Players bring back baseball’s early days

By Eric Seiverling

eseiverling@yourmvi.com

It may be hard to believe today with players swearing, spitting and serving suspensions, but baseball was once called “a gentlemen’s sport.”

Monongahela native Lane Poziviak and his teammates of the Addison Mountain Stars are looking to relive the sport’s golden years from 160 years ago by traveling around the country and playing other teams of the Vintage Base Ball Association. 

Teams competing in the VBBA wear period reproduction uniforms made of wool and leather, use period-authentic equipment and follow baseball rules from the 19th century to accurately present the history of the  sport to the public.  

Matches can be seen almost every month of the year at open-air museums, living history villages, Civil War re-enactments and city parks, and are played in more than 20 states as well as Canada.

The Addison Mountain Stars just completed an undefeated season and are preparing to play in the prestigious Frankenmuth Tournament in Michigan this summer. The team has also won the Festival Ambassador’s Award, which goes to the team that looks and plays the truest to the era.

Poziviak began playing old-time baseball in 2013 after learning of the VBBA from a co-worker while working as a physical therapist. He played baseball at Ringgold High School before tearing his hamstring during his junior year.

“I’ve been playing baseball since I was 4,” Poziviak, now 26, recalled. “It was a little foreign to me. But once you get out there and get muddy, it’s all just baseball.”

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