I have been known to tell people that I would put my childhood up against anyone else's. I swear I had the best of every world. I had an older brother that let me hang out with him without question, he would include me in almost everything. We had parents that provided us with everything but instilled in us the difference between a want and a need. Our house had a yard built for two boys and a wide open basement to match our creative minds. We lived in a "U" shaped neighborhood that had 4 of my closest friends living on the same block (3 others just a short bike ride away). We lived for the outside and for playing games together. I started to think about all of the different games we played and figured, why not share them with you all. I swear if there were an ESPN Kids we would have been it's sportscenter. So stay tuned as I will discuss a different game each post.Game #1 - Mini Baseball
You know those mini baseball bats you could get at big league baseball games? Sure to the non-athlete out there they are a collectors item, something to hold onto. But to the guys of Tecumseh Trail it was the building piece of mini baseball. We decided that since the bat was mini the entire game needed to be mini. So, in the front yard of our buddy Gase we made a mini ball diamond (roughly, 8 yards to each base). The ball was a wiffle golf ball (of course we had several disputes on the allowable speed). We lowered the number of outs needed per inning and enforced the rule of throwing the ball at eachother to force an out. Gase's house was positioned in right field, so naturally if you hit the roof it was a home run. It took quite a shot to achieve a home run and usually was celebrated with some sort of yell as you rounded the short base paths.
Ghost runners were used as were various names when hit with a stinging ball. Different techniques were used for batting, one handed swing, two handed if you wanted to stay true to the real game or the opposite hand. Different strategies were used for playing the field, none really proven to be better than one or the other, we of course argued that point.
It might not sound great, but when the crew divided up to play this game we entered into our own fantasy world where we took on the profile of our favorite players.
3 comments:
classic. looking forward to this series.
Awesome reflection,
We too Had the fun of the time wiffle ball world series days, with the front yard as our field, playing sun or rain to the point that we wore spots on the front lawn of my parents nicely manicured lawn, to which they never seemed to complain and the somtimes of smacking the ball at a car passing by holding us only to a dbl. yet.....we also had the bliss of a ball field right behind our house @ the elementary school, that rallied all my closest neighbors and friends to all day games, yet even one of my favorites that we still enjoy today when we go home is our own "HOME RUN DERBY"- going, going, GONE!
I love the good old days. Most of my childhood was spent in the big city of Bloomville. But to this day I can remember the brutal battles of wiffle ball in the park, the roller blade hockey inside the tennis court fence, and the tackle football games that were just brutal. I think looking back what baffles me the most is the idea that if we were to play most of these games right now one of us would get hurt. Back then we could get hit by a car and still make it home for dinner....Keep up the good work F.Scott Fitzgerald
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