MANKATO — In an age of hyper-competitive sports, screaming parents, foul-mouthed and argumentative players and fans, a vintage tournament in Land of Memories Park Saturday was a calming antidote.   

“You can’t swear. Even a ‘gosh darn’ will get you a fine. It wasn’t appropriate for 1860s play,” said Brad “Hotstepper” Hawker, captain of the Mankato Baltics vintage base ball team (base ball was two words in the 1860s).

The tournament featured four vintage clubs — the Mankato Baltics, the Rochester Roosters, the La Crescent Apple Jacks and the Arlington Greys.

The Baltics were a team formed in Mankato in the late 1880s and Hawker and others resurrected the team about five years ago, joining a growing vintage base ball league now made up of nine teams in Minnesota. The Baltics went from playing a handful of games annually to 22 scheduled for this year.

The players were replete with vintage uniforms and equipment — no gloves — and played by early baseball rules and codes of conduct.

“It’s somewhat competitive, but it’s a good, fun, gentleman’s game,” Hawker said.

“You have to have your shirt tucked in while you play or it’s a two-bit fine.” The fines — which can also be levied against fans who question calls — go to the Blue Earth County Historical society, which sponsors the annual Mankato event.

Fines also come if players question a call, spit, or forget to take off watches, sunglasses or any other modern adornment before taking the field.   

Corky “Goose” Gaskell, of the Rochester Roosters, said there are actually very few tournaments held, with teams usually playing demonstration games at festivals. “It’s more for the education and entertainment. People come thinking they’re just going to see a base ball game but it’s something else,” Gaskell said.

While the layout of the field is the same as today and teams play nine innings and have three outs each inning, many of the early rules are far different.

The early rules called for a “dead,” or out, to be recorded by catching the ball on one “bound” (bounce) as well as on the fly.

An error was a “muff,” fans were a “throng,” a sharp grounder was a “daisy cutter,” and a proficient player was an “artist.”

And pitchers were far less key to the team’s success than today. The 1860s rules dictated not only that pitches be delivered underhand, but the hurler was expected to toss the ball to spots as directed by the batters and there are no fouls.

Even the base ball used is true to its origins, said Gaskell, who hand-made made several balls to bring to the game.

“They’re rubber bands in the center with yarn and a leather cover with some really tough string to stitch it,” he said of the balls. The balls must be built to standards developed by the Ohio Muffins, who started the first vintage league.

“The balls fly good to start, but after a couple of games they soften up quite a bit.”