Colorful folding chairs for visitors are set up quickly on the lawn at Carroll Park by players of the Bay City Independents old time baseball club.

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Illinois, Wisconsin Senior Tourists Enjoy Vintage Baseball in Bay City

Bay City Independents Players Roll Out the Red Carpet (chairs) for Visitors

August 7, 2008
By: Dave Rogers

Ron "Irish" O'Laughlin, left, and Kerri Johnson, right in period costume, welcome seniors as they alight from their tour bus at Carroll Park.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)

Take me out to the ball game!

And, so it was done.

A tour bus load of 50 visitors from Illinois and Wisconsin got the royal treatment in Bay City last Wednesday.

Jayme Johnson, team captain of the Bay City Independents, explained the game of the 1860s to the visitors aboard the bus, and led them in singing "Take Me Out to The Ball Game."

Meanwhile, team members set up 50 red-draped chairs along the field and the crowd was ushered out to their seats by a welcoming committee comprised of player Ron O'Laughlin and Kerri Johnson, wife of Jamie, along with daughter Kasia, 4, Brooke LeRoux, 5, and Paige LeRoux, 2.

Umpire Len McInerney, well known local Civil War re-enactor who has appeared in several movies, conducted the formal coin toss to determine which team was first at bat and, the traditional "PLAY BALL!!!" rang out.

Seniors settle in to enjoy the type of baseball played here beginning in 1865, old fashioned American entertainment that attracts appreciative crowds to the park on game days.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)

The tourists then settled down to watch a traditional ball game, shouting their "huzzahs" and applauding the best bare-handed catches as well as the most masterfully stroked daisy cutters (hits).

A Bay Cityan of the 1800s, transported ahead in time 140 years, would have thought he was witnessing a contest of the Bay City Washington Nine against the Capital Base Ball Club of Lansing, an actual contest that took place July 19, 1865 in Lansing.

By the way, the Washingtons won, 42-31. HUZZAH!!!

The Independents show ginger (energy) on the field, unleashing corkers (hitting a long ball) and putting on some steam (running fast) as they will be demonstrating during the River of Time Living History Reenactment in September.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)