Winter Ball: A West Coast Off-season

For those of us not mired in the doldrums of winter, – you know, the ones on the left coast, the ones basking in sunshine most of the winter, and the ones definitely avoiding the snow – the baseball off-season often meant something different to us as kids.  Rather than hang up our mitts and bats in exchange for snow shovels and sleds, we took to the parks, took to the streets, and took to the backyard.  We picked up sticks and and anything remotely shaped like a ball.  We gathered any friends we had, or sometimes went out alone, and we played baseball.

I’m not talking about nine-on-nine organized baseball.  I’m not even talking about pick-up games.  I’m talking about straight-from-the-imagination baseball-like games.  Just finished a can of Coke?  Smash it into the shape of a ball and grab an empty two liter bottle.  Find an open field or open parking lot.  You have everything you need for a makeshift game of home run derby.  Have a friend toss the smashed Coke can in your direction, swing the two liter bottle, and see how far that little can can fly.  Don’t have a Coke can?  No problem.  Find anything you can throw and hit with a stick or bottle or bat or pipe.  This is what I remember from my childhood.

Maybe it’s easier for me to stay focused on baseball during the winter because of my childhood.  Sure I like other sports (football, college basketball, etc), but my mind always drifts back to baseball.  I’m not held down by the incessant cold or winter storms.  I remember, as a child, games of Pickle in the backyard during the winter.  I remember going to the nearest park with nothing more than a tennis ball, finding a tree branch, and smashing that ball as far as I could.  I remember using that same tennis ball and throwing it off walls to practice my fielding skills – or lack thereof in my case.

You see, the winter was not a time to stay indoors, avoiding the unbearable cold at all cost.  No, it was a time to continue summer.  A much more mild summer, but a continuation of summer nonetheless.  While the East Coast has its tradition and its place in childhood memories of baseball – the pick-up games in streets lined with vinyl sided houses, and the block parties where kids would sneak off for a quick game of baseball – the West Coast has the unique ability to make those memories in the winter, not just the summer.

While the East Coast has a lot of wonderful things going for it, give me baseball all year round.  Give me the warmth and the sun.  Give me the West Coast because Winter Ball means something a little different to us.