If you’re a baseball purist fed up with millionaire ballplayers, steroid investigations, and sky-high ticket prices, what could be better than taking a trip back in time to the ‘60s?
No, not the 1960s. I'm talking about the 1860s.
If you want to see some seriously old-school baseball, head to Georges Island this Saturday (August 28) where the Essex Base Ball Club will play a doubleheader, including a game against Boston Harbor Islands park rangers. The vintage ball games will take place on the parade ground of historic Fort Warren, which is best known for incarcerating Confederate prisoners of war during the Civil War. Much like the Union soldiers stationed at Fort Warren, the ballplayers this weekend will be playing a little hardball using the rules of the Civil War era.
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of checking out the Essex Base Ball Club for the first time, and it was a lot of fun to be among the cranks (the old-time term for “fans”) watching the action. Seeing the nattily attired players decked out in baggy flannels and pillbox caps definitely gives you a Field of Dreams moment (without the corn and the voices in your head).
What you won’t see the players wearing, however, are gloves. It’s cool seeing the different rules that were used back then. For instance, an out can be recorded if the ball is caught on the first bounce, not just on the fly.
It's not in the same league as Fenway Park, but the Boston Harbor Islands actually have some hardball history associated with them. One year during the 1800s, the horse rendering factory on Spectacle Island used all the skins to make baseballs, and in the early 1900s Peddocks Island was home to an inn owned by John Irwin, a former professional baseball player in the 1880s and 1890s. Irwin helped organize "Ye Old-Timers' Gambol," an annual reunion of retired ballplayers from as far back as the 1860s that drew upwards of two thousand players and fans. The highlight of the day was a baseball game with the retired players in what was one of the earliest old-timers games in baseball history. (I've also read that the Boston Braves played games out on Peddocks, but I have never come across any records of those games in my research.)
Click here for more information about this weekend's vintage baseball on Georges Island. While you're there, check out the great new visitor center and Summer Shack restaurant.
The Boston Marathon may be the city's most revered sporting tradition, but it's not the only storied endurance race that draws elite athletes to Boston from all over the globe. On August 14, an elite group of swimmers will compete in the Boston Light Swim, an eight-mile race across Boston Harbor.
Despite its name, there’s nothing “light” about the effort to complete the swim. The moniker comes from the starting location for the race, historic Boston Light on Little Brewster Island. After battling powerful cross-currents, boat traffic, and strong gusts of wind (but no sharks), the swimmers will finish at the L Street Bathhouse in South Boston where they will need to warm up as the harbor waters, even in August, can be quite chilly and wet suits are not allowed. This is old school stuff.
The Boston Light Swim dates from the early 1900s and is the “Granddaddy of American Open-Water Swims.” When 15-year-old Rose Pitonof completed the swim in 1910, it took her 6 hours and 50 minutes. (The story of Rose's historic swim is detailed in Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands.) Depending on weather conditions, most swimmers these days take between three and six hours to complete the course, although the race record is under two-and-a-half hours.
While the swimmers must battle the elements, thankfully, they no longer have to brave a heavily polluted harbor. Along their route, swimmers pass Georges and Rainsford Islands, go underneath the Long Island Bridge, and cross between Thompson and Spectacle Islands. Too bad they won’t have much chance to soak in the scenery of the Boston Harbor Islands.
Many swimmers in the past have used this swim to prepare for an English Channel crossing. But if you’re more at home in the comfort of the kiddie side of the pool—or prefer to stay dry altogether—you can still participate in the Boston Light Swim by serving on support boats that offer food, drink, and lots of encouragement to the swimmers. Race organizers always need escort boats for swimmers with captains who know Boston Harbor and have seaworthy motorboats. All escort boat volunteers will receive $300 directly from the swimmer and an event T-shirt. For more information, visit the Boston Light Swim website.
While you’re there, check out the race’s colorful history. I love the photo of 1908 competitor Annette Kellerman being arrested on a Boston beach the year before for wearing a men’s one-piece swimsuit.
