An open field without a fence in sight. The crack of wood against a ball. But this isn’t just a regular game; it’s also a time-traveling spectacle. This is vintage baseball.
Founded in 2022, the Kingston Guards are a team of local amateurs who play baseball according to rules laid down in 1864. Whether on their home field behind the Kingston Plaza Hannaford, beside the runway at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, or even at a farm in Pennsylvania near the Gettysburg Battlefield, their games combine athletic competition with historical reenactment to honor baseball’s 19th-century roots.
Taylor Bruck and Daniel Torres, the team’s founders, were inspired after attending vintage baseball games in neighboring Delaware County. There, teams with historically resonant names like the Mountain Athletic Club (based in Fleischmanns) and the Bovina Dairymen have played old-style baseball games in period attire since 2007 and 2008, respectively.
Intrigued, Bruck and Torres decided to create a team in Kingston. The Guards take their name from a real Civil War unit, part of the 120th New York Infantry, which fought at Gettysburg and protected the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
With guidance from the Vintage Base Ball Association (VBBA), which offers resources like insurance for games, Bruck and Torres began recruiting through radio interviews, social media, and public flyers. Generous sponsorships from Ulster Savings Bank, Herzog’s Home Center, and the local Rotary Club helped fund the uniforms and equipment.
The team didn’t win a single game in that inaugural season. “It was all about learning the ropes,” Torres recalls. “But we’ve grown a lot since then.”
Today, the roster includes four women players, and the team’s camaraderie has only strengthened. Some players are drawn by the history, others by the love of the game, and still others by the sense of community that vintage baseball fosters.
Unlike baseball today, vintage games are played without gloves, which didn’t gain popularity until near the end of the 19th century. Pitchers—known back then as “hurlers”—deliver the ball underhand, with a smooth, clock-like motion. Other quirks include the “one-bounce” rule, which allows a fielder to catch a ball on the first bounce for an out. By allowing the outfielders to play further back, this eliminates most home runs and shifts the focus to the kind of small-ball tactics—singles, doubles, stolen bases—that Major League Baseball has been trying to resurrect with rule changes like a timed pitch clock and other tweaks.
“It’s faster paced and more fun for spectators,” Bruck explains. “[Players] are swinging constantly, so there’s more action.”
Spectators, or “cranks” in 19th-century parlance, are treated to more than just a game. The Guards often pause to explain unique plays, ensuring the audience understands the historical context. The players even embrace playful antics, like the hidden-ball trick, substituting the baseball with a potato or an onion to trick the baserunner into taking an incautious lead.
For Torres, vintage baseball is a way to connect people with history in a more direct way than museums or books can provide. “When you go to a Civil War reenactment, you know what’s going to happen,” he says. “But in vintage baseball, anything can happen once the ball is in play. It’s interactive and unpredictable, which makes it special.”
The modern game of baseball evolved from British ball games like cricket and rounders. It first became organized in New York City in the 1840s. According to Thomas W. Gilbert’s history of the game, How Baseball Happened, early baseball was mostly played by aspiring professionals: doctors, merchants, stockbrokers, shipwrights, butchers, and so on. By the 1860s, it had spread across the country, gaining popularity during the Civil War as soldiers played to boost morale and foster camaraderie. “During the Civil War, baseball was the great equalizer,” notes Bruck, the acting Ulster County clerk who also serves as the City of Kingston’s official historian. “Black and White troops would play against each other, and the racial tensions would dissolve. That’s the magic of sports: It brings people together.”
In Kingston, baseball’s history intertwines with the city’s industrial past. Nearly every factory had a team, and workers would head to the nearest open lot to play a game after their shifts. According to the official Major League Baseball historian, John Thorn, Kingston barber Henry C. Rosecranse was among the first African Americans to play the game.
Vintage baseball got its start in the summer of 1979 at Old Bethpage Village Restoration, a living history museum on Long Island, as part of a larger Civil War reenactment. From there, the revival spread to other parts of the country as interest in 19th-century baseball history grew among reenactors, historians, and sports enthusiasts. There are now more than 200 vintage baseball teams across the United States and Canada.
Last summer, the Kingston Guards played a game at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, where the open-field setting added an authentic touch. They also participated in a large tournament at Gettysburg. Plans for this season include a possible ceremonial procession from the Kingston Farmers’ Market to the Guards’ opening game, echoing 19th-century traditions of teams parading to the field with noisemakers and music, alongside their opponents. Max Rainwater, a Guards player and talented multi-instrumentalist, sometimes plays his fiddle before games to enhance the period atmosphere.
For players like Brock Mahan, who was on a softball team when he lived in New York City, vintage baseball offers a refreshing contrast to the more corporate tendencies of Major League Baseball. “It’s a way to reconnect with why this game became so beloved in the first place,” Mahan says. “At its root, baseball is a simple game—getting together with friends to throw a ball and hit it with a stick. There’s no better way to spend an afternoon.”
As the Guards prepare for their upcoming season, they’re eager to expand their roster and share the joy of vintage baseball with more players and spectators. With weekly practices, around six to eight regular-season games, and a few special events planned, there are plenty of opportunities to experience this unique blend of history and sports. All games are free for spectators to attend.
That deep connection to the game’s past is what makes vintage baseball so special to the Guards, and few moments have captured it more powerfully than a game they played in Fleischmanns two seasons ago, on a field where baseball was played in the 19th century—and where the early baseball legend Honus Wagner may once have played for a season.
Mahan vividly remembers walking up to the batter’s box that beautiful May afternoon, with the green Catskills looming under a bright blue sky. “I realized I was on a field where baseball has been more or less continuously played for 125 years,” he says. “Just by standing there and choosing to play, I felt this incredible connection between myself and a lineage of millions who have played this game over the years. It felt like history—but not like history. It felt more like a continuum. I actually had to step out of the box, take a breath, and just live in that moment. It was overwhelming.”
To join the team or attend a game, visit the Kingston Guards on Facebook.
