Welcome to The Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago, Inc.
The ORIGINAL and Oldest, Continuous Baseball Organization in America... and Fan Club to Chicago Baseball, Incorporated 1919 by Tom Foley, Founder of Chicago Professional Baseball! Yeah, that's right ya pansy: Sox Fans, Cubs Fans, WE'RE YOUR DADDY!

Download our March 2009 newsletter here in pdf!

President: ANDY PAFKO Executive Director: Mark Braun

Updated: May 21, 2009
NEXT EVENT: September, 2009

Sept 2008 Goodnight, Old Timers!

Hello Old Timer! Our September reunion will be the final dinner of the Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago. The number of dues-paying members has taken a mammoth toll, and as such, the 2009 budget went to postage (up), printing (doubled), and necessities. Sad to say this, but we're dancing to our last song... See you there! Yours in baseball, Mark Braun, Executive Director

TODAY IN BASEBALL ONLINE!

Way Out in Left Field Society!

670 The Score in Chicago Rocks!

Milwaukee's Old Time Baseball Players Assn.

Harrington's famous corned beef

Bije's Sports Bar & Pizza in Chicago feeds our needs!

Chicago Cubs merchandise

The George Brace Collection link

Society of American Baseball Research link

Grace Collector

CubsCast Podcasts Here!

Midwest Diamond Report

We Believe: The Movie! OTBAC supplied much of their archival film!

Chicago's wonderful Irish American Heritage Center

Buy Your Own Old Timers' Cap: $15 postpaid; Click on Bettie or Sven for the link!

OUR 90th (Incorporated) YEAR: 1919 - 2009

Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago, Inc.

We are America's oldest baseball organization. Our purpose is to perpetuate and preserve the game and history of our national pastime: baseball, and to celebrate with other fans and players and hope to God for another pennant.
Founded by billiard champion, promoter, and Chicago alderman Tom Foley, it was Foley who placed that fateful ad in a New York newspaper, raised the $25,000 to bring professional baseball to Chicago (aka the Chicago 9), became their manager and gave birth to the Cubs and Sox way back in 1869. Foley assembled his old friends and players in 1917 and incorporated the club in 1919 to celebrate the Golden Anniversary of that original team.
The club now includes writers, artists, sports authorities, filmmakers, historians, players, fans, collectors, dealers and the families and friends of America's greatest game. We have helped in numerous books, many articles, documentaries and countless crude baseball legends. We meet regularly over dinner, attend area Cubs, Sox, Flyers, Cougars, Bandits games and have been here before there ever was a Cubs Convention or Sox Fest. We outdate 'em all!
We are, and remain, America's oldest continuous baseball organization... and the founders of baseball in Chicago! Our members range in age from 21 to 100; If you're a true Chicago baseball fan, come in, Old Timer, you're welcome here...

2009 Cubs Schedule here!

2009 Cougars Schedule here!

2009 Flyers Schedule here!

We Say Farewell to Dolores Bajda

Our Vice President Dolores Bajda passed away Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008. A strong advocate for girls sports, Dolores was honored by the city of Chicago with a street named in her honor. A pitcher for the AAGPBL South Bend Blue Sox in 1949, Dolores was a vocul promoter of the league and brought numerous ladies to our banquets and events. She was a friend, an officer, and a shining example to young girls everywhere that anyone with heart and determination really CAN do anything.

Baseball Questions? Ask away! Our historians are SABR members, authors, researchers and all pretty darned smart... and can probably find anything. Email them all at Mark's email addy below

Preston Peavy's VSI Baseball (Visual Sports Imaging) Preston Peavy's excellent site is for anyone interested in improving their game. Lots of tips and inspiration/motivational reading; highly recommeded!
http://www.peavynet.com/
OUR HISTORY

Our first banquet was held in honor of the Golden Anniversary of the founding of Chicago's first Major League team in 1869 by our founder and first president, Tom Foley. It was Tom Foley, billiard magnate, who placed that fateful ad asking for nine professional base ball players to form a team for Chicago. They evolved into the Cubs... and there you have it: our Foley founded Chicago baseball, and fifty years later, he'd organize a reunion that would become the Old Timers' Baseball Association. Foley organized the Old Timers' in 1917 and incorporated us in 1919 and the group has been honoring baseball players and fans ever since.

With a history rich in tradition and colorful stories, the Chicago Old Timers' have included such greats as: Past Presidents Gabby Hartnett, Jimmy Archer, Fred Lindstrom, as well as members of the Negro League and members of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Our current president is Andy Pafko whose career has included wearing the uniforms of: Cubs (1943-1951) Brooklyn Dodgers and the Milwaukee Braves.

JOINING THE CLUB! Membership is now closed for the 2009 year.

