If Mark Twain and Babe Ruth can attend, so can you

Friends of Vintage Base Ball will hold their Colt Meadows Invitational on Saturday, Jun 16, at the Hartford Base Ball Grounds in Colt Park. You'll see local teams play baseball as it was played in the 19th Century, on a field with a baseball history dating back to the Civil War era. In addition to appearances by "Mark Twain" and "Babe Ruth," there'll be Civil War re-enactors, activities for the kids, and more. The fun starts at 10 a.m. This is an organization that's not only true to Hartford's history, but serious about community-building and providing family-oriented fun. Don't miss out!

Saturday: Great deals at Hartford museums, landmarks, & other attractions

Count the following among those offering free or reduced-price admission on Saturday, in conjunction with the eighth-annual Connecticut Open House Day:

• Bushnell Park Carousel
• Butler-McCook House & Garden
• Cinestudio at Trinity College
• Connecticut Historical Society & Museum
• Governor's Residence
• Hartford Base Ball Grounds at Colt Meadows
• Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
• Mark Twain House & Museum
• Old State House
• Wadsworth Atheneum of Art 

Check the state's tourism website, ctvisit.com, for details on what's being offered by these institutions and others around the state.

A great day for 'base ball' in Colt Park

OK, it took me long enough to post them, but here are a video clip and photos from the "Boost Hartford Day" triple-header that Hartford-based Friends of Vintage Base Ball held in Colt Park two Saturdays ago. It was a beautiful day for 1860s- and 1880s-style ball. Hartford Courant columnist and editor Tom Condon threw out the first pitch before the second game, with Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra doing the honors for the third game. Unfortunately, I wasn't around for the mayor's toss, but Tom Condon's superb form (maybe it was the Curt Schilling t-shirt?) is captured below. That's FOVB Commissioner Gary "Pops" Goldberg-O'Maxfield making the introduction.

Friends of Vintage Base Ball is a great ambassador for Hartford. It will hold a fund-raiser on October 21, but don't be shy about making a contribution in the meantime.

Whalers fans, get your ‘Brass Bonanza’ fix here

Sure they play it once in a while between innings at Fenway Park, but what about those moments of nostalgia when you need to hear the Hartford Whalers victory march right now? Thank the hockey gods for brassbonanza.com, a nifty site that lets you listen to several versions of the song. For those of us who owned "Brass Bonanza" on a 45-rpm record, there's even the beloved B-side, "highlights" of Bob Neumier's radio call from the night in 1975 when players from the then-New England Whalers and the Minnesota Fighting Saints got into brawl that resulted in the World Hockey Association's record for penalties: 41. It meant a combined total of 217 minutes in the penalty box, where you feel shame. (Yes, that's a "Slapshot" reference.)

Tip of the cap to the New Britain Rock Cats

I cannot vouch for their authenticity, but Hartford Chiefs caps are available for $10 each at the merchandise store of the New Britain Rock Cats, at New Britain Stadium. I could not find them in the Rock Cats' online shop, so you'll just have to go to a game -- which will be fun, trust me. The hats are one-size-fits-all.

By the way, why doesn't the City of Hartford sell merchandise like this online? Doesn't it have a slight revenue problem?

The Chiefs were the Boston Braves affiliate in the Eastern League from 1947 to 1952, playing in Bulkeley Stadium. Before that, they were the Hartford Bees. Come to think of it, maybe this is a Bees cap. If anyone knows for sure, drop me a line.

Don't miss the history happening around you

Of course, how can you NOT be a witness to it when they close off your street to hold a parade? I refer, of course, to Sunday's parade through downtown by the University of Connecticut women's basketball team, which went 39-0 on its way to a national championship.

Maybe we ought to hold one of these every weekend until the hard times are over. ("We made it through another week!")

Congratulations, loser

That salutation goes out to whoever stole the Hartford Dark Blues plaque from the grounds of the Church of the Good Shepherd in the Coltsville section, where the team played baseball in the 1870s. Donors had contributed about $1,500 to commemorate the Blues' role as one of the National League's original eight teams.

