Sixteen runs on 35 hits — and the game was played in 85 minutes.

Welcome to base ball, 1860's-style.

More than 600 people turned out Saturday evening at Kelly Automotive Park to check out the vintage base ball game played between the Pittsburgh Franklins and Butler Barons.

Pitches were tossed under-hand, fielders did not wear gloves, there were no ball-strike counts and the umpire — Gary Shingleton, donning a derby and bow-tie while dressed in 1800's garb — sat on a stool beside the dugout and rarely had to make a call.

The Barons won the game, 13-3. But that hardly seemed to matter.

“This was fun. It was like a history lesson,” said Zelienople resident and Barons' first baseman Sid Bream, a former major leaguer. “It's good that people get a chance to see baseball in its original form.

“This gives me an appreciation for how the game has developed through the years.”

Abraham Lincoln, portrayed by Kevin Lukacs, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Shingleton and recited the legendary baseball poem “Casey at the Bat” to the crowd during an inning break.

The Barons had 20 hits in the nine-inning contest. Balls fielded on one bounce were outs and 17 of Butler's 24 outs were recorded in that fashion.

More than half of the game's 51 outs overall — 27, to be exact — were by the one-bounce rule. A handful of those were foul balls bounced back to the catcher, who was positioned a few feet beyond the home-plate area. Catchers did not wear any gear.

The baseball itself was soft and somewhat rubbery.

“It was hard to hit that thing,” said Curt Schnur, who bounced out to the catcher on his first swing of the game. “But this whole thing was neat. When games are played this fast, let's play two.”

Josh “Sluggo” Smith was the hitting star for the Barons, collecting two singles, a double and four RBI. His double was the only extra-base hit of the game.

“The ball was squishy and hard to square up,” Smith said. “You had to hit it flush to get it to go anywhere.

“But baseball is baseball, gloves or no gloves, hard ball or soft. I would have loved playing the game that many years ago as much as I love playing the game now.”

Pitches had to be delivered to the batter's liking before he would swing. But each batter rarely took more than two or three pitches.

“With no strikes being called and the hitter being able to swing at the ball where he wanted it ... That was pretty convenient,” said Butler High School baseball coach Todd Erdos, the Barons' starting pitcher.

Some of the Pittsburgh hitters tried chopping down at the ball, so it would land fair in front of the plate and spin off into foul territory toward the backstop. By 1860 rules, any batted ball that landed in fair territory at any time was a fair ball.

Because no gloves were used, infielders lobbed their throws on a bounce to first base. That didn't make life easy for first baseman Bream, who found himself flopping on the ground on a few occasions.

“It looks easy to catch, but the ball would have a backspin after it hit the ground and it would spin in your hand,” Bream said. “It was hard to hang on to. That was an adventure.”

The Franklins' players went strictly by nicknames. Players were announced over the public address system as Scooby, Bird Dog, Irons, Toad Sticker, Headmaster and Midnight, just to name a few.

Pittsburgh player-manager Jason Ramaley (Bird Dog) said the Franklins have had a vintage team for seven years and play 15 to 20 games per season. Their players range in age from 15 to 65.

“I played college ball and softball for a while, then I heard of this vintage baseball on NPR and decided to research it,” Ramaley said. “We found there was a team in Somerset.

“We put a team together and went out there to play in October of 2008. They invited us back for a doubleheader Nov. 3 of that year and we've been playing ever since.”

Ramaley said there are “serious” vintage baseball tournaments played on the east coast and “we get beat pretty good in those.”

Columbus, Ohio, hosts an annual vintage baseball tournament of more than 30 teams that come in from all over the country.

“That's more of a festival-type atmosphere and we hold our own there,” Ramaley said. “You get 100 or so people wandering in and out watching the games through the course of the day.

“We've never played in front of a crowd this size. We drew maybe 200-plus in Johnstown once, but nothing like this. This was fantastic. We would definitely come back here.”

Local umpire Bob Hollobaugh put the game together and had fans approaching him afterward, hoping the vintage game would become an annual event.

“I never considered that, but I may look into it now,” Hollobaugh said. “I know all of our players would come back. They had a blast.”

Proceeds from the game benefitted the Butler County Historical Society.