Many of us fondly remember those sandlot days of our youth when the neighborhood kids would gather for impromptu baseball games. The teams consisted of anybody who wanted to play, from the skinny eight-year-old to the 16 year old acne case. Teams were picked on a daily basis and modified whenever another kid showed up. We even figured out games to play when enough kids didn’t show up.

There were no managers or coaches or scorekeepers. We weren’t there to experience the thrill of victory, which we learned later was overrated. We were there for the sheer joy of being alive and active on a summer day. We weren’t there for competition, we were there for purely innocent friendship. This was the thrill of happy recreation without the stress of measuring up or fear of failure.

So, what happened to ‘recreational’ baseball in the PSSBL? It got managed out. The bug of winning got passed around among the teams who hoped to vie for a championship and that infection led to less than honorable actions which led to more of the same in response. The lesser players played less and less.

At the sandlot, we picked teams every day because we had a sense of fair play, even as children. We all wanted evenly matched teams, whether we kept score or not. And we wanted everybody to have an equal chance to play. That added to the fun! So why can’t we have that again?

The idea for a daytime baseball division of the PSSBL was born with the sandlot in mind. Not just another age bracket tacked on to what already exists. The league has seen the wisdom of separating competitive leagues from recreational leagues with the idea that everybody who wanted to play could play. With daytime baseball, we have a chance to get back to that. There are dozens of ex-PSSBLers out there who were ‘aged out’ of the game but want to rejoin.

Over the decades, the PSSBL added divisions based on the aging membership and what that membership needed in order to keep playing. Now, with daytime baseball, there’s a chance to bring back some of those players who felt they had to leave the game. The PSSBL divisions are by age with good reason, but we believe we have a way to include everyone within a 25 year-age span on the same field and not have players over-matched or under-matched.

This petition is for all those who want a truly recreational daytime baseball division within the PSSBL and with separate rules and separate fees. We believe that there is enough interest in this and that there should be further discussions which include some potential players who are no longer in the PSSBL, but who are looking for a way to come back.