Sandlot Baseball

So my son (12 yo) comes up to me today and said, "Pops. we're bored. What can we do today?"

Now we live a 1/2 block from a baseball field and all of his friends in the neighborhood play baseball, so I said, "why don't you call your friends and play a sandlot game down the street?" You would have thought I said something foreign, like playing s****r. He looked at me crazy and said, "you mean without umpires?"

Lord, what have we come to? Sandlot baseball rests now with wool uniforms, cracked wood bats, broken windows and stirrups....a thing in the past!

 

All close plays will go his way....

I love little Luis!!!!!

 

Rules from our youth.

We played RF was an automatic out because we never had enough fielders. We also played "tape ball" on my side yard. Two bases. Home Plate and the fire hydrant.

 

When the kids were Little League age, there was a group of fathers and sons who would meet many Sunday afternoons on the nearby rec league field to play a pickup game. It was an absolute ball for kids and dads; and, I'll always think that it helped make the game more fun for the kids.

Thinking back on it, Logan James, Stuart Bost, Logan Smith, and my son were frequent participants. Little did we know at the time that all 4 of those diamond rats would play college baseball at DI schools.

If you asked them today to name their top 3 fun things to do baseball-wise, it wouldn't surprise me if they all mentioned those Sunday afternoons.

 

We used to play in our side yard, and my buddies backyards, and keep stats just like MLB. BA, HRs, 2B's and 3B's on offense, and Pitcher W/L and K's. Do it again tommorrow if they'd play!

 

I loved when all disputed calls were settled with hands on the bat. The last hand before the knob won!!!!

...and every now and then you had to take time out because you broke too many windows in the same week. So what did we do then?....wiffle ball baby!

 

How about a game of "rolley bat"? Talk about a game building fundamentals and we played for hours!!!

 

summer games

One of my favorite things I did coaching in a 12 and under league was running a summer league after regular season and all stars. It was open to the kids where they would show up during the weekdays and go thru drills working on their game. On late Sunday afternoons, they would show up and I would pick two captains - they would pick their teams and be their own coaches while I would play the role of umpire who may change the rules during the game. For example if they got a runner on second with one out or less - the umpire may have changed the rule where if the runnner did not score that inninng, they would have a run taken off their score.

Remember one time showing up with several sawed up closet rods and a smaller rubber ball. Told them to put up their gloves and played a little stick ball - kids enjoyed that.

 

Wow, now that brings backs some memories, countless hours of "roller bat"

 

Rolley Bat & a great game of 500

We lived one block from the local American Legion Field. 230 ft down the lines, with a thirty ft high fence.
A lot of summer afternoons playing rolley bat.
We also played 500. If you catch it in the air 50 pts, grounder 10 pts, one hop 25pts. Who ever got to 500 first was the next batter.

Right next door to the field was a repair garage. We would always duck in ther to get out of the heat, grab an orange push-up, or a soda in a "bottle" The old man running the store would not let us leave, because we never had enough money for the deposit on the bottle. Plus he loved listening to us talk about baseball. Funny, he always had a little hard candy to hand out as well.

Last night I was watching the Sandlot, before I went to sleep. I guess we all love that movie because it reminds us of our childhood as well.

Ahh! Good Times!