Sixteen Historic Ball Clubs Battle for the 2011 Championship Title
DEARBORN — Greenfield Village will host the eighth annual Historic Baseball Tournament Saturday and Sunday with 16 teams from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
This event is free with membership or admission to Greenfield Village. Tickets are $22 adults, $21 seniors (ages 62 and up), $16 youth (ages 5-12), and free for children ages 4 and under. For more information, call (313) 982-6001 or go to thehenryford.org.
Take a step back in time and see how baseball originated. As you sit on the grassy hillside, watch the game unfold as it’s played by the unique rules from 1867.
All players are dressed in period uniforms, pitchers throw underhand, those at bat are called strikers and umpires only call balls and strikes after the pitcher or the striker has been warned to pitch fairly, or to swing fairly.
In between tournament games there will be hands-on activities, like collecting autographs from players, participating in an 1867 baseball skills test and a pre-Civil War stick-and-ball game. Visitors can also test their pitching arms, or take a lap around the bases to get the complete feel for being an 1867 baseball player.
At 4 p.m. on Sunday, 1984 World Series Champion Detroit Tiger Dave Bergman will announce the championship game that determines the tournament champion.
The awards ceremony will immediately follow the game, where winners and losers will receive the original prizes from the 1867 World’s Tournament – $300 cash prize for the champion ball club and a bag of peanuts for the club with the least amount of victories.