OUR OFFICIAL CAPS: LAST CALL! Emblazened with our logo in either tan or blue, these are done right here in the USA!
http://www.oocities.org/mbraun@ameritech.net/index.htm
Worldwide membership is just $12 annually for membership card and our colorful collector's membership lapel pin, Journal and whatever we can load you up with. Annual MEMBERS DAYS at local ballparks are a bargain: our day at the Cubs was just $8 per ticket and the seats were excellent! We are also enjoying specially-priced days with the White Sox, Kane County Cougars, Brewers, and the Schaumburg Flyers!

All members receive our quarterly newsletters and opportunities for reduced price seating at selected games and events. All members and their friends are always invited to join us at our quarterly dinners (March, June, September, December). Opportunities to meet guests and players in such an friendly way are scarce; we invite all to join us and keep in touch with the oldest baseball organization in the world!

Checks and money orders are to be made payable to the Old Timers' Baseball Association; no credit cards, please.

Past banquet souvenir programs are available on a very limited basis to our members and researchers; You pay the postage and handling

Contact us 9 to 5, 7 days a week, but frankly, if you're calling in the middle of the night, you're nuts:

Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago, Inc.

4028 N. Osceola, Norridge, IL 60706 60706
Phone: 708-453-4600
email: baseballmbraun@ameritech.net To send email, remove the word 'baseball" fro that email address first.

Officers
Mary Kusmirik, Vice President
Al Peterson, Executive Secretary
Michael Hunt, Financial Secretary
Dick Savage, Recording Secretary
Fr.Charles Rubey, Chaplain
VICE PRESIDENTS
Larry Cheever, Bill Narup, Tom Ohman, Dave Peck, Dick Savage, Dan L. White
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Bill Colaianne, Dave Carlson, Chas. Daugherty, Art Hartsook, William Irace, Bill Lovelace, Dominick Magno, Bill Miceli, Bob Pechous, Billy Pierce, Jack Richards, Ron Schadeck, Paul Schramka, Ronald Stoch, Matt Wojtaszek, Donald Wood
PAST PRESIDENTS
Thomas Foley
Frank Keefer
Joseph Lawlor
Frank Scanlon
William Niesen
James Hotton
James Archer
Tony Piet
Mike Hechinger
Gabby Hartnett
Fred Lindstrom
John L. Bordes
John L. Rice
Ed Linke
Otto Denning
Walter Moryn
John Klippstein

Baseball Links & Related Points of Interest

Regional Old Timers Groups
If your old timers group isn't listed, email us!:
NASHVILLE OLD TIMERS
PEORIA, IL OLD TIMERS
NORCAL OLD TIMERS
TACOMA OLD TIMERS
Johnstown Oldtimers Baseball Association

Old Time Ballplayers' Association of Wisconisin, Inc.
Paul Schramka, President; PO Box 579, Thiensville, WI 53092

Old Timers Hot Stove League, 2350 W 7th St., St Paul, MN 55116

Baseball Authors Circle
If you have a question to any of our members who are authors, ask away and I'll forward them to: Rich Lindberg
Cindy Thomson
J.D. Gershbein
Chuck Billington

RECOMMENDED LINKS
A few sites worth visiting:
The Online Baseball Library
The All American Girls Professional Baseball League
Dah Cubs
Dah Sox
Woo-Woo! Still Nuts!
Dah Baseball Hall of Fame
Official Negro League Site
SABR: Society of American Baseball Research (Many of us Old Timers are SABR members!)
Negro Leagues Site
Decatur Sports Page
Louisville Slugger Home Page World War II Baseball/Collectors/More Great Links Buck Weaver Site Indiana Honors the AAGPBL/TABLE
The Comics Journal online edition!

SABR Links to Chapters

Nostalgia Digest Magazine Home Page; Listen to streaming Those Were The Days!

Headcases

This Site Dedicated to Joe Molitor, Jr. 1922-2004. We miss you, Joe.

The Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago site is maintained by Mark Braun, an Old Timer proudly wearin' my moth-eaten Old Timers baseball cap since 1978. Blame me, not the club.
The OTBAC is America's oldest baseball organization and was founded in 1917 and incorporated in 1919 by Tom Foley, whose efforts brought our first professional baseball team, the White Stockings aka Chicago Colts, the Chicago Orphans and finally the CUBS to Chicago. At the nudging of local newspaper writers, Foley formed a group of players to celebrate 50 years of baseball in Chicago and that celebration began in 1919 at the Great Northern Hotel in Chicago, and we ain't stopped yet.
Current membership is 500, more or less. The Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization; I don't think they meant it that way, but that's how we ended up. Anyone thinking they can do a better job can go start their own club; and anybody who thinks their team is better than Chicago's is itchin' for a fight. We support the "THROW IT BACK!" rule which began here in Chicago's Wrigley Field; We're sore losers and damned proud of it.
In an alternate universe, Mark Braun is the President of the Board of Trustees for the Eisenhower Public Library; a member of Triton College's Community Advisory; and an old fanboy at heart. Email Mark Braun at: