It’s Time to Bring Back Pick-Up Games of Baseball

Unsupervised play allows children to develop character and skill sets like conflict resolution, imagination, and responsibility.

More valuable than trophies or rankings are the lessons kids learn in friendship, laughter, and a day well played. Biba Kayewich

One of my favorite old-time movies is 1942’s “The Pride of the Yankees,” starring Gary Cooper. Filled with sweetness, humor, and the good ol’ American values of determination and a solid work ethic, the movie tells the story of baseball great Lou Gehrig from his boyhood to his final days battling the disease that now bears his name.

There are many scenes worth pondering in this classic film, but the opening comes to mind today—largely because of the novelty it presents to our current culture. The scene shows a group of boys playing a game of baseball. Played in an empty lot surrounded by New York tenements and shops with makeshift bases, the game isn’t the well-organized, adult-supervised Little League ventures we see today. Instead, it’s a pick-up game, and the only adults who make an appearance are the shopkeeper and policeman who run after young Gehrig for breaking a window.

It’s my contention that we need to make scenes like this one—yes, even with the angry shopkeeper and policeman—a regular part of our daily landscape again. In fact, children need to play pick-up baseball games, and more impromptu games in general.

The idea that children no longer play as they used to is not something conjured up by my imagination. Author Neil Postman noted this decline before I was even born, writing the following in his book “The Disappearance of Childhood”:

“Like distinctive forms of dress, children’s games, once so visible on the streets of our towns and cities, are also disappearing. Even the idea of a children’s game seems to be slipping from our grasp. A children’s game, as we used to think of it, requires no instructors or umpires or spectators; it uses whatever space and equipment are at hand; it is played for no other reason than pleasure. But Little League baseball and Pee Wee football, for example, not only are supervised by adults but are modeled in every possible way on big league sports. Umpires are needed. Equipment is required. Adults cheer and jeer from the sidelines. It is not pleasure the players are seeking but reputation.”

We often bemoan the loss of childhood pastimes, such as baseball games, primarily for the lack of exercise and fresh air. Those are, of course, good things that we should encourage, but this passage from Postman suggests at least four other reasons why it’s time that adults begin backing off and letting kids play all kinds of games—from baseball to hide-and-seek—on their own again.

Conflict Resolution

Postman’s first reason for letting children play unsupervised games is that there are “no instructors or umpires.” In other words, pick-up games teach children to resolve conflicts on their own.

Umpires are a regular part of organized sports—and, sadly, experience increasing harassment these days as parents get involved and agitated.

But children are not inept when it comes to playing by the rules and policing themselves in their free play. “Two against one” was the common chant that rang out between myself and my two closest friends during our childhood games. Our democratic method of voting put arguments to rest quickly and easily. Had an adult been involved, however, the argument likely would have continued much longer, ending with someone being sent inside and playtime coming to an end. The long and short of things is that we survived without killing each other, and, in the process, learned how to negotiate and continue happily along when we didn’t get our way.

Responsibility

The second positive thing about impromptu play is the responsibility it advances. As Postman notes, no adult spectators are present on the sidelines. Thus, children are on their own when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions, even if that means apologizing and paying for a neighbor’s broken window or car ding from an errant frisbee or baseball.

Imagination

Impromptu play “uses whatever space and equipment are at hand,” Postman notes. Forget the $150 bat, the pristine uniforms, or the pricey batting gloves. Kids can make do without, or they can activate their imaginations to creatively transform the offerings at hand into useful playthings, whether sticks, garbage can lids, or something else. Doing so not only trains them to think outside the box, but it also helps them to be grateful for the real deal if ever they receive it.

Energy Over Ego

Postman’s final benefit of unsupervised children’s games is that they are “played for no other reason than pleasure”—a contrast to organized sports where “it is not pleasure the players are seeking but reputation.”

Today’s sports and competitions put so much pressure on our children: Play well so you can get into this league, so you can then play high school ball, so that you can then get a sports scholarship for college. Where’s the fun in that? And furthermore, why purposely create little divas inflated by their own prowess? Better that they play for the joy of the game than for the acclaim of the onlookers and scouts.

Of course, there is one problem in all this. Many children don’t play impromptu games anymore—whether baseball, or kick-the-can, or Red Rover—because if they did so, running free in their yards, screaming and laughing and crying, some neighbor or passerby would likely get mad, call Child Protective Services or the police, and then leave it to dad and mom to make sure their children don’t get into trouble.

That’s wrong. If we want to see children playing, imagining, and learning to work out their differences on their own, then we as adults need to be willing to put up with their noises, their escapades, and their roamings around the neighborhood. We need to be the ones who smile, wave, and cheer them on in their unstructured playtime, rather than be the grumpy ones gathering the balls that fell across our property lines.

Want to encourage kids to turn into successful adults? Then be a good neighbor and let the kids play—freely and on their own.