Play Ball! (but hurry)

I remember looking at a childhood friend of mine in about the 3rd grade.

He sat on a wooden bench just behind the softball field screen at the township park where we played growing up. There were two fields at the park. There was a big field that served as the home of an adult fast-pitch league. We kids played on a small uneven grassy field where, if you really tore into one, you might land a homer in the cow pasture. At that age we could only dream of such a hit.

My friend sat there, choking back tears, one leg crossed over the other. A large lump protruded from his shin where growing bone had proven too weak to withstand the slide of a runner heading into second. He should not have been standing on the first base side of second to catch the ball before applying the tag. He knew this but in the heat of competition he was one step out of place.

Kids are sometimes just kids and sometimes they make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes hurt.

We probably all cried a little that day (though most of us probably wiped away any tears with our gloves before being seen.) By the next practice though, or the next game, those tears were dry and we were back in the batter's box hoping to crush one deep into the pasture. My friend was there too as soon as possible, unable to really participate again until the walking cast was removed.

Those were the days before the first response to all things injurious was a lawsuit, but those days may well be long gone.

At least for the time being the children of Staten Island still have adults willing to coach kids in sports and still have facility operators willing to provide a venue for children to grow up learning how to take part in America's pass time.

So, play ball! Just make sure you do it quickly; before coaches and parks decide it simply is not worth the liability.