About the Event
Join baseball historians and aficionados Marty Payne and Jim Apple to learn about the history of baseball in Talbot County, through a Facebook Live video. They will be discussing historic baseball in the county, as well as the Talbot Fair Plays league, a group that plays baseball with historic rules today! Tune into our Facebook page on October 22, at 6:30 PM to watch our Facebook Live lecture. You do not need a Facebook account to watch!
About Our Hosts
Marty Payne is a native of Talbot County and has been a member of the Society of American Baseball Research for thirty years. He has written and presented widely on baseball and rural culture in the 19th and early 20th centuries, always emphasizing the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Jim Apple was a U.S. history teacher for 43 years. He was also a pitcher with the Talbot Fair Plays Baseball Club from 2006-2019. He is a member of the Society of American Baseball Research.
Pictures and Objects
These are a set of reproduction historic baseballs, used by the Talbot Fair Plays League. They are ordered from top left to bottom right from the oldest style to the most recent style. The earliest ball is used for the game “Town Ball” which is a game very similar to baseball that was played in Massachusetts. It was made with only one piece of leather, and was easier to make than the more recent balls. This diagram shows how town ball differed from baseball.
Another way that historic baseball differed from modern baseball is the bases. This home plate is a metal plate, and the other bases were sacks that were filled with sawdust or sand to give them some weight and cushioning.
Historic teams would also play with different bats. In the earliest days of baseball, players would often use other objects as bats such as a broken barrel stave, a fence slat, or an ax handle. Other players would make their own bats out of tree branches, such as the bat seen on the far right. Once baseball began to rise in popularity, companies that previously made other wooden products, such as wheels or butter churn handles, also began making baseball bats. Many companies continue to make reproduction bats in the older style to this day.
The National Silver Ball Tournament is a tournament held by the Genesse Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY. It brings together vintage baseball clubs from the Northeast, Midwest, and even Canada to compete. In 2013 the Talbot Fair Plays Base Ball Club was the champion, which earned them this trophy. This picture shows that championship team and the winning score.
These photos and items come from the collection of Jim Apple and the Talbot Fair Plays Base Ball Club, and are included with his permission.
Baseball players, in the field in Easton. It appears that the catcher and umpire are in discussion. Others are just awaiting the game to resume. There are some ads on the fence in the background, including for Coca-Cola and Ford. This picture is part of our H. Robins Hollyday collection.
This picture displays a baseball team of African-American men. Their uniforms are labelled Bellvue All Stars. This is another photo from our H. Robins Hollyday collection. As with many older photos, we are unsure of the identities of the men in the photograph, and would greatly appreciate any help identifying these players.
Writing on this photo labels these men as baseball champions of the Eastern Shore Maryland in the year 1900. From their shirts they appear to be the Easton team. This picture is part of our H. Robins Hollyday collection.
The inclusion of a catcher’s uniform and a bat makes us think that this group of 20 men and boys might have been connected to a baseball team. This photo was part of a larger photo album, and is thought to be from 1890-1919.