#Newsflash | Watch a 19th Century Baseball Game in Fort Totten on Oct. 12, 2024

The Yankees and Mets are making history this October, but this game is history.

Watch a 19th Century Baseball Game in Fort Totten on Saturday, Oct. 12, at 11 am.

Reenactors representing the New York Mutuals will take on their counterparts from the Brooklyn Atlantics in this exhibition, which is sponsored by the Bayside Historical Society.

Players will wear replicas of the original 19th century uniforms and use replica balls and bats from the time period. No gloves, though, as they hadn’t been invented yet!

The umpire will enforce 1864 rules. That means pitching is underhanded from 45 feet, home plate is round, no overrunning first base, and catching the ball on a bounce is an out.

After the final inning, the players will answer questions from the audience and invite children to field grounders. 

Attendance is free, but BHS requests donations

The diamond will be in the Fort Totten Park Soccer Fields. (Enter the campus at Totten Avenue and 15th Road.) Free parking will be available in Little Bay Park.

If the weather is bad, the rain date will be Sunday, Oct. 13.

The Mutuals were founded in 1857, the same year organized baseball held its first convention. After playing home games in Hoboken for 11 years, they moved to Union Grounds in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg. The squad is famous for turning the first triple play in organized league history against the Hartford Dark Blues on May 13, 1876.

The Atlantics, which launched in amateur leagues in 1855, became baseball’s first dynasty. Unbeatable for a few years, the squad was the first one to visit the White House in 1865 just after Andrew Johnson had replaced the assassinated Abraham Lincoln as president.

Top image: The American National Game of Base Ball: Grand Match for the Championship at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken, NJ
Publisher Currier & Ives, 1866
Bottom image: Bayside Athletic Club, circa 1900, courtesy of BHS