Last Friday was a beautiful summer day in Boston, a great day to explore the Boston Harbor Islands. In addition to the great weather, I was particularly enthused for this island adventure because it was my first opportunity to check out the brand new visitor center and Summer Shack eatery on Georges Island, home to historic Fort Warren.
After months of construction, the former mine storage building on Georges Island has been transformed into a new visitor center featuring a museum on the ground level. (A gift shop inside the center will open next year.) The museum’s exhibits focus not just on Fort Warren, but more broadly on the history of Boston’s coastal defenses from the birth of the Massachusetts Bay Colony through the Cold War. A number of the museum exhibits focus on a day in the life of the Union soldiers stationed at Fort Warren during the Civil War along with the Confederate prisoners who were held captive there (Perhaps I missed it, but one subject I didn’t see covered was the fort’s infamous ghost—the Lady in Black.)
One of the most interesting items on display is a dinner table featuring six plates of food representing typical meals for the Confederate prisoners of war and the Union soldiers, varying by rank. Contrary to our modern-day concept of POWs, some of the Confederate prisoners dined much more sumptuously than their Union captors.
No doubt both Union and Confederate soldiers would have enjoyed the fare now being served on the island by the new outpost of Jasper White’s Summer Shack. The menu includes lobster rolls, fried shrimp, fried clams, and other summertime favorites. A new open-air pavilion offers great views of the Boston skyline along with a shady place to chill out.
There’s also a new children’s playground area that’s constructed to look like a section of the granite fort. Toddlers might enjoy the slide and peering out the narrow windows of the structure like one of the island’s former residents, but its features are limited compared to other city playgrounds.
After exploring the inside of Fort Warren, take a seat in one of the new teak Adirondack chairs that look out on Boston Harbor and some of the other islands. The captivating views are appropriate for this former island prison.
Go to the Boston Harbor Islands website for ferry tickets to Georges Island, and be sure to tote along your copy of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands for a full history of Fort Warren.
One of the long-term visions for the Boston Harbor Islands national park area includes the presence of an artist colony on one of the islands. Well, this weekend (July 31 and August 1) you can get a sneak peek of what such a colony might look like as Bumpkin Island hosts its fourth annual Art Encampment.
During the encampment, artists become “homesteaders” who take temporary ownership of island plots and build their own shelter, live on the land, and create a site-specific, temporary performance or art installation. The interactive art installations will include performance art, mixed-media exhibitions, and sculptures inspired by the Boston Harbor Islands.
The web site for the Berwick Research Institute, a non-profit art organization, has a full listing of the artist works you’ll see this weekend. A couple of them, in particular, caught my eye. One is “The Great Bumpkin Hunt” by Ali Reid, which riffs off the island’s playful name. Here’s the description: “Building on island folklore that ‘Bumpkins’ are ‘little guys with glowing eyes,’ Reid and a cast of intergenerational family members will lead daily interpretive tours exploring the mysterious species' rise and decline."
The second is “Bumpkin Sky-Land” by Mark Davis, which is described as an exploration of “the mystical realm of ‘sky-land’ alluded to in a World War I-era ballad about Bumpkin, as he summons the island’s aerial genii loci to manifest themselves in the form of floating lattice structures and shoreline fire-glyphs.” That ballad, the “Bumpkin Island War Song,” was written by the men at Bumpkin’s WWI-era Naval Training Station. The full song, included in the pages of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands, refers to Bumpkin as “a jewel dropped from sky-land/for you’ll help us win the war.” (Bring your copy of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands along with you, and you’ll not only see the full “Bumpkin Island War Song” but you’ll learn all about the rich history of Bumpkin Island and what you can see out there today including the ruins of an old farmhouse, a children’s hospital, and an old mess hall for the naval station.)
In addition to the public ferry to Bumpkin Island, which leaves from Georges Island and the Hingham Shipyard Marina, a special boat shuttle will take visitors directly from Long Wharf in Boston to Bumpkin Island. The special shuttle leaves at 1 PM on July 31 and August 1 and returns at 7 PM. Tickets are $15 and may sell out. To purchase tickets in advance, click here.
