I grew up before the days of "organized" sports. No Little League, no Pop Warner football, no Pee Wee hockey programs. Just us. And I truly believe I am the better off because of it. Self sufficiency, inter-personal and organizational skills - self taught.
Back in 1957 Lowry, when that 10 year old yearned to play baseball, he had to:
1) Find at least 4 other like-minded 9-13 year olds in a town of 300 souls. (Later - how you play a baseball game with 5 people)
2) Come up with the equipment. 1 ball , 1 bat. Most kids had their baseball glove on the handlebars of their bike.
3) Decide on the location. Either the ice rink with the stone chimney of the warming house for a backstop. Or the school field with the hazardous Highway 114 parallel to right field. Not hazardous in terms of physical danger, but hazardous in that if a ball were hit onto the highway, it could conceivable roll south all the way down Hedlin's hill and travel fully a mile from home plate. Not even the Babe could hit like that.
4) Divide into teams, although that required 8 people which was hard to come up with.
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| Lowry School - east side |
Otherwise - workup. Workup rules for a 5
person baseball game on the school yard:
1) There are 2 people "at bat". The person not batting serves as the catcher. A runner on base must score on the 2nd batter's hit or he's out. Force out at home. (For some reason, the fielding ability of the catcher was dramatically worse than when he was in the field)
2) There is a pitcher, a shortstop and an outfielder in the field.
3) There is no first baseman, rather a "cross out" rule applies. On a ground ball, if the ball is thrown on the home plate side of first base and between the approaching runner, the runner is out. (This of course puts the ball onto Highway 114, so the thrown-out runner is also responsible for cutting off the ball before it gets a head-of-steam toward Hedlin's Hill. It also keeps the runner alert. No helmets. If you hit the ball onto the highway, you're out - and you get to retrieve it.)
4) In some cases, we agreed that catching a fly ball on the first hop makes an out. Being a baseball purist, I always fought that rule.
5) No walks.
6) When a hitter made an out, he moved to the outfield, the shortstop to pitcher and the pitcher to hitter. i.e. Workup - work your way to the right to hit. (If a dominating hitter, e.g. a 13 year old playing with 9 year olds, a 3 run limit was put on each hitter.)
A variation of this took place on the skating ring. This could be done with as few as 3 kids. The stone chimney served as backstop. First base was directly behind the pitcher and also served as 3rd base, just as home plate also served as 2nd base. In this configuration, there was no cross-out as the pitcher could become the first baseman by running back 20 feet or so. It was also best if a rubber ball was used, preferably one that had the simulated seams that mimicked a real baseball, so better to break off that Warren Spahn curve ball. When we resorted to the 29¢ baseball from Hoplin & Nelson, it soon became a coverless string-mush from hitting that WPA stone backstop. Then I had to pilfer my father's black friction tape and wrap the ball to extend its life. This was great sport with a single downside. Directly across the alley from the rink stood Henry Brandt's massive garden. Hank was very protective of his garden and if a ball was fouled off and ended up amongst the pumpkins, there was hell to pay for the kid trying to retrieve it. I think Hank had quite a baseball collection. We sometimes waited until dark to try to retrieve the lost.
And the same organizational skills were required for a football game, a hockey game, basketball game. Soccer, tennis golf - way outside our experience.
Copyright © 2017 Dave Hoplin
