On April 30th, Roland Park Baseball League in Baltimore, MD held their version of a Sandlot Day for their players. The main difference from other Sandlot Day events was that, in Roland Park, they used umpires, kept the uniforms on, and actually counted the games in the standings. The players, however, ran all other aspects of the game and, as league president Mike Stanley explains below, got to experience the free-play elements of governance, coordination, negotiation, conflict resolution, and experimentation. So while this may not seem like a sandlot game in the traditional sense, it was both an enjoyable day for all as well as an opportunity to learn a few important lessons for the kids, coaches, and parents.From Roland Park Baseball League President Mike Stanley.....
Here, the kids did wear their uniforms, the results of the game did count in the
regular season standings, and there were umpires that called the games.
Nevertheless, the kids had complete control over the lineup, assignment of defensive
positions, strategic decisions, and coached the bases. We modified the format for
two reasons, one of which was a practical consideration, and the other was
philosophical.
First, on the practical front, RPBL has an extremely condensed baseball season,
running from early April to early June, which is only a two month period. So, given
the already condensed baseball season, coupled with an extremely wet month of April,
the reality is that we were facing a time crunch to complete the regular season so
that we could start our playoffs on time. But, with that said, and after much
contemplation, I felt that the game should "count." Otherwise, I was concerned that
we were sending the wrong message to the kids -- that is, that you can have control
over "your" game, so long as the game does not mean anything in the standings. I
wanted to show the kids that we trusted them with a "real" game, and, that, in doing
so, they would learn a valuable lesson that a "real" game is really not that
important all. What is important is working with your teammates, trying your best,
experimenting with new positions, and, above all, having fun. My hope is that this
exercise also served as a nice reminder to the coaches and parents that they should
not be so invested in the outcome of the "real" games -- that the real magic of
youth baseball is in the process for the kids, not the result.
