Dirigo Base Ball Club player Shep Brown, of Waldoboro, prepares to bat against Mudville Base Ball Club of Holliston, Mass., on Saturday at Kennebunk High School. The most glaring difference from today’s game is the lack of gloves. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

KENNEBUNK — Line drives and hard ground balls screamed at barehanded players. Outfielders and infielders raced to try to snag a ball on the hop or retrieve one that had bounced away. And a summer sun hidden in the morning emerged from the clouds, baking players dressed in wool uniforms, trousers and caps.

It’s hard. It’s hot. It’s 1860s-style baseball – 1864, to be precise – and for the players on the Dirigo Vintage Base Ball Club, it’s the way they love to play the game.

“Once you step on the field and you try it, then generally you’re hooked,” said Bob Hubbard, of New Gloucester, a second baseman and one of two original team members going back to its founding in 2006. “I think the history part of it and love of baseball is kind of what sucks people in. … You have to have kind of a love for the game to stand out in the heat in a wool uniform.”

The Augusta-based Dirigo team was playing in an annual game put on by Kennebunk’s Brick Store Museum, and took on the Mudville Base Ball Club on Saturday at Kennebunk High School. The outlook was brilliant for the Mudville nine that day (the Holliston, Massachusetts-based team won, 16-8), but the final score of these games isn’t the bottom line.

Adhering to history – and, therefore, celebrating it – is what truly matters.

Dirigo Base Ball Club players prepare for a vintage baseball game against Mudville Base Ball Club. The team was started by Augusta’s Mark Rohman as part of a Civil War reenactment and plays throughout the Northeast. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

“It’s such an honor to be able to continue to play baseball into adulthood” said third baseman Jacob Newcomb, of Westbrook, an original member along with Hubbard. “To be able to do this in a way that also represents the historical version of the game at its roots is a lot of fun.”

That attention to detail and accuracy is what makes the Dirigo team a good Brick Store Museum companion, said Cynthia Walker, the museum’s director and, as a former resident of Cooperstown, New York, no stranger to baseball lore.

“It’s a unique way for a history museum to get people outside, experiencing a type of history that we don’t necessarily think about all the time,” she said. “(We try to) link the past to today, and help folks figure out what the connections are.”

Avoiding anachronisms is important for the Dirigo team, which was started by Augusta’s Mark Rohman as part of a Civil War re-enactment and plays throughout the Northeast. The uniform, a buttoned long-sleeve wool pullover with navy blue pants and an engineer or newsboy-style hat, is, according to Newcomb, a replica of the one worn by the original Dirigo team in 1866. The bat looks like an oar, with a thick handle and squared-off top. Players wear cleats, but with all logos covered up to look like solid black shoes.

The game on the field, even on a high school diamond, bears only a passing resemblance to the modern game. Pitching is underhand. Balls that are caught on one hop are outs. Grounders that land fair initially and jump foul are still fair and in play. Batters running to first pull up to a stop, since running past the bag can result in an out, or “hand.”

Mudville Base Ball Club teammates celebrate a run during a vintage baseball game against Dirigo Base Ball Club at Kennebunk High School. The Holliston, Mass.-based team won, 16-8. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

For someone watching for the first time, the differences can be jarring.

“We take pride in the fact that we are representing the uniforms correctly. The rules, we take time. A lot of our players study the rules carefully, and study the terminology carefully,” Newcomb said. “We do our best so we can represent things correctly.”

The most glaring difference, though, is the lack of gloves, as the fielders are bare-handed as they would have been 160 years ago.

“The first thing (I hear from people) is usually ‘What the hell, you guys don’t use gloves?'” Hubbard said. “It does hurt. You get broken fingers. … We had a guy one year who had to get a wedding band cut off his finger. He tried to catch a line drive, his finger swelled up and the fire department had to come and cut his ring off.”

The game is meant to mimic its pastoral origins, but it also retains its competitiveness. In the third, Dirigo first baseman Ryan McCarthy made a diving and rolling catch of a short foul pop-up on the bounce, and moments later made a running, lunging tag on a Mudville batter before he reached first. In the fifth, Jason Kirk made a quick one-handed stab of a fly ball that landed and took an odd, sharp hop, to applause from the crowd.

“When you get out there and you get everything going, it’s hard to not give 110%,” Hubbard said. “We’re not sitting back, just dressing up and doing a reenactment. People like to say ‘Oh, you’re a reenactor.’ No, we’re ballplayers.”

The game played out in front of a large crowd, as fans lined the Kennebunk field from left field around home plate to right. Right fielder Corey Abbott, of Biddeford, a third-year player, said the games draw fans for a variety of reasons.

Dirigo Base Ball Club players watch as a teammate bats against Mudville Base Ball Club. The game on the field, even on a high school diamond, bears only a passing resemblance to the modern game – pitching is underhand, and balls that are caught on one hop are outs. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

“I think it’s part nostalgia, it’s part curiosity,” he said. “And I think people just get a kick out of the uniforms, too.”

One of those fans, Rick Wolf, of Kennebunkport, said watching the games appeals in multiple ways.

“There’s a nostalgia piece to it, there’s a baseball thing to it, and you also want to do that and support the museum,” he said. “It’s just fun to watch these guys play.”

And, Mudville captain Angelo D’Amato said, it’s fun to be the ones playing.

“First, (people say) ‘You’re kind of old to be playing baseball,'” he said. “I love it. I just love playing ball. I’ve got some friends that are like ‘Do you want to play golf?’ on a Saturday. ‘No, I’ve got a game.’ Some day I will golf, but I just love this.”