Vintage Baseball: It's Back, It's Way Back

Vintage has as much of a niche in sports as in fashion: Old-timey baseball leagues are introducing short-brimmed hats and hardball attitudes to athletes across the country, NPR reports. The most important difference between games of then and now? "Vintage is without a glove. Only sissies wear a mitt," says a member of the Brooklyn Athletics.

Throwback baseball is not to be confused with re-enactments: "If you're re-enacting the Battle of Gettysburg, you already know ahead of time who wins and who loses," says the president of the Vintage Base Ball Association. But when playing an 1880s-style game, "you can actually win this thing." But you can also break some fingers—and many players do. (More baseball stories.)