What follows is our own plain-English summary of the rules of the National Association of Base Ball Players as they stood for the season of 1860, with notes on how we put them into practice. It is not the old rule book word for word, and it doesn't cover every rule in it. I've kept to the ones I'm sure of. Where the rules don't settle a question, we follow the custom of the vintage clubs we play, and I say so. If you know a good source I haven't seen, I would honestly like to hear about it.

B. Artman, Captain

I. The Field, the Ball and the Bat

1. There are four bases, set at the corners of a square thirty yards on a side. That's ninety feet, the same as today. Our bases are canvas bags stuffed with sawdust.

2. The pitcher's place is a line, not a mound and not a box, forty-five feet from home base, on the line between home and second.

3. The foul lines run from home base through first base and third base, and on out into the field.

4. The bat must be round and made of wood, and no thicker than two and a half inches at its thickest part. It may be any length the striker likes. Ours run from 33 to 38 inches, and a couple of them are about as heavy as a fence post.

5. The ball is India rubber and yarn inside a leather cover, and a little bigger around than a modern baseball. Tinker Witcher restitches ours.

Our custom: Our grounds have no fence. A ball struck into the woods past right field is a live ball until somebody comes out of the woods with it. And the winning club takes home the match ball. Clubs of the time often painted the score on a match ball and kept it as a trophy. We have three on a shelf at Uncle Morrell's house.

II. The Pitcher

6. The ball must be pitched, not thrown and not jerked. That means underhand, with a straight arm and no snap of the elbow. Think of pitching horseshoes.

7. He delivers from his line, forty-five feet away. There are no balls called against him, however wild he gets.

Our custom: In the older idea of the game, the pitcher's business was to give the striker a ball he could hit, and the fielders' business was to put him out. By 1860 some pitchers were already working up speed and trickery to beat the striker. We play it the older, friendlier way. A hurler who can't find the striker will hear about it from his own captain.

III. The Striker

8. Strikers take their turns at the bat in order.

9. Three strikes, and a strike is a swing and a miss. A foul ball is not a strike. You may foul off pitches all afternoon, though we would rather you didn't.

10. No balls are called, so there are no walks. Called balls came into the rules later in the 1860s.

11. A striker who stands there letting good balls go by, to waste time or to give his runners a chance, may be warned by the umpire, and then have strikes called on him.

12. If the third strike is caught, on the fly or on the first bound, the striker is out. If it isn't caught, he must run for first base, and can be put out there like any runner.

IV. Fair and Foul

13. A struck ball is fair or foul according to where it first touches the ground. If it lands on or in front of the lines, it is fair, wherever it goes afterward. If it lands behind them, it is foul. A clever striker can chop the ball down so it lands fair and spins off foul, and it's still a fair ball. Spectators who sit too close to the lines learn this quickly.

14. The umpire calls a foul out loud, without being asked.

15. On a foul, no ace and no base can be made. The ball is dead until it's back in the pitcher's hands, and the runners go back to their bases.

V. Putting Out

16. A struck ball caught on the fly or on the first bound is a hand out, fair or foul. This is the rule everybody asks about. Our grounds are bumpy, and catching a ball on the bound is harder than it sounds.

17. A runner touched with the ball, in the hand of a fielder, while he is off his base, is out. The ball must be in the fielder's hand. Throwing it at a runner, as boys did in the old schoolyard games, puts nobody out and will get you a talking-to.

18. A runner who must run because the striker behind him needs his base is out if the ball is held on the next base before he gets there. That is what you'd call a force.

19. Runners must touch the bases in order, and an ace is made when a runner comes all the way around and touches home base.

VI. The Match

20. Nine men to a side.

21. Three hands out, all out, and the other side comes in to strike.

22. A match is nine innings. If the aces are even after nine, play goes on until one side is ahead at the end of an equal number of innings.

23. The umpire is the judge of fair and unfair play, and his decision is final. Each club keeps its own score.

Our custom: When we host, Judge Beers umpires, with the visiting captain's agreement. A close play at a base is a hard thing to see from where he stands, so he may ask the players involved what happened, and a gentleman tells him the truth, even against his own club. That happens more than you might think.

VII. Our Own Rules

These aren't from 1860. They're ours, and they're how we keep the spirit of the thing.

What We Don't Know

Honesty compels me to admit a few questions our club hasn't answered. How hard did the good pitchers of 1860 really deliver the ball? The accounts are hard to judge, so we pitch to be struck. Exactly how did a striker of 1860 stand, and how did he hold the bat? Probably every which way, as now, so we don't fuss. And what did the crowds shout? We know they cheered and we know they groaned. Beyond that, we're guessing, so we keep it polite.

VIII. The Words of the Game

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