Baseball Played Without The Lines and Bases

It is impossible to travel through Ridgewood these days and not marvel at all the well groomed ball fields. There are more now than when I was growing up and they are infinitely better cared for by the Village. I am glad for the children living close by as these are good places for them to learn about life and the fine lines of differences between us all.

I can recall as a youth how when it rained the Willard School field would flood and the water would stand for days. It would produce a mud, in the outfield particularly, which made for many comical moments for these unlucky enough to have the outfield as their position. We called it the "Creek Mud" and one unlucky soul even had this nickname awarded to him after one very memorable slide through the creek mud in an attempt to field a ball.

It's funny to me now how our games were played with rags for bases, foul lines which were approximated and always a source of contention, and with various patches of grass in the outfield that no suburban homeowner would ever allow to grow on their property. All of these obstacles didn't deter our desire to play baseball. These were just incorporated into our games and became variations on a theme which could be played with a full contingent on each side or with half the outfield designated as foul territory. If somebody who didn't know the rules of the game had watched us all day they would have become quite confused as to what we were doing. You see, baseball could be played off the wall, off the steps, with a kickball, on a stickball court, and on any manner of baseball diamond we might configure. We might play with a hard ball, softball, red kickball, wiffle ball, or tennis ball. It was all the same to us, but to a stranger it would have been a real head-scratcher for someone to say them that we were all playing the same game.