Welcome to the website of the Chicago Salmon Vintage Base Ball Club!
Started by Ellie "Boss Lady" Carlson in 1996, the Chicago Salmon play a vintage style of base ball dating back dating back to 1858, and are affiliated with the Vintage Base Ball Association. We have a roster consisting of players from around the Chicagoland area, and play matches against other area teams at the Historic Methodist Campground in Des Plaines, IL, as well as Lincoln Park, and other area fields. We also “barnstorm” on the road to places such as Central Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. If you are interested in playing for the Chicago Salmon Vintage Base Ball Club, please see our Join Us page, and fill out this form.
Visit the Chicago Salmon Vintage Base Ball Club Facebook Page!
Sketch steps up to the plate at our 2022 opening day match against the Deep River Grinders in Hobart, IN.
Our 2023 opening day will be Sunday, April 30th against the Deep River Grinders. Stay tuned on social media, and check out our website, chicagosalmon.org, for more 2023 schedule details!
#vintagebaseball #vbba #vintagebaseballassociation #1858rules #baseball #baseballistwowords #historicallyaccurate #baseballhistory #chicagosalmon #chicagosalmonbaseball #chicago #chicagoteam #teamworkmakesthedreamwork
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Barber makes a catch at our match against the Douglas Dutchers on August 6, 2022 in Chicago, IL.
Photo by Brennan "Sketch" Probst (@brennanprobstart).
#vintagebaseball #vbba #vintagebaseballassociation #1858rules #baseball #baseballistwowords #historicallyaccurate #baseballhistory #chicagosalmon #chicagosalmonbaseball #chicago #chicagoteam #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #douglasdutchers #douglasmi #chicagoil #lincolnparkchicago #chicagohistorymuseum
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Barber remembered the first rule of fielding: always exhale 1st!😄
Zeus makes a play at first at our 2022 opening match on May 1, 2022 against the Deep River Grinders at Grinder Field in Hobart, IN.
(Photo by @brennanprobstart).
#vintagebaseball #vbba #vintagebaseballassociation #1858rules #baseball #baseballistwowords #historicallyaccurate #baseballhistory #chicagosalmon #chicagosalmonbaseball #chicago #chicagoteam #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #deeprivergrinders #deeprivercountypark #grinderfield
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Swimming Up”stream”: Navigating the Waters of Digital Presence & Online Engagement with a Salmon by Katie Flapjack Baer
Join Katie “Flapjack” Baer of the Chicago Salmon for a dive into the vast digital venues available to your VBBA club. Katie will doggy paddle through the basics of social media platforms, generating attention-grabbing content, increasing online engagement, and creating and maintaining a club website. She will also discuss her experience developing the well-received Salmon Spectator newsletter, and the takeaways she’s learned this season.
Katie is the Publications Liaison (and 2nd basewoman) for the Chicago Salmon. She holds a degree in Creative Writing from Knox College. She has extensive social media experience and focuses on running both the Facebook page and Instagram for the Salmon (find both @ChicagoSalmonBaseBall), and works with a team to maintain and update the Salmon website, chicagosalmon.org. Along with her husband, Brennan “Sketch” Probst, she created the Salmon Spectator newsletter, which comes out after each match, and can be viewed on the Salmon website.
We hope to see you at the 2023 Dayton VBBA Conference.
The 2022 VBBA Dearborn Conference videos are now available.
www.vbba.org/videos/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz-CITCOrFw&t=404s
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Spend time watching the Chicago Salmon's skilled photographer, Brennan Sketch Probst share the history of photography and his techniques in this 2022 VBBA Dearborn Conference presentation.
19th Century Photography & Now. Photography, like base ball, has seen a multitude of changes since its inception in the mid-19th century, and would be nearly unrecognizable today to those who first conceived it. Brennan “Sketch” Probst will guide you through a brief history of 19th century photographic technology, and how it was used to capture base ball. In addition, Sketch will explain how he goes about using modern camera technology to effectively capture the vintage game we all love so well.
Brennan “Sketch” Probst has played for the Chicago Salmon since 2020. While he does his best as an outfielder, Sketch’s greatest contribution to the club is perhaps his photography. Sketch holds an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from the University of New Orleans, and is currently an adjunct professor at Carthage College where he teaches darkroom and digital photography.
The 2022 VBBA Dearborn Conference videos are now available at the VBBA website, www.vbba.org/videos/ and on the VBBA YouTube page: www.youtube.com/watch?v=td7Zd7YnDYk&t=115s
We hope to see you at the 2023 Dayton, Ohio VBBA Conference, March 31-April 2.
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