EDITOR’S NOTE: The original version of this story included the wrong last name of the subject. It was corrected at 10:35 a.m. on Labor Day.
MOUNT VERNON — For the baseball purist, If ever there was a walking, talking, breathing slice of Americana, it would be 85-year-old Don Andersen.
When the imposing man took the mound at the Westerville Sports Complex on Sunday at 3 p.m., it was the end of an era, sort of.
“I used to be 6-5, but I went to the doctor and they said I was 6-1, but I don’t believe them,” Anderson said with a wry smile.
Andersen, who lives in Knox County between Centerburg and Mount Vernon, recently completed his 39th year with the Ohio Village Muffins, a group of baseball aficionados who play dozens of “matches” a year. Their quest is to perpetuate Base Ball in its original form, vintage baseball in layman’s terms.
Looking back on his baseball experience, Andersen thought about the kind of organized baseball the former financial analyst played before the Muffins.
“None,” he said in his Brooklyn, New York accent diluted somewhat by the miles and the years. “That accent is one thing that never goes away. As kids we played stick ball on the streets of Brooklyn.”
His accent, combined with the look in his eyes, felt almost like stepping into a time machine, echoing the crack of a wooden stick against whatever kind of ball the young boys could find in the heat of the inner city.
Exercise, physical and social
“Gentlemen’s clubs played for exercise and socialization,” Andersen explained, echoing the reasoning of the Father of Base Ball, Henry Chadwick (not Abner Doubleday).
Chadwick, a sports writer from Great Britain and advocate of public health, believed that outdoor sports were critical to the physical well-being of a society. Andersen, an octogenarian pitcher, said that some of the major changes in the game over the last 200 years are in the rules by which the game is played.
“If the ball was caught on one bounce, it is an out,” he said of the rules followed by the Muffins and their foes. “The first bounce of the ball determines whether it is fair or foul. If it bounces in fair territory and then goes foul it is a fair ball.
“Home plate, it was a round metal plate that they used. It was a game of fielding and pitching.”
In modern baseball, strategy and signals, manual and electronic, are designed to keep the batter off balance. That represents another major change.
“The pitcher was supposed to put the ball over the center of the plate, wherever the batter requested.”
One thing that has remained the same are the base paths.
“They were 90 feet apart, just like they are today,” Andersen said.
One other measurement that has seen change is the area designated for the pitcher. Today the pitcher’s mound is 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate and is elevated 10 inches above home plate.
“There was no mound, just a pitcher’s plate, and it was 45 feet from the pitcher’s plate to home plate,” Andersen explained.
In the scorer’s tent sets a cow bell. When a run, which is referred to as an “ace” scores, the runner crossing the plate must ring the bell or the ace does not count.
As with many other sports, the leagues in which they participate the rules were a bit less codified than the games of today.
“There have been a lot of interpretation over the years since the Muffins started playing and rule-making. When the Vintage Baseball Association came around in the early ‘90’s and started up at the Ohio Village,” Andersen said.
To make things a bit more complicated, Andersen explained that the rules continue to change.
“There have been a lot of rule changes since we started playing and there are different rules for different towns.”
Andersen thought about one of the more interesting games played under very different rules.
“We played at the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown (home of the Baseball Hall of Fame) there we played a game of Massachusetts Rules. To get a person out you had to plug them (throw and hit them with the ball).”
Instead of bases, the Massachusetts Rules had four sticks, each located where the base would be in traditional baseball. Unlike modern baseball, when the ball was hit with a runner on base, chaos would erupt. The runner was not required to advance directly to the next stick.
“If you were going to get plugged, you could run around and make them chase you. We had a blast playing that game,” Andersen remembered.
The Muffins website outlines the seasonal requirements for the team:
“Games are played against other vintage teams from Ohio and across the country, as well as teams of local community members. Each season the Muffins play dozens of ‘matches’ and travel all over Ohio and out-of-state. The home field for the Muffins, Muffin Meadow, is in the Ohio Village, and many games are held there each summer.”
The Ohio Village Muffins are a group of lovers of the game who carry on the tradition of the sport as it was played in the mid-19th-century. Historically, “base ball” was two words.
The Muffins as well as their opponents believe it is critical to maintain the historical integrity of America’s Passtime.
The Ohio Village Muffins have played all over the United States, but one in particular etched in Andersen’s memory.
“My wife and I basically celebrated our 30th anniversary opening day at Jacobs Field. The Muffins played the first game before the Indians played.”
Other memories of playing in major league stadiums bring a smile to his face.
“We played in Great American Ball Park (Cincinnati) a couple of years ago and I’ve played in Candlestick Park (San Francisco),” he said.
Bat Man
Initially, the bats used by the Muffins were made in Ohio Village.
“In the mid to early ‘90’s the Village had a budget crisis and they did away with a lot of the craftsmen there,” Andersen said. “One of our Muffins, Charlie Trudeau had a woodworking business and he had some lathes. We asked him to make some bats for us.”
Little did anyone know that this simple request would result in a bat-making industry.
“He did a really nice job for us, he made some really nice bats. As we played other teams and they saw the bats, they began to request bats of their own,” Andersen said. “He started a little internet company.
“To make a long story short, he started what is now known as the Phoenix Bat Company.”
That simple request has turned into a company that manufactures 30,000 bats a year in a plant located in Plain City, Ohio.
Cleveland Guardians fans have seen at least one product from Phoenix Bat Company when they watch All-Star left fielder Steven Kwan step into the batter’s box with his Phoenix bat.
End of an era, maybe
When the last pitch sailed over the plate, an era came to a close, almost.
“I am retiring from playing, but I will still umpire and keep score,” Andersen said. “I’ll do what we call interpreting, that’s working the crowd, walking around, explaining the game to the people.”
His last pitch came at the Ohio Cup.
“The Cup isn’t a competition, it’s a festival,” Andersen said. “The first couple of years, it was and we decided it wasn’t right for us and we converted to our current format.”
The change was made to make the event more enjoyable for players and fans alike.
“It is a social event where we try to pair teams who do not get to play each other and also pair more competitive teams against each other to keep the games more interesting,” Andersen said.
This year’s cup hosted nearly 30 teams from five different states.
Whether Base Ball, baseball, rounders or any other name assigned to the game, it is still America’s pastime.
The feel of turf, natural or synthetic, the crack of the bat, wooden or alloy and the smell of leather gloves, as long as teams like the Ohio Village Muffins.
As long as men like Don Anderson continue to take the field, the history of the great game will live on and with it, the dreams of new generations of baseball players.