Ball Games

There are ball games and then there are ball games. Yes, there are games you play with balls and there are baseball games you go see and read about and talk about and watch on TV and listen to on the radio. These are ball games. Where I come from, if someone asks you if you saw one of the ball games, you knew right away they were talking about baseball. These were the only ball games people were talking about back then. Of course, there were other ball games, games you played with a ball, but the ball games people were most interested in weren't basketball games or football games. Sure, there was interest in these, but the ball games that people were talking about when they asked if you had seen and of the ball games, were baseball games.

It was still the national pastime. I don't think anybody much had even heard of soccer, although that is truly a ball game. Of all the ball games, soccer has less equipment and is more about the ball than any of the other ball games. Although as far as ball games go, rugby doesn't involve a lot of extraneous equipment, but it is so purely about the ball as soccer is. Rugby is one of those ball games that is also about turf and piles of people like football is.

But soccer is the one out of all the ball games that is about the ball and moving the ball downfield or upfield and passing the ball. No hands. No bats. No fancy equipment. Just ball control. That is what makes soccer so much fun to play and to watch. All of the ball games take skill, but out of all the ball games, soccer seems to take the most individual skill at ball control.

Ball games of all types are fun to play and fun to attend. Going to ball games can be one of the most significant memories a kid brings into adulthood. Going to ball games usually involved an outing with your dad. Real man to man time, although you were only seven or eight or ten or twelve. Going to ball games was an exciting adventure. Going to ball games usually required a trip somewhere, maybe by car, maybe by train or subway to the ball park. Ball games were big events in those days and it was thrilling to go to ball games and get swept up in the crowds and the noise. Ball games had certain sights and smells. Hot dogs and roasted peanuts.

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