Five Things: Base ball with a bounce and shiny things

Class, this week’s guest speaker is Sports Editor Todd Eschman, one of the resident baseball nuts in the newsroom. Let’s all give Todd a round of applause on his diamond foray into Five Things.

Old-timey baseball

The Belleville Stags Vintage Base Ball Club will bring history and the national pastime together for their fifth season, which begins Saturday.

The Stags will face a new club, the Vandalia Old Capitols, in a match of base ball as played by the rules written in 1860. And yes, base ball was two words in those days.

Among the many other differences with the modern game, players do not wear gloves (though they still play with a hard ball), the pitcher is just 45 feet away from home plate but throws underhanded, and an out can be registered by catching a batted ball on the first bounce.

The Stags play about 45 matches each season, which lasts from April to November. Their home field, and site of Saturday’s match with Vandalia with team introductions starting at 1 p.m., is the open field behind the Belleville-Swansea Moose Lodge, 2425 N. Illinois St., adjacent to the Swansea MetroLink station.

Admission is free, and the concession stand is open with hamburgers, hotdogs and cold drinks. For a full schedule, visit bellevillestags.com or follow the team on Facebook.

Saturday’s all right for questions

Several trivia contests this weekend have benefits beyond showing off your knowledge: Costs go to groups like the children of Union School in Belleville, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville music students and the St. Clair County 4-H Program.

▪  Union school children: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Quail Club, 8303 Concordia Road, Belleville. Doors open at 6 p.m. Cost: $10 per person, limit eight per table. Make reservations at 618-233-4132 or 618-604-8333.

▪  SIUE Friends of Music: 7 p.m. Saturday, KG’s Sports Bar & Banquet Center, 5050 Nameoki Road, Granite City. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Cost: $20 per person, $160 per table (max eight players per team). Register: 314-623-0412 or kulade5@yaloo.com.

▪  St. Clair County 4-H Program: 7 p.m. Saturday, Agricultural Building, Scheve Park, Mascoutah. Doors open at 6 p.m. Cost: $12 per person, up to eight people per table. Reservations: 618-939-3434 or mkrahn@illinois.edu.

Show me the money

The Collinsville Coin Show will have more than 30 coin dealers, sponsored by the Metro East Coin & Currency Club, which is a member of the American Numismatic Association. The 34th annual spring coin show is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the American Legion at 1022 Vandalia Ave. in Collinsville. Admission and parking are free, and security is provided. They’ll have a raffle for U.S. Mint products and giveaways of coin-collection-related items. For more information, go to metroeastcoin

currencyclub.com.

Have a double-take shopping experience

▪  You know how junior likes to pick a shirt and wear nothing put that shirt for days on end? The nifty thing about the Metro-East Mothers of Multiples sale is the number of matching outfits in the same size one can find — you can alternate the Thomas the Tank Engine shirts so one is always clean or clean-ish.

Of course you don’t have to buy in pairs at the sale that opens at 7 a.m. Saturday for those who buy passes for $10. It’s open for free at 8 a.m. until 9:45 a.m., when the moms take a quick break to set up for the half-price sale from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at St. Henry Catholic Church at 5315 W. Main St. in Belleville.

▪  The self-described World’s Largest Garage Sale starts for the early birds at 7 a.m. Sunday (8 a.m. for the rest) at Fairmount Park, 9301 Collinsville Road in Collinsville. Admission is $5, with an additional $5 for those early souls, and free for children under 12.

Firetruck talk

Meet Chewy and Pluggie at the Belleville Fire Department’s open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Engine House No. 4, 1125 S. Illinois St.

Chewy is the fire-accelerant sniffing dog who will be on hand at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to demonstrate how his nose works. After seeing Chewy’s work, stroll over to an auto extrication demonstration at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

Pluggie, the department’s robot, goes to schools to help students learn about fire safety and will be available for the duration. They’ll also have car seat safety checks, the Survive Alive House Escape training and more.

The event is free, as are the hot dogs and drinks the firefighters will serve up.

Also...

Waaaaay over in St. Louis, the National Blues Museum is celebrating its opening at 10 a.m. Saturday at Sixth and Washington streets with live music, dignitaries and more music.

Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for those over 65, and $10 for children aged 5 to 17 and college students with an ID. Go to nationalblues

museum.org for more information.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 9:07 AM with the headline "Five Things: Base ball with a bounce and shiny things."