Welcome to the official web site of the GCVBB.  During the season, game results, photos and other league tidbits will be posted on a semi-regular basis for all cranks to enjoy.  The GCVBB made its second journey inside San Quentin Prison to bring 1886 vintage style base ball to the confines of the yard.  The San Quentin Giants adapted well to the vintage equipment and rules and gave the GCVBB squad a great game.  Players from the Miners, Crushers and Highlanders took part in the back and forth contest, as the Giants finally broke it open in the bottom of the 7th inning with four tallies.  Huzzah to the San Quentin players who proved that the spirit of friendly competition is a universal concept no matter where base ball is played.

Photo courtesy Chico Enterprise Record

Other web postings about the San Quentin Giants:
Bad Boys of Summer Documentary
Chico Enterprise Record
SF Gate.com
MSNBC.com

"The way the game was meant to be played!" has special meaning when teams of Gold Country Vintage Base Ball get together.  It's more than the old-fashioned uniforms that players wear from the 1880s, it's the spirit, sportsmanship, etiquette -and, yes, some of the outlandishness that characterized the country and the game at that time.

After two new teams joined the Amador County Crushers and Mother Lode Miners as members of GCVBB in 2007, the Preston Nine will become the fifth team to join the League for our third season.  Last year, the Sierra Highlanders (before the Yankees became, well, the Yankees, they were known as the Highlanders) and the Rancho Murieta Bandits became only the eighth and ninth vintage teams on the west coast.

In 2006, the Crushers and Miners enjoyed a banner year, playing games in eight different counties, in two AAA minor league parks (Sacramento and Fresno), an exhibition at San Quentin Prison, and hosting the first-ever California Vintage Base Ball All Star Festival (with all five teams from Bay Area Vintage Base Ball participating).  The five teams this year get underway on April 6 and play through the Championship games in August.  Gold Country Vintage Base Ball players (or ballists, as they were called in the 1880s) will again play at the Stockton Ports Minor League Ball Park in May and June.

The field is 'regulation' baseball, 90-foot bases, but with a pitcher's box a few feet in front of where today's mound is found.  The gloves are little more than leather garden gloves, with no webbing, the ball looks like today's sphere but a little lighter and softer (and softens up as the game goes on) and bats are thick, wooden timbers that can weigh over 40 ounces.  The catcher's equipment does not include shin guards and the glove for this position (known as the 'behind') is webless and small.  Pitching speed is dictated typically by how much pain the 'behind' can absorb behind the plate.  However, most hurlers rely on quick pitches, breaking stuff and pitching from inside the box, one side to the other.

Because there is no infield fly rule, because runners can be called out for not hustling to or back to a base even after a walk or foul ball, because the hidden ball trick is an important strategy and because the pitcher can balk to first, at will, the game is fast-paced and exciting.  It is also a game where the umpire - although the sole arbitrator of the game - can also involve the players and even the fans (called 'cranks' in this period) in helping with the calls, under 'the gentlemen's rule').  Still, this did not stop cranks from shooting guns off in the air to distract fielders during the game; this is one part of 1880s baseball not 'relived'.  Come on out and join us for a Sunday in the ol' ball park.