Join the Undefeated Lanesboro Excelsiors!

The Lanesboro Excelsiors vintage base ball team is now 3-0 on the season, and is always looking for players! On July 4th, the Excelsiors travel to Forestville State Park to take on the Rochester Roosters! So, if you haven't been to a vintage base ball game, here's some things that I know that can make me convince you that I'm not terrible.

The ball is dead. It usually doesn't travel as fast or far as today, when a new baseball is

often put in play. It can be hit out of the park though, as we often play on softball fields. But when that happens, different rules come into play; sometimes it's a home run, sometimes a single, sometimes it's an out so we don't have to stop the game and find the ball. During Gammel Dag, I hit a ball over the left field fence that was ruled an out after our team had sent two out for homers.

Then to remind you of the rules. With the ball a little squishy at times, and the pitching underhand, after playing a few games the ball won't go as far. The pitching is "gentlemanly," with the batter allowed to request where he wants the ball to be pitched to him. With the squishy ball and wet infield the other day, I had to leg out some infield singles. You can call me "Big Hertz" or some speedy nickname maybe now. Hitting it on the ground is okay, though, as a hit caught on one hop is an out as well! No gloves, different rules!

And everyone gets nicknames. Mine was a combination of Frank Thomas' name and my radio job. We also have a "Pops," "Sauer-Trout," "Batman," "Sloth," and others. To get enough players to play our two games on Sunday, we needed to use some Rochester Roosters players. That's the team we play, so we will need more players to play against them on the 4th!

Again, the next game is July 4th at the Historic Forestville State Park at about 1:00. Show up early, and, if the field is playable, show up for practice 6:00 Thursday evening at the softball field in Lanesboro!