Crushed Pop Cans

I remember being around eight or nine years old, that would’ve been around 1983-84, just knowing that every day of the summer we were going to be meeting at the local public school gravel diamonds to play sandlot-style baseball. The process of doing this was quite simple; You needed to find a baseball glove to put on your handlebars, grab some tennis balls to put in the spokes of your front tire and a baseball card or two to put in the spokes of your back tires so that your bicycle would sound like a motorcycle, Then you’d find a baseball bat to sling over your shoulder with one hand and then head over to your friends houses and start knocking on doors letting your buddies know that it’s time. The front lawns were scattered with bikes as the baseball friend group grew. Then, like a scene right out of the goonies, you were off to play ball sounding like the Hells Angels on a mission.

When we arrived at the field the only thing required were bases and two team captains. Bases were easily found around the school yard using remnants of the trash on the ground from the evening before when the field was full of little kids playing tball. Pop cans were the easiest choice, crushed under our running shoes with authority and laid out at no particular measured distance. Then team captains were made and the fun began. No umpires, just the standard rule that a tie went to the runner. We’d play for a couple of hours and then take a quick break to ride our bikes up to the store to grab a bag of chips or a candy bar and a soda that was usually in a glass bottle. We’d each take turns looking under the bottle cap for the possible prize being advertised, and we’d all get excited if one of us won a free beverage for our next visit.

As the old saying goes, those were the days; countless repetitions at the plate and endless fly balls and diving plays…no coaches, no criticism, only thoughts and imitations of playing like our favourite players.

Batter Up Baseball was created with the above feeling of nostalgia in mind. We wanted to keep it fun and let the players create their own memories of what it’s like to really be free at the ballpark. The one thing that these kids get now is a little bit of oversight, and for the players who are really looking to develop their skills, we offer advice where needed. Some players ask for more and more, and we are able to provide that. But you’d be surprised at the number of payers who “just want to play with their friends.”

Players come back week after week, summer after summer and can’t get enough. When parents or grandparents stick around and watch for a while, it’s interesting to see the looks on their faces. It’s almost like they can’t believe that they’re witnessing somewhat of a flashback to their own childhood. We’ve spent nearly 3 decades recreating this old but familiar culture and though things have changed a bit over the years, the framework has remained. You should check it out sometime, you’d smile.