If you think about your kid playing baseball, you probably think about something like Little League
i.e. an organized activity, with uniforms, umpires, and over-ambitious parents screaming from the stands. Maybe if the kids aren’t old enough, it’s T-ball instead:
If you’re serious, then you enroll your kid in a “travel team”
and spent lots of money. But maybe you’re tired of being a chauffeur for your kid(s).
There is such a thing as “free range kids,” which attempts to ground the helicopter that Helicopter Parents use. There’s even a website with that name.
Since I don’t have kids myself, I can’t tell you to do that. But if you are interested, this is for you.
Hint: don’t say to the kids, “in my day, we…”. They’ll roll their eyes and tune you out. Make them think it’s their idea.
Alternative: Let the Kids Play
In the olden days, kids just played some variation on baseball. The real game requires at least 18 players, which the average group of kids from the neighborhood never had. Instead, they just made up their own rules and played in whatever space was available. Uniforms? Forget it. Someone had to have a bat and ball, and most likely everyone needed a glove.
Is this a paean to a bygone time? No, that ship has sailed, I’m afraid. It’s mainly adults who play baseball or softball nowadays, except for the aforementioned Travel Ball kids whose parents are always there. In 2008, ESPN wrote an article about the demise of sandlot baseball.
Sandlot baseball, a slice of American life enjoyed for decades by boys from coast to coast, appears on the verge of extinction.
Many men over 40 remember those summer days when they headed to the park or vacant lot and played ball all day -- or until Mom sent word that it was time for dinner.
Nowadays, most neighborhood ball fields sit empty on summer afternoons, the idea of unsupervised play having gone the way of the rotary-dial phones kids once used to round up the fellas for a game.
16 years after that was published, I haven’t seen anything to prove it wrong. When I go past a park with a baseball field, it’s usually empty, unless it’s an organized game or practice.
Or, actually, cricket in my neighborhood! There are a lot of Indian men who play. They set the wickets at 2nd and 3rd base.
But hope springs eternal. If just one group of kids decide they can just play without the uniforms, scheduling, and screaming parents, this will be worth it. So here are some things they can do without the hoopla:
Playing Catch (2-4 players)
You throw the ball back and forth. That’s it. Even adult softball players do it, to warm up their arms.
Field of Dreams romanticized playing catch with your Dad, and if you don’t feel some of that, you probably have a stone where your heart should be.
Here’s what one of the comments to that clip said:
There are two types of men in the world: those who cry at the end of Field of Dreams, and those who lie about crying at the end of Field of Dreams.
If you have a kid, take him or her out and play catch with them. I promise you, that’s what they’ll remember when you’re gone.
Running Bases (3-4 players)
Also called “rundown.”
I tried several times to get Dall-2E to draw this for me, without success. So I’ll just have to describe it:
You have two “bases”, 30-40 apart. Of course they are not real “bases” like in a real game! Squares of cardboard will do. One player stands on each base. The third (and fourth if you have four) stand on a base.
The two players on the bases throw the ball back and forth. The runner(s) run to the other base, hoping for (a) one player to miss, or (b) to get into a rundown.
If the runner(s) are in a rundown, then the players do what that link says: try to tag him out. This is not as easy as it sounds, and Major League Baseball teams practice that play every year at spring training.
Scoring: who bothers to keeps score?
This is the idea, but of course without the uniforms, umpires, and manicured diamond.
Strikeout (2-5 players, bat and rubber ball needed)
I’ve also heard this called Wall Ball. You use a rubber ball or tennis ball, because a real baseball or softball will get destroyed by getting thrown against the wall. You draw a strike zone on the wall, and one batter stands in front and bats. The other player pitches. If the batter doesn’t swing and the ball lands in the strike zone, it’s a strike.
(Photo courtesy of Todd H. Jacobs. They called it Basho in his neighborhood.)
I’ve also heard of drawing the strike zone with duct tape on a garage door, and using a tennis ball.
What if he hits it? You set up markers in the field: if the ball lands past marker #1 it’s a homer, past marker #2 a triple, etc.
Just for yucks, I got on Street View and tried to see if the strike zone we drew on the wall is still there. Hard to tell. It was on the left, about where the branches are at their lowest. There was no fence around the field in those days.
Bounce or Fly (3-6 Players, bat needed)
I also remember calling this “500” for the score you were trying to reach. Also “Flies and Grounders,” or “21” with a different scoring system than I’m describing. From the “Baby Boomers” group on Facebook, I found a million variations on this.
In this, one player with a bat throws the ball up and hits it. We didn’t have a “fungo bat” like this guy talks about:
but throwing the ball up and hitting it was the key skill. Again: not as easy as it looks.
There are also points awarded to the fielders, which I seem to recall as 100 for catching it on the fly, 75 for catching on the first bounce, 50 for the second bounce, and 25 for anything after that.
Variations
Several people mentioned ways for a fielder to move in to bat:
If he catches a fly ball. Or three flies. With several fielders, he might get to move in closer when he catches one.
