When baseball was king

[Craig Arko]

It’s happened before, no reason to think we’re any different.

 

The Ball Game.

[TheLeviathan]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

We used to have work-up and 500 that worked for smaller numbers of players, but I do not think anyone knows what they are now.  We often just had one bat and one ball and 4 - 6 kids, but these games were fun and filled with skill building. 

Kids still play 500, FWIW.

[TheLeviathan]

On 3/1/2022 at 8:15 AM, Original_JB said:

Yes, I realize more kids have more opportunities to do other things and are doing so.  I guess my point was, if you don't have a critical mass of kids who play/want to play, then no one plays; it becomes 'out of sight, out of mind'. With Basketball, you need a hoop, a ball and 2 guys to have a 'game', hockey, soccer and football, you can get by with 4, but baseball, outside of just a 'catch', you need way more kids.

I think those are all good points.  It's a bit of a chicken/egg problem.....are you having trouble getting enough people to play baseball because no one cares?  Or does no one care because it's hard to get enough people together to play?

For me, I lean towards the former.  Especially in an era where all sorts of kids are huge football fans and basketball fans without actively playing the game.

[Unwinder]

On 2/28/2022 at 4:40 PM, Original_JB said:

You just don't have the sheer number of kids around like you did post WWII until the end of the boomers. Out of baseball, football, basketball, and even hockey, you need more 'bodies' to play baseball. When I was a kid (early 70's), it was pretty easy to scare up 10+ kids just from a block or two around to get a game going. Unless it's organized Little League or the like, I never see kids playing a neighborhood pick-up game, even with an available field.  But I just wonder how big a net you'd have to cast blockwise nowadays, to scare up not just 10 8-10yr olds, but 10 kids that are baseball players.

Also these days very few 8-10-year-olds are even allowed to go to a park without their parents, and if they did, someone would probably call the police.

[Rosterman]

In some ways, baseball was a sport made for the radio. Listen to the games while you work, while you play.

It was also a game that all could be involved in the play. You could play it in grade school, before T-ball and parents who started prepping their kids for the pros when the kids are still three feet tall. Girls could also play. It developed running, throwing and catching skills.

 

Just playing a lazy game of catch., Or hitting fly balls or grounders to each other.

 

We also had the wonderful world of baseball cards.

 

I also remember that it was a big school thing. Your school would go to a game for cheap during the actual school year.

 

If you could afford it, or get to it, it was also a fun lazy afternoon with a hot dog or popcorn. In baseball, there is not a bad seat on a sunny day with a slight breeze.

 

Plus, players came out and promoted the team. They were at the local car dealership. At Father/Son banquets. They would show up at park board baseball programs. Little things like that bring a community to baseball.

 

I went to many a game at Met Stadium and was able to meet players wlaking to their cars in the aprking lot! Imagine that now.

 

 

Except....

 

Kid baseball is so organized, so performance oriented. I felt my years in high school in the late sixties were the last time anyone could play the sports, be it on the B-team. Now, you only play if you have...aspirations, sadly.

 

Shooting hoops has repalced playing catch...you can do it alone. Pickup touch football games happen at family events rather than making a makeshift diamond and playing a little softball or whiffle ball.

 

If baseball still exists, it barely survives in minor league towns, where the games are pretty darn fun. Or they still excel in play in Town Ball, and often the enthusiasm of fans is great.

 

The charm of baseball ahs always been the pace. Watching the pitch, seeing the hit, fist pumping the catch or great throw.

 

And then talking about it for hours afterwards.