By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
America’s pastime from past times was on display at HomeCare Matters in Galion Sunday afternoon. The Ohio Village Muffins and Diamonds brought their brand of 1860s baseball to take on Galion in a classic old-time exhibition seen in the earliest days of the game.
With single bounce outs, terminology, and costumes from the 1860s the Galion women’s ball club took on the Ohio Village Diamonds in the first exhibition of the day.
“Hands are outs, a striker is a batter, a pitcher is a hurler, catchers are called behind, shortstops are called rovers, and can play between second and third base or first and second base,” Diamonds co-captain Brandy Frias explained.
While the Diamonds have been a club since 1994, Galion’s women’s squad, with no practice before the game, won 5-1.
“Most of the girls are girls that graduated around the same time as I did, like in the 90s, and I have a mother of a friend as well as some friends I pulled together recently.” Galion manager Sarah Wegerin said.
Galion High School graduate Lori Dyer travelled from West Palm Beach, Florida, to play in the game.
“I am having so much fun, we are all pretending we are members from the movie a League of Their Own,” Dyer said.
After the women’s game finished, the Ohio Village Muffins took on the Galion Bloomers, who were named due to their choice of wearing shorts as pant ware.
“My favorite part of playing on the Muffins you kind of see the early days of baseball and the evolution of the game, as it is today you see how they played then compared to now.” Tom Della Flora said.
The men’s Galion team didn’t have the same luck the second game as the Bloomers were defeated 4-2.
“There is definitely a little learning curve involved. Some of the principles are the same, but there are a lot of unique rules that you have to be well versed in so a team that plays every week has an advantage.” Justin McMullen said, “It has been a lot of fun from the sportsmanship to the gamesmanship, and the way that they present it, it has been a lot of fun and I have liked it a lot.”
All proceeds from the Concessions for the baseball game went HomeCare Matters Home Health and Hospice patient care.
A photo gallery of the unique doubleheader is on the Photo page.