By Don Steen ~ Staff Writer – [email protected]
The Lincoln Pioneer Village in Rockport offers a glimpse of life in antebellum Indiana. The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial serves as monument to Spencer County’s most famous resident and his life during the war years. The community of Mariah Hill, meanwhile, offers visitors a chance to take in America’s National Pastime as Abe Lincoln would have known it.
The Mariah Hill Ball Park is among the oldest in the region, and now serves as the home field of the Mariah Hill Yankees, a vintage baseball team playing by the rules of the 1860’s. The Yankees played their first game last year against the Indianapolis Blues for the entertainment of their families, but they’ve kept at it since then. This year they have played games in Louisville, Evansville, and French Lick.
Those looking for a shorter trip can cheer on the Mariah Hill Yankees at their second annual home game Saturday, September 23 with the Indianapolis Blues and the Bluegrass Barons. There will also be food trucks, concessions, live music, and beer garden to help everyone come out and root, root, root for the home team. The first pitch will be at 10:30 a.m. Central Time.
The ceremonial first pitch will be thrown out by Mariah Hill’s own Super Bowl Champion Ken Dilger.
Born and raised in Mariah Hill, Dilger grew up playing baseball. He attended Heritage Hills High School where he played quarterback. After graduating, he went on to the University of Illinois where he was redshirted for a year before becoming a four-year letterman and three-year starter as a tight end.
Dilger was drafted in the second round of the 1995 NFL Draft by the Colts and spent his first seven NFL seasons as a tight end with the Indianapolis Colts. His last three seasons were with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; winning Super Bowl XXXVII in his first year as a Buccaneer. In 2022, he was selected for induction into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.
The September 23 game will be unlike any baseball game most fans are likely to have seen. Everything from the uniforms, bats, balls, phrasing, and rules will be representative of the earliest years of the game.
One might catch reference to a “muckle”, meaning a power hitter or hear about a “four baser” in place of a home run. Pitching will be underhanded, the ball will be somewhere between a baseball and softball in size, the bats will be flat at the end, and none of the players will be wearing gloves.
“We bare hand every ball,” said Nate Little of the Mariah Hill Yankees.
The relative lack of protective gear has naturally led to some injuries. Little himself sustained a broken ankle, and the pitcher has taken a hard hit as well. The 11 full-time players and three dedicated alternates take the risk in stride, however, ensuring the Mariah Hill Yankees can keep a full nine-player team on the field.
The Mariah Hill Yankees are not members of any league. Little said vintage baseball, just like its modern counterpart, is mostly about giving friends and neighbors a chance to have fun and give the community a show. Several players have kids that also play, and coach them on modern rules. Little noted this can cause some confusion, as vintage rules often fly in the face of what they learned growing up and teach the next generation.
Read more on this story in this week’s issue of the Spencer County Leader!
COVER IMAGE: Andy Seifert smacks a ball towards centerfield during the game in Mariah Hill.
Brett Jochum gets ready to swing the bat at the ball thrown by pitcher Nicholas Keller.
Nate Little was the catcher at the game in Mariah Hill.
Nicholas Keller was the pitcher for the game in Mariah Hill.
A rack of wooden bats that were used during the game in Mariah Hill. Vintage baseball games back then used wooden bats just like these.
