On most Saturday and Sunday mornings from early spring to late fall, you can find what appears at a distance to be a normal game of adult recreational baseball. But take a closer look, and you’ll notice some anomalies: fielders playing without gloves, an umpire wearing a three-piece suit and top hat, players’ uniforms looking as though they were borrowed from the costume department of a movie set in the 19th century.

Set in the backdrop of Old Bethpage Village Restoration, this is the site of two old-timey baseball fields where weekly doubleheaders of vintage baseball are played with precise historical accuracy in adherence to 1864 rules. The home field of the New York Mutuals (established in 1857), “The Village” is a renowned site for the loose federation of vintage “base ball” clubs throughout the East Coast. 

“We try to be as accurate as possible,” says Anthony ‘Dirty Pirate’ Cannino, a longtime member of the New York Atlantics, whose home field is in nearby Smithtown. The bats, uniforms, balls, and rules are an almost exact match to how Doc Adams—the man most responsible for popularizing the game of baseball—played the game over 150 years ago.