The Tippecanoe Canal Jumpers are back for the 2010 Season and better than ever! We’re still putting together our 2010 Match Schedule, but check out the page for the list of games so far. And here are some highlights:

• Opening Day – Sunday, April 25 at 1pm away game against the Belle River Ball Club.  Game to be played at the Rising Sun Casino in Indiana.
• Home Opener – Sunday, May 16 at 1pm home game against the Norwood Highlanders BBC Home.  Game will be at the Willowtree Inn!
• Ohio Cup – Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 4,5 games against teams to be determined.  The Ohio Cup is held annually at Ohio Village in Columbus (more info on the Ohio Cup)
• Inaugural Tippecanoe Base Ball Cup - Sunday, Sept. 25 against several teams and held in conjunction with the  Tipp City Mum Festival Weekend.  Location and times still being determined.

Stay tuned for more information!

Framed versions of the Canal Jumpers team photo and the Canal Jumpers Exhibition Game Poster and Ticket are now available. The cost is $64.50 for the team photo, which includes the photo and professional framing in a vintage-style frame. The Exhibition Game Poster and Ticket is $67.50, framed. To order your framed versions of these two limited edition items, please contact Reed Spencer at reed AT reedspencer.com. We only have a few photos and posters left, so order quickly!  If you are interested in just purchasing the Team Poster, it is $8.00 – please contact genslen AT yahoo.com to order – we have about six left.

Anyone interested in purchasing the photo shown here as a poster?  I got a bunch printed up that have the team name and a roster of all the players printed right on the poster – the size is 11×17 inches and are priced at $8.00.  So far everyone who has seen them is impressed by the quality of the photo (THANKS SHARON of Sharon Elaine Photography)!  Anyone interested in picking up one of the posters, please shoot me an email and I will hold one for you!

On August 16, the Canal Jumpers hosted the Clodbuster Base Ball Club of Dayton to a gentlemanly vintage base ball match on the lawn of the Willowtree Inn in Tipp City. Many a folk, clear skies and balmy temperatures greeted the Canal Jumpers and their cranks “fans”. “What a wonderful day for a base ball match,” proclaimed Greg Enslen, Club Co-founder & Manager.

Reed Spencer, Captain and Co-founder of the Canal Jumpers, introduced his club of 24 ballists “players” to the cheers of the home town crowd of 300 strong. Many of which sported their Sunday best on this fine day. This was the inaugural match the for Tippecanoe club. The 1860’s Beadle DIME Base Ball Player rules were used by both clubs.

The Clodbusters were victorious by a 7-2 score. Aces “runs” for the Canal Jumpers were scored by Doug “Dawg” Saul and Rod “The Vacuum” Martino. Huzzah’s “hurray’s” are warranted to the superb play of center fieldsman, Matt “Maverick” Owen and the behind “catcher” skills of Mark “Mad Dog” Mabelitini. Overall, the match was well played and huzzah’s were shared by all by both clubs.

Special huzzah’s go out to the Clodbusters, Willowtree Inn, Harrison’s, Abbey Credit Union, Spring Hill Nurseries, RE/MAX Professionals, Big Robot Game Café, Miami Valley Wine & Spirits, Andrea Nay Designs, Logan Rogers, Ron Re, Sharon Elaine Hultberg and Peg Hadden. The Tippecanoe Canal Jumpers Vintage Base Ball Club is a project of the Downtown Tipp City Partnership.

Hey everyone, it’s officially going to be Vintage Baseball Week in Tipp City, Ohio starting on August 16th!  Last night at the Tipp City City Council meeting, Mayor Tim Evans declared that the week of August 16th-23rd would be Vintage Baseball Week in Tipp City!  Here the whole proclamation being read off by the Mayor HERE:  Canal Jumpers Mayoral Proclamation

According to page 33 of the Tippecanoe Sesquicentennial book, published in 1990:

In the 1900s baseball was organized in Tippecanoe city and became the Sunday afternoon pastime, with entire families walking or driving the buggy east of the canal where a field was maintained.  In 1912, tiers of bleachers were built for the crowds, swelled by the rivalry between towns — Troy, Piqua, Sidney, Botkins and Wapakoneta being others in the circuit.  The Tipp Sleepies were skilled and competitive.  Legend has it that they won more than one game of the few played against the Cincinnait Reds, the Cuban All Stars and the Nebraska Indians — teams who barnstormed the area playing local teams following their regular seasons.

The 1912 Tipp Sleepies lineup included Butch Henn, Gard Shear, Ora Wells, Bert Jackson, Ben Widener, Potts, and Ralph Herring.  Dillon and Heide were the pitchers and Clarence Snider the manager.  Gus Schultz was a well known pitcher, and Herman “Dutch” Schultz played, along with Ben Grey and his older brother, along with many others.

Baseball history was made on a small field along the Hudson River in the shadows of the New York City Skyline. “Base Ball” or “Town Ball” is forever linked to 1839 Cooperstown, New York but 1846 Hoboken, New Jersey is where Alexander Joy Cartwright and The New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club developed and published the first rules of the game. Maybe this is why Hoboken is proud to say it is baseball’s birthplace.

Baseball Gloves developed much in the way the game developed. Slowly. Gloves first appeared on the diamond in the 1870’s. Players that were tired of bruising or breaking fingers began wearing gloves to protect their hands. Initially, players wearing these “garments” were mocked or considered “unmanly.” Today enthusiasts of baseball associate “tan gloves” as “traditional” but players may have selected the flesh color to camouflage their embarrassment of wearing a glove. Fortunately for baseball players by the time the turn of the century came around everyone was wearing a glove.