For fans of vintage base ball, or for those who want to experience it for the very first time, calendars should be circled for the weekend of Sept. 13-14 as the Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball (TAoVBB) will hold its annual Sulphur Dell Cup tournament and declare a champion for the 2025 season.
The tournament will be held exclusively on the old polo fields of historic Barnhardt Circle in Fort Oglethorpe where the city's Welcome Center now sits, while the tournament itself is named for the first professional baseball stadium in the state of Tennessee.
Admission to the tournament is free.
Sulphur Dell was built in 1885 in Nashville, just north of the state capitol building.
The Nashville Vols played Southern Association games there from 1901 until the stadium's final season in 1963. It was demolished in 1969.
Amateur teams began playing base ball in the Sulphur Spring Bottom area as early as 1870 and famed sportswriter Grantland Rice coined the named "Sulphur Dell" in 1908.
Three of the vintage league's 10 teams are based in Chattanooga, but use the Fort Oglethorpe field as its "home" field. The Mountain City Club of Chattanooga and the Lightfoot Club of Chattanooga both joined the league back in 2015, while the Grasshoppers Club of Chattanooga entered the league this season.
The league also has one team in Knoxville (Knoxville Vintage Base Ball Club), while the rest reside in the metro-Nashville area. That group includes the Quicksteps of Spring Hill, the Stewarts Creek Scouts, the Cumberlanders of Nashville, The Phoenix of East Nashville, and the league's two founding members - the Nashville Maroons and the Franklin Farriers.
Founded in 2012, the TAoVBB employs the uniforms, equipment, terminology and rules from the year 1864, along with an old-time spirit of sportsmanship and camaraderie. The 10 teams make up a portion of the approximate 400 vintage base ball clubs currently operating in the United States.
"Our league is made up of all walks of life and professions from engineers, college professors and auto mechanics to retirees and history buffs," said current TAoVBB Commissioner John "The Mayor" Hixson, who plays for Mountain City. "One thing is certain, we all love the game of baseball and love bringing the civility of the sport that originated in the mid-1800’s to life in the hopes of entertaining and educating fans."
The players, or "ballists" in vintage speak, also love to interact with the fans ("cranks") about their love of the game and their love for the history of the game, which makes TAoVBB part competition and part living history, since the outcome of each game isn't known.
With the Chickamauga Battlefield just a stone's throw away, Barnhardt Circle is the perfect venue to host the event due to the Civil War-era time period in which the games are crafted. In fact, there are historical references that the sport of base ball (two words back in those days) really began to expand in Tennessee when it was introduced to the area by Union soldiers. There are even references to games being played in both Union and Confederate prison camps.
Most of the teams in the league are named for actual base ball clubs that formed and played in Tennessee in the 1860's, including both the Mountain (City) Club and the Lightfoot Club.
Wooden bats are used, while the "lemon-peel" ball - a slightly heavier, less-tightly wound ball covered in one solid piece of leather and stitched in a "X" pattern - makes for a somewhat softer feel. A softer ball is important because players in the league play bare-handed as gloves did not start being used in the sport until the late 1860's and early 1870's.
While the bases are still 90 feet apart and there are still three outs ("hands dead") per inning of each nine-inning game, spectators will see some noticeable differences in the way the game is played today and the way it was played 161 years ago.
The main difference is the "bound rule", which states that a batter ("striker") is out if the ball is caught on the first bounce, be it in fair or foul territory. Runners can advance without tagging up on a ball caught on the bound, but must tag up if the ball is caught in the air. The rule was done away with in 1865.
TAoVBB games also do not employ bunting, sliding or stealing bases and balls and strikes are not called, unless the umpire ("arbiter") deems it necessary to speed up the action. Where a batted ball first hits the ground determines whether or not the ball is fair and players are not allowed to run through the bag at first. Pitchers ("hurlers") also deliver pitches underhanded from 45 feet away, so strikeouts are extremely rare.
The regular season for the TAoVBB begins in mid-April and teams generally play every weekend or every other weekend through the end of August before the Sulphur Dell Cup in mid-September.
"We are excited to partner with the City of Fort Oglethorpe and be able to play this game that makes us all feel like kids again at the historic Polo Fields," Hixson added. "We are going to have two days of great 1860's base ball and, as always, our events are free, so bring a snack and a lawn chair!"
Spectators are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets as there is no permanent seating at the field.