The Tournament We've All Been Waiting For

It's been a long season already and we're not nearly done, but we have come to the point in this, my first season of vintage base ball, which I have been anxiously awaiting since the first 'Goodwill Match' back in March:  It's time for the Ohio Cup!

Believe it or not, that's an actual quote from Lincoln, not one
of those made up quotes from the Internet.

The Ohio Cup is not just another base ball tournament.  It is THE tournament for vintage base ball in the United States.  This year marks the 22nd edition of the Cup, held as always in lovely, downtown, Columbus, Ohio.  "Why Columbus?" you may be asking.  Heck, I don't know, other than the tournament is coordinated by one of the pioneering teams of the Vintage Base Ball Association, the Ohio Village Muffins.  It is held at Ohio Village, part of the Ohio History Museum site, and what started out as a three-team tournament back in 1992 has now ballooned into the largest gathering of vintage base ball teams in the nation, featuring 32 teams from around the midwest.

The Ohio Cup isn't a tournament in the sense that there are brackets that lead to an eventual champion, although it did start with that format.  But it has evolved into a two-day festival celebrating the game as it was played in 1860.  There is still a lot of competition and teams play to win, but because of the size of the festival and amount of teams, games are limited to one-hour time limits.  Nevertheless, my Perfectos teammates still talk about the time two years ago when they went "undefeated' in the tournament, with five victories and one draw.  Last year, they won all three games on the first day, celebrated too hard on Saturday night, and dropped all three games on Sunday (whilst taking breaks in the outfield to 'dispose' of the contents of their stomach...if I ain't being too subtle).

At any rate, from what I understand we've drawn a bit of tough schedule this year.  Our first game on Saturday morning at 9 am will be against the Columbus Capitals.

Legend has it that the Capitals have not lost a match in the Ohio Cup in over five years and their lineup features at least one former New York Yankee.  After the Capitals we will face two of the original three teams from the first Ohio Cup.

Great Black Swamp Frogs

At noon we will face the Great Black Swamp Frogs from Sylvania, Ohio, and then at 3 pm we will take on the tournament hosts, the Ohio Village Muffins.

We then turn around on Sunday morning, at 10 am, to face the Welkin Base Ball Club from Port Huron, Michigan.

Welkin BBC Stamp

And then at 1 pm we face the Union Base Ball Club from somewhere in Minnesota (seriously, they don't have the city listed...just Minnesota.)

Somewhere, Minnesota

Then we finish the tournament Sunday afternoon against the...wait for it...

That's right...the Frosty Sons of Thunder, hailing from Somerset, Pennsylvania.

I really have been looking forward to this tournament all season.  Although there is no overall champion awarded, and we still have the Missouri Cup on the horizon, this is the big one.  We want to do well.

We will be missing a few of our players as Pitchfork, Hammer, and Walnuts will not be making the trip. But we will be picking up three of the St. Louis Unions ballists: Mayhem, Noodles, and Beans.  We will be representing the city of St. Louis as the St. Louis Empires rather than the Perfectos.  Our sister clubs, the Lafayette Square Cyclones and the St. Louis Brownstockings will also be combining forces and representing the city as the St. Louis Maroons.

The official seal of the Greater St. Louis Base Ball Historical Society

It should be a great weekend...stand by for news.

Dixie