Sandlot BaseballSurrounding Areas Of Towns Anywhere USAWe Challenged, We Played, We Were Winners!Sandlot Baseball Teams were the formation and playing of games of baseball against your neighboring community.It was as natural as rain.
The most amazing thing is that we had no schedules. We had no umpires to pay. We never knew we would have enough show up to have a full team. I'll tell you it happened, time and time again, all summer long.
We played the game by using basic baseball rules as we were taught by our older brothers and sandlot baseball players. Did we have an official baseball rules book? No way, we knew the rules as they were taught to us. Basic baseball rules is not rocket science study. Three strikes and you are out,tagged between bases you are out, fielder catches the fly ball you are out, three outs and the other team bats. That is the simple baseball rules or basic rules of baseball as we knew and played by, as we grew older more of the official baeball rules were enforced and we played with more knowledge, and became cracker jack players. The designated ball field was always there and waiting for those sandlot baseball teams to show up with their ragtag gloves and bats which had some repairs. By luck, we somehow always managed to come up with a couple of old scuffed up balls. Today it seems like that era was only a figment of our imagination, that we did in fact play game after game, helter skelter, one community against the other. Trussville was the largest of the communities involved in this makeshift "put together" competition of sandlot baseball teams. I said the largest community not the best. The most productive of dedicated teams for the competition would not allow the luxury of dominance playing centered on any specific group. Some of the surrounding community areas could be depended upon to turn out a full "ready to romp" team at the drop of a hat. Roebuck Plaza and the group that went to grammar school at Piney Grove was always ready to play. A ringer or two from the Huffman and Cozy Corner area religiously claimed to be Roebuck Plaza stalwarts. The Chalkville and Clay communities would do battle as soon as they knew that competition was game enough to give them a challenge. Happy Hollow and Roper Hill seemed to naturally form a sandlot baseball team from between these two areas. Remember sandlot baseball playing did not stand on ceremony. It happened by boys loving the game of baseball. Argo just never seemed to muster enough ball players to form a complete team but believe me, baseball did not gain the fame as Americas National Pastime by ever excluding a baseball player showing up ready to play. This adoption process in baseball should be the model for the entire world. Sandlot, school ground, and pickup baseball games always made room for one more player to get a turn at bat. Pity that poor soul, past teenage years, standing near the ball diamond where enough had gathered to get a game under way. The drafting of a bystander on the spot, as an umpire, was standard fare. Right of refusal to act as the umpire was the same as a kiss of death from every kid on the field. Just like a herd of elephants, they would never forget and come Halloween time, it would be pay back time. Some times scattering of communities was cause for concern. Would the team that promised to be there on the appointed Saturday or Sunday actually show? Ingenuity amongst young energetic baseball players should be ample reason to know yes, by golly, they would be there. Walk, hitch hike, ride bicycles, conjole some dad or a neighbor with a car to drop them off at the site, it mattered not. The committment was made and the promise was kept. Names may come and go but the rememberance of faces linger on. The Goodwins,Wears,Burns brothers,Wages,Leslie,Grissom boys,Cowan brothers, Gilmers,Wahoo Needham,Self boys,Martins,Fulmer, McEvoys, Taylors, Dunaway brothers,Weems,Day,Bryan,Strickland,Tidwell brothers,Treadways,Deshazo,Porter,Miller,Massey's, Connell,Gwin,Stoudeman,Channell,Britnells,Quicks,Smiths. Build The Field Of Dreams They Will Come.
--------HERE IT IS---------ABSOLUTELY GREAT DATA FOR COACHES AND COMMUNITIES TO PROVIDE PERFECT BALL DIAMONDS, WITH THE CORRECT DIMENSIONS, FOR YOUNGSTERS TO ENJOY BASEBALL!
All community sandlot diamonds need a little facelift.
Throughout history we have faced the Mystery Of The Ages. Some things just seem to have no earthly answer. It becomes a matter of faith and belief. The War Between the States, Civil War, if you will, or the War of Rebellion, the War of Secession or the War for Southern Independence was a terrible time in our history. It happened and its true real cause will never be agreed upon.
The same can be said for some community baseball teams and their exact driving force or cause for joining together to do competitive sporting conflict, one against the other. It has to be a genealogical phenomenon. Boys and girls saw their dads, uncles or cousins play the game so they just naturally were drawn into this baseball playing game with the thought of competition and winning. Growing up, it was natural for my "want to" to be tweaked because my older brothers set the standard to follow by playing the game. Baseball playing and the history of wars and the why question are symbolic, one to the other. Why would one warring faction take up arms against another and end up in an epic struggle of war? Same for ball players. Why could they not be perfectly satisfied catching the ball, throwing the ball and batting the ball? Why the competitive factor of seeing who could win enter the equation? Did I say it must be genealogical? Did the Israelites struggle against the Philistines? Does not the Power of Satan fiercely do battle with the Christian Faith? Did not the Southerner choose to go to battle rather than have some faction such as the Union of the United States to deprive them of their right for freedom in their own right? To the many teammates playing along side me in our many ball games the prime object was to best our sandlot baseball neighbor, in a friendly contest of a sandlot baseball game, and to claim the victory as the winner. Sandlot baseball teams were the very essence of how life's struggles unfold. Blood letting or the taking of a life was not the goal but victory and proclaimed to be the winner was it all. Sportsmanship and conducting one's self as a gentleman in a victory or a loss is what permeates Champions and All-Stars and separates our honored heroes from the also rans. The days playing baseball with my teammates and classmates, my friends, in friendly contests around the Sandlot Baseball diamonds were more than a thrill. It was a lesson in life. It was "bat and ball" and not "cannon and sword."
Long live Sandlot Baseball the grit and fiber of this great game of baseball. Batter Up----Let's Play Ball.... Return to BaseballFarming our home page for an introduction to the concept of baseball farming which also includes ideas on strategies, training, and winning
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