FORT OGLETHORPE, GA (WDEF) – Fans of vintage base ball will step back in time this weekend as the Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball (TAVBB) hosts its annual Sulphur Dell Cup tournament in Fort Oglethorpe.
Games will be played September 13–14 on the polo fields at Barnhardt Circle, a site with ties to the Civil War era and just steps away from the Chickamauga Battlefield.
The tournament is named for Nashville’s historic Sulphur Dell ballpark, home to the Nashville Vols until 1963.
Vintage league play began in Tennessee in 2012, using the rules, uniforms, and equipment from the year 1864.
Players, known as “ballists”, compete bare-handed with wooden bats and a softer “lemon-peel” ball, while spectators, called “cranks”, can watch under rules such as the “bound rule,” where a ball caught on one bounce is still an out.
Ten teams make up the league, including three based in Chattanooga: The Mountain City Club, the Lightfoot Club, and the Grasshoppers, who joined this season.
The weekend’s games will decide the 2025 league champion, but just as important is the experience, part competition, part living history.
Admission is free, with families encouraged to bring lawn chairs and snacks.
