Batavia tops Geneva in vintage baseball game

Normally, when a baseball team scores a go-ahead run in the bottom of the ninth, the game ends, and the losers walk over to congratulate the victors.

When the Batavia Bat Men went up 10-9 in the bottom of the ninth against the Geneva Rovers Saturday, the Bat Men began to empty the dugout to shake hands with their rivals.

They forgot they were playing 19th-century baseball.

"That's the difference between 19th- and 20th-century baseball," umpire Dave Oberg said. "We play until the final out."

The final tally stood after Bat Man Dave Schutter struck out to end the inning, capping the third annual Tri-Cities game played by 19th-century rules.

"This was truly a game worthy of legend," said Oberg, executive director of the Geneva History Center and organizer of the contest. "Until the last out was called, no one knew where it was going."

For this year's game, Oberg threw new fuel on a Batavia-Geneva rivalry stretching back, by his account, into the 1800s.

"This seemed like a real fun way to bring history to life," Oberg said. "These guys are basically doing the same thing their predecessors were doing 150 years ago."

Besides officiating the game, Oberg served in the crucial role of on-site historian, giving the players a tutorial on 19th-century baseball. The pitches were underhand. A batter was out on a one-hop grounder. There was no base-stealing, no advancing on a caught ball, no sliding.

The players hit a softer ball that they were able to catch without mitts. They wore blue jeans, striped hats and white, button-down shirts.

Steve Rambo of Geneva hit a single in the eighth that resulted in a go-ahead run, or "ace" in 19th-century terminology, for the Rovers. Rambo had not played baseball in 30 years.

"You grew up with rules, and think you know the foundation, but you don't," Rambo said before his single.

Will he play next year?

"Depends on how I feel when I turn 61."

Schutter, a Shorewood resident, joined the Bat Men after a college friend who lives Batavia recruited him.

"It sounded like a good excuse to hang out," Schutter said.