#BOUNCING BALLS GAME YAHOO SERIES#

To catch Bouton's drift is to realize he is more pragmatist than purist, and what else could be expected from the man who transformed the way major league baseball was perceived when he wrote 'Ball Four' in 1970? He has been an entrepreneur since giving up the knuckleball and helping create the faux-chaw bubble gum 'Big League Chew' in the late 1970s. Different baseball was played by different rules in different places, and the game evolved by amalgamation and drift.' The game was gradually systemized, and it's always improving. 'All rules are a function of context, and today some seem silly and some seem quaint,' said John Thorn, a prominent baseball historian and author who serves on Bouton's board. (David Molnar / Special to Yahoo! Sports)

#BOUNCING BALLS GAME YAHOO SERIES#

Westfield hurler Matt 'Matches' Avery pitches to Hartford striker David 'Fleetwood' Chambers during the Vintage Base Ball Federation World Series final at Bullens Field. Interactivity, it seems, was popular long before the Internet. Besides the batter's choice of a high or low strike zone, other rules that no longer exist include: A foul ball caught on one hop is an out there are no balks or timeouts the hidden-ball trick and quick pitches are allowed at all times and if the lone umpire can't see a play, he may 'appeal to the bystanders and render his decision according to the fairest testimony at command.' Meanwhile, a player discreetly retrieved the ball because of a policy true to the period – no new ball unless one is irretrievably lost.Īs for the playing rules, Bouton and his board of directors of renowned baseball historians and writers have cherry-picked from 1850 to 1890 the ones they believe make for the best spectator sport. When a nurse attended to a spectator who'd been hit in the side of the head by a foul ball, Bouton grabbed a large umbrella that had been set up to shade ticket-takers, pulled it from the ground and planted it next to the fallen man. He seemed to be everywhere at once, exhorting the crowd through an enormous megaphone (no electricity allowed, of course), playing straight man to a mime and signing copies of 'Ball Four' and other books he wrote. 'In Vintage Base Ball, nobody expects a play to be made and everybody is thrilled when it happens.'īouton, 68, dapper in a white shirt, red suspenders and bowler, is no ivory tower administrator. 'In today's game, people expect every play to be made and get upset when there is an error,' he said, eating a Creamsicle as a crowd of about 2,500 cheered the action in the afternoon sun.

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