I have researched baseball in the 1890's in several counties in the Shenandoah Valley (Shenandoah being one of those counties), when baseball truly WAS the national pastime. My take on the location of this game, and again, this is my impression, is that Bushong's field was a field owned by the Bushong family and adjacent to Indian Springs, "the new park, on the south edge of town." They often described the location using the name of the property owner, since there were very few, if any "baseball fields" per se, with backstop, fences, bleachers, etc., during this time period. All they needed was reasonably flat ground and open space. Again I will mention, this is my opinion based upon research and should, in no way, be taken as documented fact. If you look at the newspapers during this decade during the spring and summer months, you'll see that there were teams from Woodstock, Edinburg, Strasburg, Winchester, Front Royal and other towns and villages in the valley, they were part of the Valley League. A Valley League exists today, although I do not know if the current league has any direct connection to the league of the 1890's. There is one particular article, circa 1896, that describes a game between the teams from Woodstock and Edinburg, which was decided by a controversial umpire's call at the end of the game. The article describes the fact that the umpire was chased from the field to the train that took him from Edinburg back to Woodstock. They did take their baseball seriously in those days. Don ----- Original Message ----- From: Chochoruss@aol.com To: vashenan@rootsweb.com Sent: Sunday, March 6, 2011 10:39:05 AM Subject: [VASHENAN] Girl's baseball team in 1893, Woodstock, Virginia Good Morning Vashenan Listmates, We found this article in the newspaper and thought it rather interesting for more then one reason. To think that there was a girl's baseball team back this early is amazing and that they played on a new park called Bushong's field brings up a question as to what happened to that park and was it renamed? ----------------------------- The Shenandoah Herald Friday, 21 July 1893 Page 3, Column 3 The New York young Ladies Base Ball Club, a nine composed of expert young lady players, will cross bats with the Woodstock Club on Monday afternoon next, July 24th, at 4 o'clock. The game will be played in Bushong's field, adjoining Indian springs, the new park, on the south edge of town. The game will be an interesting one, as the ladies play ball with a vim that will give the Woodstock boys all they are looking for, and then some, Don't fail to see these handsome ladies bat the ball all over the gable end of creation, and show their twinkling feet as they fly around the bases. --------------------- Researched and Submitted by Gloria Bushong ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to VASHENAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message