The Death of Sandlot Sports - And So Much More?

Many, many years ago, I remember we used to go up to Scharman Field everyday during the summer for pickup baseball games.  We'd have a handful of kids show up, someone would have a bat, someone would have a ball, some would have baseball gloves.  If you were lucky, at least one person was left-handed and had a left-handed mitt, if not you'd have to wear a glove on the wrong hand.  When you'd go from the field to batting, you'd throw your glove to a guy from the other team because you never had enough gloves to play.  You'd always end up with an odd assortment, various kids you didn't know, never enough to field two full teams.  You'd pick up teams, sometimes an even number, sometimes not, usually something like five against five.  For those who understand baseball, traditionally, it's nine against nine.  When you have five against five or less, you had to get creative.

You'd have a pitcher, two infielders and two outfielders in the field for those times you were lucky enough to have five against five.  Right handed batters could hit to center field and left field, left handed batters could hit to center field and right field.  Outfielders would shift from left field to right field when a left handed batter came up after a right handed batter and vice-versa.  If you hit to the wrong field, it was an automatic out.  The team at bat would have to supply the catcher.  For those times you weren't lucky enough to have five against five, sometimes you'd have imaginary runners.  Sometimes, if you didn't have a first baseman, you'd throw to the pitcher to get the person running to first base out.  You'd then have to judge if the runner beat the throw or not.  You'd have to judge whether the imaginary runner beat the throw or not.  You'd have to imagine ....  Ah, you'd have to imagine.  We imagined so much, we'd imagine we were Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Bob Gibson.  By the way, I was always Vida Blue.  But as usual, I digress.

As you can imagine, there would be many points of contention and argument.  Did my imaginary runner beat the throw?  That hit to the outfield, was it directly to center field or slightly to the wrong field, meaning an out.  We threw that guy out at the plate, but your catcher dropped the throw on purpose!  We'd argue and argue, and eventually we'd come to an agreement, and go back to playing.  Or not.  Sometimes, we'd end up fighting.  Sometimes, someone ended up with a bloody nose.  Sometimes, you'd have a kid, who brought the ball or bat, get mad and take his ball or bat and go home.  Then, of course, the game ended, we didn't have a key ingredient to play.  More often than not, that didn't happen, we all had a vested interest in the goal - playing baseball.  We'd play until lunchtime if it was the morning, until dinner in the afternoon and until it was too dark to see the baseball in the evenings.  We lived to play baseball.

Years later, when I coached soccer, I'd always let the kids just play for the last 10-15 minutes of practice, instead of doing drills.  I'd say "no rules, just play, have fun".  Most of the kids could do it, they enjoyed the lack of structure and the chance to just play.  But you had certain kids that just couldn't handle it.  Every couple of minutes, they'd come over to me complaining that the other kids weren't playing according to the rules.  I'd try to explain to them that there weren't any rules, they were just supposed to have fun, but they couldn't deal with it.  They wanted or needed a grown-up to tell them how to play. 

We've given our children complete structure now for sports, set practices, coaches there all the time, parents at practice, parents at games, referees for games, set times, set positions, structure, structure, structure.  No creativity, no negotiation, no fighting, no imagination.  We want to control everything for our children, "protect" them, and in the process, we've taken away their ability to grow and learn and develop their skills for their future grown-up lives. 

I've been wondering lately, is that the problem we have now in our government?  It used to be, or at least it seemed, our political parties could work together.  Sure, they would argue, they would fight, they would bloody each other's noses periodically, but they figured out a way to work together.  They practiced the Stephen Covey approach - seek to understand, before you can be understood.  In the end, they had a vested interest, the good of the country.  It really doesn't seem that way anymore.  It seems like they are looking for someone to tell them what the rules are and how to play fairly together.  They are focused on their own good, their own party's good, and not the good of the country.  In the end, they are willing to take their bat and ball and go home, even if it means the country suffers for it. 

Maybe we need to dump all of the fancy uniforms, the fancy shoes and gloves and bats, the leagues, the "select" programs, the coaches, the referees, and most of all, the parents, and let our kids play again.  Let them grab whatever tools of the trade they can pull together, meet up at the local field, pick up some teams, and just play.  Maybe then we'll develop some future leaders for this country that know how to negotiate, compromise, do what's best for the good of all, and build a better country, and world, for all of us.  I can only imagine.