Salute to Cambridge will be theme for Old-time Baseball Game August 25

The Abbot Financial Management Old-time Baseball Game has known only one home since it was founded in 1994 -- St. Peter’s Field on Sherman Street in North Cambridge. The theme for the 23^rd annual charity exhibition game on Thursday, August 25, at 7 p.m. will be “Salute to Cambridge.” Admission is free. The rain date for the Old-time Baseball Game is Friday, August 26, at 7 p.m.

Red Sox Infielder Lou Merloni Returns to Cambridge’s Summertime Celebration of Baseball to Benefit Sports Museum’s “Boston Vs. Bullies” Program.

The Old-time Baseball Game will honor longtime City of Cambridge employees City Manager Richard C. Rossi, retired Recreation Director Paul Ryder and retired Danehy Park Supervisor Bob O’Loughlin with the first Bill Novelline Award, presented to volunteers who go “above and beyond.”

Additionally, Cambridge native Tim Dunphy, who pitched in the Old-time Baseball Game from 2001 to 2006, will be the recipient of the sixth Greg Montalbano Award.

Rossi, who is retiring as Cambridge’s City Manager, a post he has held since 2013, and as Deputy City Manager for 32 years, has worked for the City for 45 years and been a spirited supporter of the Old-time Baseball Game. Ryder served as Cambridge’s Director of Parks & Recreation for 34 years until his retirement earlier this year. O’Loughlin, who retired in 2003 after 25 years working for the city of Cambridge, is best known as the longtime manager of the Danehy Park Athletic Complex. Yet one of his best moments took place in 1987, when, at age 38, he graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.

Ryder and O’Loughlin were involved in staging the original Old-time Baseball Game in 1994 and have remained with it ever since.

The award is named in honor of Bill Novelline of Abbot Financial Management, who worked to continue the Old-time Baseball Game after its inaugural 1994 edition. He remains a member emeritus of the game’s board of directors.

The Greg Montalbano Award is named in memory of the former Red Sox minor-league pitcher who was only 31 when he died of cancer in 2009. A native of Westborough and later a standout at Northeastern University, Montalbano was a participant in the Old-time Baseball Game in 1997 and 1998. Selected by the Red Sox in the fifth round of the 1999 amateur draft, he played six seasons of professional baseball before illness ended his career. In 2001, he was named Minor League Pitcher of the Year by the Red Sox.

The award, instituted in 2010, is presented to a former participant in the Old-time Baseball Game who best exemplifies Greg’s spirit, competitiveness and good nature. Dunphy, who graduated from Brandeis in 2006 with a degree in American Studies, now teaches history at Full Circle High School in Somerville. He continues to pitch for the Andre Chiefs in the Intercity League.

As has become custom, Dunphy has been invited to play in this year’s game. He will wear the same throwback 1927 St. Louis Cardinals uniform that Montalbano wore when he played in the 1998 Old-time Baseball Game.

This year’s game is being played as a fundraiser for “Boston vs. Bullies,” a program sponsored by the Sports Museum. Boston vs. Bullies (bostonvsbullies.org) is an award-winning educational program that leverages the power and example of Boston sports to help stop bullying in our schools and in our community. Nine current Boston athletes are featured in the video-based educational program, which to date has been experienced by more than 30,000 upper elementary and middle school students in Greater Boston.

Framingham native Lou Merloni, who played nine seasons in the major leagues, six of them with his hometown Boston Red Sox, returns for his seventh appearance in the Old-time Baseball Game.

The Old-time Baseball Game is a celebration of our national pastime. From its humble beginnings in 1994, the game has grown considerably over the years yet remains loyal to its mission of offering a glimpse of what it was like in the old days, when hundreds of fans would turn out to root for their “town” team in various local semipro leagues.

What makes the Brianna Hardy Baseball Game so special is its dazzling collection of flannel uniforms from virtually every era in baseball history. Used just once a year for the Old-time Baseball Game, the uniforms represent such long-ago teams as the Boston Braves, St. Louis Browns, Homestead Grays and Kansas City Monarchs.

Although the Old-time Baseball Game includes amateur players from schools throughout the Boston area and beyond, more than 40 past participants have gone on to play professionally. Three former participants in the game – Carlos Pena, Chris Lambert and Nate Freiman – have gone on to play in the big leagues.

This year’s first pitch will be thrown by 87-year-old Bertha Brickley of Melrose. One of Greater Boston’s most ardent fans of amateur baseball, Mrs. Brickley has attended the Old-time Baseball Game each year for more than a decade and is a regular attendee at Intercity Leagues.

Fans are asked to bring a beach blanket or chair and to camp out along the foul lines, as it is the crowd that makes the game so electric.

For more information about the Old-time Baseball Game, visit oldtimebaseball.com.