Don’t Take Me Out to the Ballgame! by Charles Coulombe

These words were spoken by the J. D. Salinger manqué, Ted Mann (played by James Earl Jones), in the 1989 film Field of Dreams. It is certainly true that, ever since Abner Doubleday’s disputed creation of the sport, baseball quickly became the undisputed “national pastime.” Many a boy has been taken by his father to watch their team defend the honor of their hometown, all the while consuming hot dogs and popcorn while the calliope screams, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Folk of a certain age will remember the automobile ad incessantly chanting on television, “They go together, in the good old USA, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.” Even now, to countless Americans, those words resonate. I don’t know how it is today, but in my boyhood, unofficial games of softball were played with as much zest by neighborhood kids as the more organized ones to be found in Little League. While the Boy Scouts of America may be collapsing, Little League is going strong. ….