Enjoy vintage baseball with the Spiegel Grove Squires

FREMONT — See how base ball was played during the Civil War era, when it was first rising to popularity, with the Spiegel Grove Squires. The Squires, the vintage team at the Hayes Presidential Library & Museums in Fremont, have three home games and will participate in vintage base ball tournaments and games at other sites in Ohio. Home games are played on the lawn behind the Hayes Home, and admission is free. The Squires bring to life the sport when it became organized with standard rules of play for clubs. Back then, base ball was spelled with two words. The Squires are volunteers who have studied and learned the methods of play used in the 1860s, including playing bare-handed. Players are called ballists, and they wear period-style uniforms and adopt the language of 19th-century base ball during their matches, as games were called during the 1860s. The Squires are sponsored by Whirlpool Corp. The 2023 home schedule is: • 1 p.m. Saturday, June 10 versus Pluggy's Town BBC • 1 p.m. Sunday, June 25 in a celebrity all-star game • 1 p.m. Sunday, July 16 versus the Great Black Swamp Frogs at home