Closer to the Real Thing
These were all substitutes for actual baseball if you didn’t have enough kids.
Choosing teams
The captains would “call” it, I guess. I don’t remember that part. Then they’d choose their teams (and yes, this is a way to make kids feel bad by picking them last).
Who picked first? I’ve heard of “rock / paper / scissors” being used (which sounds great, actually), but we didn’t do that. I tried getting Dall-2E to make an image of this:
Two kids deciding something. One tosses a baseball bat to the other, knob side up. Then they alternately place their hands on the bat, one on top of the other, until one reaches the top
But AI’s results were disappointing. The idea was: A tosses the bat to B, who grabs with one hand. Then A puts his hand on top of B’s, who puts his on top of A’s, until they reach the knob. The kid on top wins, unless you allow “chicken claws,” where the other kid grabs the knob with his fingers and he wins.
The ball
We usually used a real baseball, pitched overhand, unless it was in a vacant lot where you had to worry about breaking a window. Sometimes we used a rubber ball or a softball.
Whiffle balls are especially good for the back yard. They won’t go far and won’t break a window.
Pitching
In Serious Baseball, the pitcher throws it hard, trying to make the batter miss or just not swing and have it be called a strike. That’s the first thing you have to dispense with. You’d need an umpire for that, and a catcher with equipment, which no one had. So the pitcher just lobs it and lets the batter hit it. This is awkward without a backstop to keep the ball from rolling forever if the batter misses.
There are no walks, but you could strike out (which would be humiliating). There was no bunting, stealing, or leadoffs.
Grounders
In real baseball, an infielder who catches a grounder throws it to the first baseman. That’s the second thing to dispense with. The fielders throw it to the pitcher instead (“pitcher’s hand out”).
If you’re thinking that makes it hard to decide if the pitcher caught the ball before the runner got to first: you’re right. Kids learn negotiating skills in this game (“Come on, he was out by a mile!”). Usually if one team “wins” a questionable call, then they’d have to make up for it by giving in on the next dispute.
Right field out, or foul
If you don’t have enough kids for a right fielder, then batters can’t hit there or they’re out. It can also just be considered a foul ball.
This should actually be called “opposite field out,” but somehow there are never as many left-handed batters as in real baseball. If there actually was a lefty, then the left fielder would have to move over to right, or he might have to learn to hit opposite field.
How many kids did you need, then?
A pitcher, an infielder, and an outfielder, so six. As you got more kids, you could add an infielder and an outfielder. If you had even more, a second baseman, first baseman, and a right fielder. It was rare to have that many, though.
Sometimes one player would play for both sides, as pitcher or catcher.
How long does the game last?
Usually you’d agree beforehand on 6, 7, or 9 innings. Then you might change teams and start again. Or decide to go home.
I’m going to take my ball and go home
A really bad sport might do that. Of course, he might find himself marginalized in the future.
Stickball
This deserves its own section since it’s a New York thing, and there are a lot of writers from New York who’ve written about it, e.g.
In addition to those books, some very famous authors have written about it, e.g. Philip Roth (American Pastoral), Bernard Malamud (The Natural), and J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye).
I didn’t grow up in the New York area, so I never played it.
16-Inch Softball
This is a Chicago thing. We did play this occasionally. You don’t need a glove to play this! A beer belly is actually an advantage in 16-inch because the ball is so heavy. The ball starts out hard but gets real soft after you’ve played awhile.
Other variations
These are others mentioned on the Baby Boomers list that I didn’t play myself.
Fuzzball
You use a tennis ball, with the fuzz scraped off.
Over the line
I’d always associated this with adults playing on the beach in San Diego, like this:
but it’s also played informally, apparently. A neighbor thought that they called their version of 500 “over the line.”
Nice memories! You missed "Halfball" though. The "ball" is a traditional baseball-sized rubber ball, but cut in half. This had a lot of advantages in the 50s and 60s, especially when playing a "field" which went from one curb to the opposite curb of a neighborhood street. Half-balls never rolled far. They weren't very aerodynamic either. Pitches were almost never straight and "fast balls" were impossible. No gloves required for the fielders, if you had enough kids to have fielders. Many games were just one-on-one. Even if you get a direct hit with your bat (stick or whatever was handy), the ball wouldn't go more than maybe 20-30 feet. It was much less likely to break a window across the street or dent the fender in a car. Of course cars were a lot sturdier too in those days.
A comment from a Chicago-area friend who prefers to remain anonymous:
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We played with 3 kids in the alley
1 batter
1 pitcher
1 fielder
With a rubber ball and the pitcher bounced the ball on its way to the plate. The place where the ball landed determines what base the batter was on and imaginary runners moved too.
Also
We played with right field only and a dilapidated 16 inch softball. Pitcher, batter, 1 infielder and 1 outfielder on the grass at the park. Of course no mitts required for 16 inch softball.
Also
We played in the driveway until my Dad got aggravated with the marks on the garage door and someone hit the ball through the window in the house across the street
And we ran home from school to turn in channel 9 and watch the 8th and 9th innings of afternoon Cubs games on WGN