Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, Art Chapman Column.

By Art Chapman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

May 13--Down in Buffalo Gap, just outside Abilene, a vacant lot has been converted into a baseball diamond. It is a rough diamond. Flat stones serve as bases, and a rusty disc from an old cultivator has been painted white and is now a gleaming home plate.

This is an old-time, vintage diamond. It is a bit irregular, a tad scruffy. But it is fitting for a unique group that enjoys playing the game as it was played in the late 1800s, when the ball was bigger and softer and the bat heavy and slim.

"Base ball" was two words back then, and it was largely a different game.

"The ball was …