No adult supervision required...

"Playing baseball just for the fun of it; No coaches, no parental involvement, and no pressure to perform."

I was half-watching the national news the other night when I heard the commentator utter those words. Of course in these days of "not keeping score", "no winners or losers", and "everybody gets a trophy" the story line wasn't particularly intriguing. I mean, it seems like every other day there is another story about how competition has ruined society.

We've removed it from the classroom, the sports field, and are working diligently to remove it from every aspect of life. Problem is, you will never be able to completely remove the competitive spirit from competitive people. That spirit is what drives us to succeed.

But, lets get back to sandlot baseball. I rarely see a group of kids gathered at a park, or at a vacant lot with makeshift bases and grass worn down to dirt along the base paths. I don't ever see games with both boys and girls enjoying the thrill of competing against each other, along with the jeers and cheers that often accompany the errors and bonehead plays that everyone makes from time to time. I don't see the variety of age groups engaging with each other as the older kids gently, and not so gently, mentor the younger ones in the "rules of the game".

So, somewhat interested, I began to watch the news story on television.

The first thing I saw was that it was all boys of the same age....no girls involved, and no older or younger kids on the field. There was also an umpire, replete with all the gear, and there were parents watching the game. Wait a minute, I thought this was "Playing baseball just for the fun of it."

Then, it all came out; one of the parents had decided that it was too "competitive" in the league games, so he organized these so-called sandlot games.

Trouble is, they in no way resemble the sandlot games of old. Really, we would have been embarrassed to no end to have our parents show up to watch us play baseball with our friends. No self-respecting kid would have tolerated it. Of course, our games were all-day affairs with kids coming and going as they deemed fit, and parents were either at work or too busy with other duties to waste time watching the kids play.

No, it was truly, "Playing baseball just for the fun of it." No umpires, no batting helmets, wooden bats with taped handles, shared baseball gloves left laying in the field for the one side to use while the other was at bat, and most of all.....no one telling us how it was supposed to work. Was it without competition? Not a chance. Did we keep score? Of course. Was there "No pressure to perform"? Not a chance. The younger ones wanted to impress the older ones, the older boys wanted to impress the older girls, and the girls....they did their best to impress the boys....Pressure to perform? Oh yeah, there was plenty of pressure to perform.

The difference was that it was all self-inflicted. No adults to organize it, no coaches, no parents, no umpires, but most of all, the freedom to just be kids. I'm glad I grew up in a time when we could spend all day with our friends, playing baseball, just for the joy of the game.....

I thought it was great, but what do I know?