Empty Fields

When was the last time anyone drove by a baseball field on a summer day and saw young people playing a pick up baseball game? It seems that if the throngs of kids who play organized baseball really had fun doing so they would be playing pick up games when their organized teams weren't playing. It would seem to confirm my point that young kids don't really have fun playing organized sports. In my opinion, it diminishes their interest in playing the games. Pick up games is where you have real fun because you are involved in real authentic play. It's where you actually learn to compete as well because you gain self knowledge, so needed to get along in the world.
Playing pick up baseball games if foreign to so many. They think it always has to be organized and pointed towards a goal of winning in a league game or tournament. Again, it's not about having fun in the present, it's about the future.
Joy comes from playing pick up games, not organized youth sports. Yet so many parents think it is the normal thing to to to put their young kids into T-Ball or other sports at a young age and then all get in the car to go watch them play. Again, please let the kids actually play.