An Appreciation for the Game

Above, youth at our Bishop Foery Foundation neighborhood center run in the backyard.

The dog days of summer.  This irrepressible heat reminds me of my boyhood growing up in Watertown, NY.  My friends and I would make our way to the local city park, Kostick’s field, to play sandlot baseball.  The first pitch was thrown somewhere around 9am and the last out was usually made around dinner time.

We were serious about “America’s pastime” and would make all types of adaptations to the game in order to play the game.  Not enough players?  Not a problem; we’d close left field and even center field.  If you hit into one of those fields, it was an automatic out.   Older kids had to hit opposite handed when playing against younger kids.  And there were no walks; either you hit the ball or struck out.  This rule could sometimes lead to what seemed to be an endless stream of pitches being offered up, with the batter lamenting “get one over the plate,” and the fielders drowning “take a swing!”  Games lasted anywhere from four innings to infinity… or at least it seemed that way.   There were no coaches or umpires.  We lived by the honor system and were ruled by the oldest and meanest kid on the field.

We learned a lot of lessons playing sandlot baseball.  If you’re waiting for me to say sportsmanship and team work, well, I guess there was some of that.  What we really learned was an appreciation for the game of baseball: how this sport could transform a dozen kids, all from different backgrounds, into organized teams with clear boundaries and purpose.  It wasn’t about being the best or worst athlete; it was simply about playing the game.

A program participant (and his bunny ears) at Bishop Foery neighborhood center.

I recently visited one of our Catholic Charities neighborhood centers during the height of our summer program.  During the summer, Catholic Charities provides daily summer programming to over 1500 children living in some of the toughest neighborhoods in the city.  On this day, a group of adolescent boys were playing basketball.  They had made several adaptations: half court rules, teams were evenly divided based on size and age, and fouls were called on each other, with no disputes.  I was reminded of my own childhood and thankful that our agency can offer these youth a safe place to meet, recreate, play sports, and learn the value of friendship, team work and an appreciation for the game.  Not a bad gig.