An interesting article by Stan Grossfield about the decline and virtual disappearance of pickup baseball:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2019/07/22/without-pickup-baseball-empty-space-remains/W5r7Tzdl7ezayYcylCdgrN/story.html
If you're over 45 or so and post on this site, then you probably played a lot of pickup games growing up. You may remember, like me, those game really fondly as some of the best times of being a kid. Now it's incredibly rare to find a bunch of kids playing ball on a field with no adults. I can't even remember the last time I saw something like that.
"Decades ago, it was a simpler time during the golden age of pickup baseball. You would head down to the school yard, choose sides, and play baseball all day long.
No bases? Someone would grab an empty pizza box or a ripped shirt and anchor it down. No glove? The kid playing your position would flip you his between innings. There were no umps, no parents, and no travel teams. There was just one rule: Be home on time for dinner.
Those were the days before parents controlled youth sports. Now a pickup baseball game is as rare as a Red Sox win in London."
I think it's sad for kids that they don't really play pickup baseball anymore. But it sure doesn't seem like it's going to come back anytime soon, if ever.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2019/07/22/without-pickup-baseball-empty-space-remains/W5r7Tzdl7ezayYcylCdgrN/story.html
If you're over 45 or so and post on this site, then you probably played a lot of pickup games growing up. You may remember, like me, those game really fondly as some of the best times of being a kid. Now it's incredibly rare to find a bunch of kids playing ball on a field with no adults. I can't even remember the last time I saw something like that.
"Decades ago, it was a simpler time during the golden age of pickup baseball. You would head down to the school yard, choose sides, and play baseball all day long.
No bases? Someone would grab an empty pizza box or a ripped shirt and anchor it down. No glove? The kid playing your position would flip you his between innings. There were no umps, no parents, and no travel teams. There was just one rule: Be home on time for dinner.
Those were the days before parents controlled youth sports. Now a pickup baseball game is as rare as a Red Sox win in London."
I think it's sad for kids that they don't really play pickup baseball anymore. But it sure doesn't seem like it's going to come back anytime soon, if ever.