PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia's Future

The PIDC members Mary Hall (Manager, New Business Development), Mark Seltzer (Director, Management and Development), and Williams Agate (Vice President, Navy Yard Management and Development) have enthusiastically opened the Navy Yard’s Marine Parade Ground to the Mid-Atlantic Vintage Base Ball League for a two-day Vintage Base Ball Exhibition and Fair the weekend of August 20th and 21st.

Twelve to fourteen of the league’s seventeen clubs will be in attendance. They are coming from all points on the East Coast, covering the distance from NYC to Virginia and additionally to central Pennsylvania towns like Mechanicsburg. Each club is a “re-formed” team that played from the 1860s forward when “amateur” meant exceptionally fine play. These games could easlly draw crowds of over 20,000 for clubs like the Brooklyn Atlantics, the Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia.

The upcoming weekend's matches (1860’s speak for ‘games’) will begin at 10am and end at 4:30pm. Players will look the part with authentic uniforms, bats, balls, no gloves. The matches will be played with 1864 rules, with 6 clubs playing three simultaneous 1.5-hour Matches on the parade grounds at any given time. Refreshments will be in part provided by Philadelphia Brewing Company while interesting mid-19th century attractions take the green. Period-style items will be raffled each day.

Of special note is the tent sponsored by the Haverford Historical Society and Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia. Gentlemen brave enough to grow-out their facial hair in the next 30-days can schedule an appointment with a mid-19th century barber for fashionable sideburns, handlebar moustache plus. Email to sign-up at no cost!

There will be plenty of vintage players on hand to regale you with stories, answer rules questions, bring you on board as a new club player. The League is also looking for women with game.

Bring your blankets, folding chairs, your children, parents, family, friends, neighbors, and sweethearts. A wide variety of refreshments for sale to all.


Come down to the Navy Yard and see the clubs who last pitched and fielded 140 years ago.
The Navy Yard
4747 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA
(215) 843-9273 ‎ - navyyard.org