Mo'Ne Davis and the Taney Dragons are doing something I didn't think was possible.
They're making Little League cool again.
Actually they're doing even more than that. They're making baseball cool again, appealing to a new wave of city kids I thought had pretty much given up on the game.
When I was a kid, there was nothing I liked more than baseball.
We played as long as there was daylight, and sometimes beyond.
That is one of the differences I see today.
I'm not even talking about Little League.
Ask yourself this question. When was the last time you saw a group of guys - or girls for that matter - in a field playing baseball.
No uniforms. No adults. No umpires. Just kids playing a game they loved.
I actually would play by myself alone in the yard for hours - recreating entire Phillies games and take the role of each batter, both on the Phillies and the opposing team. I would bat both right- and left-handed depending on who was up, then I'd determine hit or out, depending on where I hit the ball.
That's how much I loved the game.
Somewhere along the line, that love - especially involving kids - dimmed.
There are a lot of reasons.
The game was too slow. Families got smaller, making it much more difficult to field two sides, the notion of kids playing alone - unsupervised - fell out of favor.
When I got home from school, or on a weekend, I would get changed or dressed, then head out the door. My mom figured I was in town - somewhere, but the reality is she had no idea where I actually was.
Those days are over. We watch over our kids incessantly. We arm them with cell phones and tell them to check in wherever they are going. I'm not sure it's as much for their safety as our own harried state of mind as parents.
Kids starting staying in more, sitting in front of the TV.
Then came the tidal change in American society. Computers & the Internet changed our lives forever. Suddenly kids didn't need anyone else to play baseball. They didn't even have to leave the house. All they had to do was fire up the laptop.
I'm rooting for Mo-Ne Davis and the Dragons from South Philly for a lot of reasons.
But making baseball cool again among young people has to be at the top of the list.
Go Dragons!
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