneously across those four fields, and families attending are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and expect food trucks on site, according to WSYX. Hoodline previously covered the Muffins playing an exhibition vintage base ball game at Century Village in nearby Grove City in August, part of the same wave of central Ohio events introducing spectators to 1860s-style play.
