[GarthB]

Bluezebra, I don't how old you are, but you brought back some great memories for me.

I am 51, about to turn 52. I lived in a small town with a population of about 1100 in Upstate New York during my formative baseball years. We only had "organized ball" for 8 and 9 year olds, a league called the "Grasshoppers". I remember the old wool unis, stiff as hell and even hotter.

After "grasshoppers", from age 10 onward, we were on our own. We had a true sandlot ball diamond next to Jimmy (Mouse) Knauss' house which was just before the railroad tracks and about a block from my house, near the P&C grocery.

Mouse, Donnie, Pete, Louie, Jay, Steve, Tommy and I were always one team. There was no catcher. The offense would return the ball. It was pretty standard fare, three strikes or four fouls and you were out. (We got tired of chasing the foul balls)

During the summer we would gather at about 10:00 in the morning and begin hitting fly balls. Mouse's mom would invite us in for sandwiches and kool-aid.

Games would begin around 1:00 and we'd play at least two by dinner time. After dinner, we'd get another one in before the street lights went on. Then we'd throw our gloves in our newspaper baskets and ride our bikes home with a bat cradled across the handlebars and held in place with our thumbs as we steered gingerly.

We had no organization, but we knew our batting averages and our win-loss record. We knew who could pitch and who could dig out the throws at first. Parents would stop by to watch once in a while, but they had no one to yell at. We had no umpire.

Strikes were by swinging or mutual agreement and we had damn few arguments over those. Close plays could create some heat and we would go back and forth, "you're out...I'm safe" for a few minutes before one or the other would give in so we could get the game going again. Usually whoever was leading the game would surrender the argument.

Without coaches we still learned to bunt correctly, lead off, make double plays and hit the ball. Without coaches we all played the positions we liked. Without umpires we were ignorant of a few rules, but we were all mutually ignorant, so it didn't matter.

When our parents did come, they brought sodas (Double Cola, the first soda to come in 16 oz bottles, circa 1960) or kool-aid. They didn't fight with each other or brag about $200 bats. All the gloves and bats in the game probably didn't cost $200 combined.

When we did argue it was about who was going to break Ruth's record, Mantle or Maris. It was about whether the Dodgers or Yankees were really the best team. It was about whether it really took two Marv Thornebury's to get a Whitey Ford.

Baseball was for the kids. Baseball was run by the kids. And we still produced some pretty fair players. At least two from my team played in college. (I'm not counting my four week college career)

We loved the game. We had heroes. And nobody told any of us we weren't good enough to play.