Where have all the kids gone?
September 7, 2008I’m getting really frustrated. For the past week, I’ve been traveling around the neighborhoods where I live in Southern California with my camera looking for some kids playing a pick up game. I’m looking for what they used to call a “sandlot” game. Geez, I would settle for a random game of “three flies up”. Nothing doing. Bagels. Zero. Zip. Nada. I just wanted some simple pictures to show the pure joy of unstructured ball and encourage kids to get out of the house and play.
You see, I’ve got this theory that we Americans are NOT the best ball players in the world anymore and that this is directly related to the lack of pick up games that kids play. I got this idea loud and clear when I played ball in the Dominican Republic in the early 90’s. I stepped of the plane and a rock whizzed by my head from some little rat playing “rock ball”. Since they don’t have the equipment there, they play with rocks and cut out milk cartons for gloves. And they all play. Every open field or street has kids playing some form of baseball…just like we used to do when we were young.
Now what I want you to do is switch off the Playstation and turn it to the regular TV and tell me where most of the big leaguers are from. Surprise! The Latin countries. They don’t have the gear we do, they don’t have the organized leagues we do, but by the time they get to high school age, they’ve played about a billion times more baseball than the kids here have. And is it any wonder the best in the world come from the Dominican or Puerto Rico or Venezuela or Mexico? By playing in an unstructured environment where they are free to make mistakes and try new things and goof around, they learn how to play the game with ease and joy. Instead of getting 2 or 3 at bats and a couple grounders like kids do in a little league game, they go home when it gets dark with 25 at bats under their belt and a truckload of defensive plays. No parents to judge or please. Because they have no umpires they have to work things out amonst themselves and they have to really KNOW the game and the rules. All good positive things.
These are things we all learned in the pre Playstation days. I know I sound like a grumpy old man, but I’m just trying to help for crying out loud! In order to be the best in anything you’ve got to do it more than the next guy. It’s got to be second nature. It’s got to be part of you. And baseball, unfortunately, isn’t part of the deal here anymore. At least not where I’m looking.
Let me put it to you this way. If you haven’t broken your neighbor’s window with a baseball, or taped whiffle ball, or rock ball, or tennis ball you are NOT going to play in the big leagues. It should be a requirement that you must have broken a window and peed your pants as you ran away and worked half the summer to replace the window if you are going to play in the big leagues. You have to have that on your resume or no dice. You should also be required to be able to replicate the stances and swings of at least a dozen major leaguers past or present. You should be able to spit at LEAST 4 feet and adjust your crotch like you know what you’re doing. You should know how to play a game in the street and be able to field a baseball consistently on uneven pavement. You should know how to play a game with three or less kids. You should know what ghost runners are. Your glove should have a worn hole in it, your bat should have a dent in it, and your hat should have sweat stains. Your pants should have holes in the knees from practicing the Jackie Robinson hook slide. You should lose at least 30 balls a year over fences, to dogs, in windows, onto freeways, into lakes, etc. What I really want is for some neighbor kid to break MY window. I want to be the guy who gets to chase him down the street. And I want him to mow my lawn all summer to pay for it. Is that too much to ask?
Now damn it, get out there and do it! Turn the damn set off. I want to see YOU on T.V. someday. Oh yeah, and drop me a line to let me know where you’re playing so I can snap a few photos. Over and out.
I’m picking up what you’re layin’ down, bro.
[...] been following this blog for any amount of time, you know that I’m a big fan of kids playing unstructured baseball. Sandlot ball, stick ball, stoop ball, 3 flies up, over the line, whatever…just so [...]