Vintage Base Ball - A present day display of games played the way they were in 1864.

Welcome to the New York Gotham Base Ball Club Web site. We are part of a large group of Vintage Base Ball Clubs that strive to present base ball's history to others by playing base ball as it was done in the past.  Our goal is to recreate the game as it was played in 1864 as accurately as possible to share our knowledge of this great game of base ball from an historic standpoint.

The Gothams are playing our 7th season of Vintage Base Ball in New York City.  Our home games are played on either the Great Lawn in New York City's Central Park or in Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village Queens. The team was founded by Drew Frady, a ten + year veteran of the hobby and former treasurer of the Colorado Vintage Base Ball Association, past advisor for the Old Beth Page Historic Base Ball Program, and current president of the VBBA.  The fact that New York City, where the game was essentially invented, lacked such a Vintage organization became one of Mr. Frady's concerns. Through his (and others) hard work and research, Vintage Base Ball is now played in New York City.

Last weekend Results:

Old Bethpage, LI - 8/2/2008 - The Gothams traveled out to Old Bethpage, Long Island for the festival held each year on these fine grounds, where clubs from near and far come to play this beautiful game of base ball. As always the setting, festivities and camaraderie are second to none. The Gothams began their day in a sleep-filled daze, whilst still managing to appear on the field in a match against the much better prepared Newtown Sandy Hooks. The Newtown club was awake and ready to play and proceeded to out play the Gothams in every facet of the game resulting in a 15-3 thrashing by the Sandy Hooks. Somehow the Mighty Gothams managed to collect themselves after their initial brutal beating to play an exquisite game against the Waterbury Conners, almost as if they were struck by lightening to add energy into all of their ballists. Though the game was tough and hard fought, the Gothams did manage to defeat the Waterbury club for the first time by a final tally of 15-10 to split the 2 games with the clubs from Connecticut.

Old Bethpage, LI - 8/3/2008 - On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the Gothams came out ready to play on this 2nd day of the great Old Bethpage Festival. The Gothams 1st match of the day was against the Chesapeake and Potomac Base Ball Club…and a hard fought match it was as the 2 clubs battled back and forth before the Gothams came out victorious by a 6-3 tally. The Gothams faced a new opponent in the 2nd match, but the result was the same. The opponent was Olneyville, who had traveled all the way from Rhode Island for the match only to see the Gothams play as good a game as they have in the past to defeat this fine team from New England by the final tally of 15-4.

Overall, this was an exciting and fun tournament in beautiful Old Bethpage. The Gothams continued their winning ways by taking 3 of their 4 matches building their current streak to 9 out of their last 11. Milestones were had as well, as Scratch reached 100 aces, Shoeless reached 100 hits, and Trolley became the first Gotham with 500 Abs.

1856 Gothams

2008 Gothams

2006 Gothams

2002 Gothams