Vintage baseball returned to the John Deere Historic Site in Grand Detour on Saturday.

Oregon‘s vintage “base ball” team, the Ganymedes, hosted the DuPage County Plowboys on a hot, sunny day on the grounds of the Deere home and museum.

The game marked the fourth meeting of the two teams at the homestead where John Deere created the self-scouring plow.

“It was a beautiful day, and we had over 325 spectators come out for the event,” said Mark Herman, Ganymede coach and manager.

The Ganymedes Vintage Base Ball Club, an educational outreach program of the Chana School Museum, has brought the vintage base ball games to local fields and fans for 20 years.

Vintage rules base ball (spelled as two words in the 1800s) is played with authentic wool uniforms, no gloves, underhand pitching and “gentlemanly conduct.”

Other rule differences include outs for balls caught on one bounce, no called balls or strikes unless the batter swings three times and misses, and players calling themselves out on close plays.

Vintage games were played on fields of varying size and shape, Herman told Saturday’s crowd. Base paths are 90 feet, and there are three outs per inning in a 9-inning game.

The Ganymedes follow base ball rules from 1858 to 1867 as a way to educate and entertain guests about America’s first team sport.

“Due to the short field, left field, we are using a softer ball today,” said Herman, explaining that balls hit over the site’s south fence would be ruled as a foul ball.

A dozen or so kids watching from outside the fence were kept busy chasing down balls and returning them to the field of play.

Centerfield contained rose bushes and a vegetable garden, and when a batter hit the ball there, play continued until the ball was found.

On Saturday, the Plowboys scored in the first inning, but the Ganymedes quickly responded with six runs of their own, doubling that run count in the next innings and adding a “few more” en route to the win.

“A good time was had by all. Special thanks to the folks at the John Deere Historic Site for hosting this fine event,” Herman said.

Next up for the Ganymedes is a trip to Kalamazoo, Michigan, from June 27 to 28 to play six games at the Portage Vintage Base Ball Festival.

“We are scheduled to play five vintage clubs that we have never played before from Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan, along with our friends, the Canton Michigan Cornshuckers,” Herman said.

Upcoming games

• Saturday and Sunday, June 27-28, TBA vs. baseball clubs from five states at the fourth annual Portage Vintage Base Ball Festival, Ramona Park, Portage, Michigan
• Sunday, July 12, 1 p.m. vs. Geneseo Historical Museum Picked Nine doubleheader at Richmond Hill Park, Geneseo
• Sunday, July 19, 1 p.m. vs. Regulator Base Ball Club of Creston – doubleheader
• Sunday, Aug. 2, 1 p.m. vs. Regulators Base Ball Club of Creston at Lions Park, Malta
• Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 8-9, TBD vs. 11 vintage baseball clubs from five states at the 23rd annual Henry Ford Museum Greenfield Village World Tournament of Historic Base Ball, Dearborn, Michigan
• Sunday, Sept. 13, TBA vs. Regulators BaseBall Club of Creston and Plowboys BaseBall Club of DuPage County at Creston Booster Days Event at Creston Elementary School Field, Creston.

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Oregon Ganymede Tim "Fireball" Brinkmeyer dives for a line drive during a vintage base ball game against the Plowboys on Saturday, June 13, 2026, at the John Deere Historic Site in Grand Detour. (Earleen Hinton)