Community Corner
Your Pick-Up Baseball Starter Guide
As the official baseball season begins both at Fenway and at local athletic fields in your town, why not bring back the good ol' pick-up baseball?
When my father was a child, he spent his summer days playing pick-up baseball with the neighborhood kids. “Back then, the phrase youth sports didn’t really exist,” he recently told me. “It was called playing outdoors, making friends and having fun.”
As the official baseball season begins both at Fenway and at local athletic fields in your town, why not bring back the good ol’ pick-up baseball?
Here’s a few ways to get it started:
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Find a field. It can be in your back yard, a local park or you could call your Parks and Recreation Department to find out if and when a field in available in town. In years past, Bellingham charged $100 for two months of weekly baseball. If you get 10 families to join it, you’re talking just $10 each.
Gather your equipment. Grab some Whiffle balls and bats, gloves, a few items that could work as bases and a helmet or two. Some parents have even decided to purchase hats from a local store to make the pick-up league a little more official.
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Time to play. Maybe your group decides to meet every Saturday at 10 a.m. and whoever is available shows up. Take some time to warm up and then spilt into teams. I’d suggest playing a few innings without outs and a few with.
What could your child gain?
Fun with friends outside: Yup, that means they are not playing video games or sitting on the couch watching TV.
Lessons in compromise: Do-overs are an awesome example of this. The do-over usually happens when both sides see the same play in different ways. As one writer on practiceplaywin.com says, “Do over's are the essence of compromise and the willingness to accept whatever happens, after the do over is agreed upon.”
Creativity: With no coaches around and adults who just want them to have fun (right?), kids can be free to loosen up, not take things to seriously and figure out their strengths on the field.
It’s time to bring back the days of playing just for fun. Jumpstart the idea for your kids and then step back and let them re-live the days of yesteryear in front of your eyes.
