A GENTLEMAN'S GAME. The Menomonie Blue Caps, a vintage inspired team playing "base ball," has been at it since 2012.

For the Menomonie Blue Caps, going to the ballgame involves more than visiting a physical location. There’s time travel involved, too.

And not just the nostalgic time travel that many of us experience when we watch – or take part in – America’s pastime. Everything about the Blue Caps – including their uniforms, equipment, attitude, and the rules they follow – hearkens back to a time long passed.

Specifically, back to 1860, when the National Association of Base Ball Players approved a rule book still followed by the Blue Caps and a network of vintage baseball teams across the country. In addition to their quaint uniforms – modeled after those of the original Blue Caps, who played in Menomonie between 1882 and 1941 – the Blue Caps follow quaint rules: Among other things, they play without gloves, pitch underhanded, and can’t be called out on strikes (you can only strike out while swinging). A ball caught after the first bounce is an out, and a ball is considered fair or foul based on where it hits the ground first.

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It is a crazy, weird addiction that none of us can stop.

DUSTYN DUBUQUE

CAPTAIN, MENOMONIE BLUE CAPS

What results is a (usually) slower-paced “gentleman’s game” that appeals to a wide range of players, said team captain Dustyn Dubuque. While the Blue Caps are all men, other vintage teams are co-ed, and players may range from teenagers to folks in their 80s. (At age 35, Dubuque is among the youngest on his team.) Some are baseball or softball lovers who want to keep playing, while others are there for the goofy, history-tinged fun. Dubuque said the Blue Caps are mostly in the latter camp.

“There’s no trophy or tournament or cash prizes,” he said. “None of that existed yet. You’re out there because it’s fun and you want to play baseball.”

In addition to the classic uniforms, the top-hatted umpires, and obligatory shouts of “Huzzah,” part of the fun of old-time “base ball” is the nicknames: Dubuque, for instance, is known to teammates as “Mad Dog,” while teammates answer to Kojack, Stache, Smoke, Bones, Chip, Steamboat, Wall Street, and Beans (whose son has been dubbed String Bean). 

The current incarnation of the team was born in 2012, when Matt Carter – then director of the Dunn County Historical Society and a baseball fan – created the team to play a couple of exhibition games to coincide with a baseball exhibit at the museum. Dubuque, then a museum volunteer, joined the team for its first full season in 2013 and became captain a couple of years later.

While the 20-player roster is ever-changing, about eight member have been with the team since 2013, Dubuque said. They are men from around west-central Wisconsin who look forward to spending summer weekends enjoying the vintage game and each other’s company.

“It is a crazy, weird addiction that none of us can stop,” he quipped.

This year the team had 13 dates on its schedule, some involving multi-game tourneys, including the Gettysburg National 19th Century Base Ball Festival July 20-21 in Pennsylvania. While there will be no more Menomonie home games this season, remaining 2024 games will bring the Blue Caps to Whitehall, Boyceville, Cameron, Dallas, and Sand Creek – home of their local rivals, the Sand Creek 9 – as well as to Illinois and Minnesota. (Because there are few vintage teams in this part of Wisconsin, the Blue Caps frequently play against Minnesota squads.)

While Dubuque acknowledges he’s become a better hitter over the years, what he’s come to love most about the game is the camaraderie, which is shared with teammates as well as opponents: Players from competing teams have been known to fill out rosters in a pinch, and occasionally someone will come out of a crowd at a game to join the team.

“I think we have really hard-core adopted that the fun aspect outweighs everything else,” he said. “If we’re not having fun, what are we doing?”

Learn more about the team and its schedule at dunnhistory.org/menomonie-blue-caps or facebook.com/MenomonieBlueCaps.