Rodd's Ramblings: Feels like old times ... again

Every sports fan has a favorite sport. For me, that sport is baseball. Every sports fan is probably missing watching his or her favorite sport on television, listening on the radio and reading about it in the paper. I am sure I am not alone when I say these past few weeks have been tough mentally.

I am a creature of habit. There is nothing better than getting home from work on a spring day and turning on the radio and catching a broadcast of a Twins game. There is something comforting, at least for me, in having a game on while I am out working in the garage, taking a walk, or sitting by the campfire with friends. This is how it’s always been for me. But now, with the delay of the Major League Baseball season, it’s like something is missing.

I was talking to some friends about this just the other day and each of us shared our thoughts on how things have changed since we were kids.

I remember not going anywhere without the small transistor radio my dad had given me. It would dangle from the handlebars on my bike as I went to the ball field to play with friends. It would be with me while we played in the yard. That little radio was my constant companion — and it was always tuned to the station that carried the Twins.

Way back then, we didn’t have video games to play and there weren’t many options on television. We had to find ways to fill our days. In my neighborhood we filled that time by playing baseball almost all day long. Like most neighborhoods we had many different places to play. Living in Scanlon we had what we called Engen’s Field (a field behind Darrel and Pat Engen’s home). Kids from all around would just show up in the morning and we’d play ball all day.

Sometimes we’d break to go home and get lunch, which often consisted of a bowl of tomato or chicken noodle soup and a sandwich. Then it was right back to the field.

Most of the time the game never stopped. If you had to leave, the other kids kept playing and when you came back you just jumped onto a team and started playing again. It also never mattered how many kids were there because we had special rules if there weren’t enough to form full teams. Anyone who grew up then knew what “pitcher’s hand” and “second and over” meant when you didn’t have enough players.

If we wanted to meet up with other kids, we had the yard at the Scanlon school, later Lincoln Elementary School, or you could head to Sathers Park and play on one of the two fields there. You would just take your ball — usually an old ball taped together with black electrical tape — wedge it between the bars on your bike and pedal to the field and join a game. It never mattered how old or how young you were, anyone could play.

No one cared about how good you were, how bad you were, you just played. It was what we did and we did it all day long.

When we got tired of playing, you could always find a patch of woods and build a treehouse with any wood you could find. These weren’t anything spectacular, but it did help pass the time and it gave you a cool place to go and be alone or with your buddies. I guess you could call it our version of social distancing.

I often hear people say times were simpler back then and they truly were. There were not nearly the distractions that modern-day devices like cell phones, computers and video games create for kids today. If we got stuck in the house due to rain we’d play games or find something else to do. We played games, jacks, pick-up sticks, or cards. It was just a case of doing what was available at the time and not knowing anything different.

As I was out for a walk this past week after work, I walked by a home in my neighborhood and saw the parents and their three kids outside playing a game with bean bags. Throughout my walk I saw kids outside riding bikes, walking, running, playing a game of catch … the kind of things we did when we were young. It seemed like they were finding ways to entertain each other but still keeping a distance.

It made me think back to my childhood and how things used to be. I wondered if perhaps we had it right back then. Maybe, just maybe, we did.

WKLK radio personality Kerry Rodd writes sports for the Pine Knot News.