The Hartford Courant reports that the plaque was stolen sometime over the weekend, barely six months after it was installed. "The plaque, post, and even the concrete were lifted out of the ground and carried off," Ron Bolin of Wethersfield, chief organizer of the plaque's installation, told the newspaper.

So, nice going, thief or thieves. What exactly are you planning to do with this item? Fence it? Good luck with that. Keep it in your basement for your own viewing pleasure? That sounds likely to get pretty old pretty quickly. Your best option is to make some kind of arrangement for its safe return, preferrably to Bolin, even if it's anonymously. Here's his e-mail address.

Angering the baseball gods is very, very bad for your karma.

The Karen O'Maxfield photo of the plaque, above, can be enlarged by clicking on it.

Vintage baseball, new swag

A follow-up to a post from a few months ago: The new, Hartford-based Friends of Vintage Base Ball has opened an online store, where you can buy t-shirts and other items to support the cause. In announcing the store, founders Karen "K.O." and Gary "Pops" O'Maxfield also said: "We're working with the City of Hartford and the Coalition to Strengthen the Sheldon/Charter Oak Neighborhood on bringing weekly vintage base ball games to Colt Park starting in April of this year. Look for a game schedule and news about a 4th of July weekend tournament at our website."

Play ball! (in Colt Park)

If you've never seen a game of "vintage base ball," you're missing out. It's baseball the way they played it in the 19th century -- sometimes without gloves, always with great sportsmanship. Now Karen and Gary O'Maxfield of Hartford have begun the Friends of Vintage Base Ball. "Our purpose is to facilitate and preserve the customs, culture, history and spirit of vintage base ball through public education, awareness and participation," says their website, at www.friendsofvintagebaseball.org.

Locally, the Friends are working to have a field in Colt Park designated for vintage base ball. They note that the Coltsville district was recently named a National Historic Landmark and is on its way to becoming a National Park. "As base ball was an activity promoted by the Colt Factory and, indeed, by Elizabeth Colt herself, returning the sport to the former grounds of the Colt estate is a concept whose time has come," they contend. "Vintage base ball is more than sport or entertainment— it is living history."

Karen O'Maxfield operates another website dedicated to the history of Hartford, at hartford.omaxfield.com. Gary is also "Pops O'Maxfield," the noted vintage base ball umpire and historian.

Things on my plate in '08 and books of '07

Happy new year! Among my resolutions: to thoroughly overhaul wwww.hartfordhistory.net and blog more regularly. On the latter score, I never got around last year to mentioning the publication of several books that deal in one way or another with city history. So I'll take the opportunity to list them here:

• "The Hartford Whalers" is another addition to Arcadia Publishing's indispensable series, Images in History. This pictorial tribute to "The Whale," put together by Brian Codagnone, traces the team's history from its membership in the upstart World Hockey League to its absorbtion into the National Hockey League, which eventually allowed the team to move to -- ugh! -- North Carolina. Relive the fun and heartbreak.
  
  
• "Victorian Hartford Revisited," another Arcadia photo book, is Tomas Nenortas's follow-up to his "Victorian Hartford," a compilation of postcards from Hartford's days as one of America's wealthiest and most beautiful cities. According to Arcadia, this volume contains "many never-before-published images."
  
  
• "House of Good Hope: A Promise for a Broken City," tells the true story of five gifted Hartford boys who met as high school athletes and promised to stay in the city and work for its improvement. Intertwined with it is author Michael Downs' soul searching over whether to remain in Hartford, the scene of so much of his family's history. The book is published by the University of Nebraska Press.
  
  
• "Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir" actually appeared at the end of 2005, but I can't resist plugging this amazing book, which has since been published in paperback. Author Mary-Ann Tirone Smith uses the 1953 murder of an 11-year-old classmate as a spur to explore her Hartford childhood, which included living with an autistic brother who could not bear many everyday sounds -- this in a time when autism was little recognized, let alone understood. Those nostalgic for the kinder, gentler Hartford of the 1950s will find lots of fodder here, but Smith also dissects the repressive mindset that led the adults around her to all but pretend the death of her friend never happened. Smith's experience as a mystery writer shows too, as she gives a riveting, step-by-step account of the movements that brought her friend into the path of her killer. This is an absolute page-turner.