It’s hard to learn to play catch. In the beginning, you use your arms to cradle the ball against your chest, then you use your hands, then one. Soon you’re shagging flies like Willie Mays and firing across your body like Derek Jeter, not having to think about the act. They do not call it a game of throw, though throwing is half the equation. The name of the game puts the burden on the one who receives, but there is really no game to it. Nobody wins or loses. You drop the ball; you pick it up. Once you’ve got the basic’s down, it doesn’t matter if you bobble a ball or two.

My son asks, “Dad, wanna play catch? He is our third, the last in a line of catch players. We stand about 60 feet apart. I loathe the leaden drag in my arm, the lack of steam in my throw. Live, I look like a slo-mo replay. But I can still reach him. He, of course, is a picture of careless and fluid engineering. He doesn’t even look at the ball. It is just there in his hands, and then it’s gone again. We go back and forth. To play a game of catch is not like pitching to a batter. You do not throw to trick, confuse or evade; you want to be understood.

A game of catch is an essential gesture of parenthood, when families are working well. Nietzsche said there is nothing so serious as a child at play. Everyone tosses to be understood. The best part of the game is the silence. I throw. He catches. He throws. I catch. The ball wobbles so slightly in the bright stillness that one can almost count the stitches.

I loved playing baseball as a kid, and then I hated it. Not half bad as a pitcher when I was 13. I threw my arm out, and my idiot coach said, “Pitch through the pain,” and I did. I was never able to throw hard after that. Maybe it was a bit of good luck. The advantage in later years, when I became a player of the game of catch, was that I was all motion and no speed – a change-up artist with nothing to change up on – so that the children could study the mechanics of throwing and anticipate making a catch without too much fear.

Once I happened to be on the field at Yankee Stadium before game time when the players were warming up. Wade Boggs and Don Mattingly tossed a ball between them without a trace of effort. Every easy toss was delivered at a speed greater than a good high school fastball pitcher could generate. Thwack, thwack, thwack in the leather, and the silence between the men on the field. It was interesting to note that even at their level this was still a game of catch.

We do what we can as parents, one child at a time. We take what we get in our children, and they take what they get in us, making compromises and adjustments where we are able, making rules and explanations, but for the most part letting things happen, come and go, back and forth. The trick, I think, is to recognize the moments when nothing needs to be said.

The heat and silence of the day fit us both like a glove. I toss the ball in looping arcs. He snaps it up as if waving it away, and tosses it back on a line, with much more on it. So we continue until our faces glow with sweat, and the sun drops, and we are touched by the shadows of the of the trees.

Even if summer does not bring children a complete release from their over-organized, cell phone-computer-TV-video-game-saturated lives, it does offer most a bit of free “goof-off” time – the sort that leads to physical activity and elective, self-organized play, often in short supply during the school year. Still, it’s not enough. Goof-off time shouldn’t be limited to summer vacation: It’s important all year. For most American children in the not-so-distant past, “going out to play” was the norm. Today, according to a University of Michigan study, children spend 50 percent less time outside than they did just 20 years ago – and the 6.5 hours a day they spend with electronic media means that sitting in front of a screen has replaced going out.

Through the lens of play research, we can see that there is a direct line between play deficiencies and some frightening public health and social trends: Tragic statistics for obesity, 4.5 million children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, an increase in childhood depression and classroom behavioral problems involving violence, and an inability to interact well with peers.

Just an hour a day of vigorous play – running, chasing, playing games like tag or dodge ball, and even dealing with or avoiding being excluded from these activities – can provide intense skill learning. Physical activity is known to lessen the symptoms of mild attention deficit disorder, and is associated with much lower incidences of childhood obesity. Active kids are also more facile intellectually and perform better academically in the long term.

Physically engaging play is actually more fun than the virtual sort, and the enlivenment one gets from it can transcend the allure of sedentary life in a two-dimensional, electronic world. But breaking away from the draw of a well-crafted, image-laden on-screen story line requires broad cultural reinforcement. It helps to be aware of how important play is to one’s development. To make that happen, we need a change in public consciousness about play – to show that it is not trivial or elective – as well as focused community and parental support. Evidence from around the scientific compass – neuroscience, psychology, exercise physiology, sociology and developmental biology – has revealed the importance of play. Deprive a social mammal like a rat or monkey of its normal rough-and-tumble play and it enters adulthood emotionally fragile, unable to tell friend from foe, poor at handling stress and lacking the skills to mate properly.

My studies of young homicidal males and felony drunken drivers revealed that most had lacked normal, developmentally appropriate rough and tumble play as children and pre-adolescents, while a control population had experiences typical playground give and take during their elementary and middle school years.

The differences in playfulness when adulthood arrives (I have followed more than 6,000 detailed play histories) validates the importance of lifelong play. Play-deprived adults are often rigid, humorless, inflexible and closed to trying out new options. Playfulness enhances the capacity to innovate, adapt and master changing circumstances. It is not just an escape. It can help us integrate and reconcile difficult or contradictory circumstances. And, often, it can show us a way out of our problems.

There are numerous examples of difficult, deadlocked negotiations that were broken open by a joke or a humorous incident. Many people have had the experiences of coming back from vacation brimming with new ideas for work. The benefit of play comes not from “rest” for the brain, as if play is just a time-out from life. Play is an active process that reshapes our rigid views of the world.

True play may seem pointless – it is done for its own sake, because it’s fun – but ultimately it is also useful. From an evolutionary perspective, the smarter the animal, the more they play. For humans, play reinvigorates us not because it is down time, but because it gets us in touch with our core selves and the joy of life.

Even if I didn’t know all I do about the concrete benefits of play, I would feel sad about the kids (and their parents) who have given up on play for another nine months knowing what I do, I can see that their autumnal devaluation of play is a tragic loss for them and for society.

Stuart Brown is founder of the National Institute for Play and author of “Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.” The International Herald Tribune is the global edition of The New York Times.

Summer days were once filled with kids playing baseball at a local field, as pictured here on the site of what is now Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York. Sandlots are now mostly empty around the country, and summer baseball opportunities have declined. For most young children, the baseball season is over in June, and the great majority are not playing during the summer and not improving their skills. A major challenge of those in youth baseball and everyone else in the game is to get kids to play more on their own. Children today are not playing enough on their own to develop a high level of skills.

In his recent and much needed article, "Sandlots Stand Idle Across U.S.", Eric Olson of The Associated Press wrote, "Sandlot baseball, a slice of American life enjoyed for decades by boys from coast to coast, appears on the verge of extinction. The reasons for the sandlot's demise, baseball coaches and sociologists say, go back to the changing family structure, video games, parents' fear of crime, and the proliferation of organized and so-called 'select' teams for more talented kids."

I have always believed that youngsters learn the game best in an unstructured setting. The fundamentals must be practiced continually, even at the big league level. Many kids have missed out on the simple pleasure of playing catch with a parent or sibling. Since they are not playing enough catch, the throwing skills of young children have diminished. They need to make playing catch fun and challenging. Young players need more skill-based, fun-resulting experiences, as opposed to high-pressurized organized league play.

Several groups in the United States are trying to get kids outside to play, reported Olson in his AP story. In contrast to Major League Baseball's RBI program - Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities - which features structured league play, Batter's Up USA is taking a more informal approach to rekindling interest in the game. "The goal is to introduce youngsters to baseball," said Olson, "and have them play in a safe and stress-free environment with limited adult involvement."

The Batter's Up might be as close as anyone gets to reviving the old-fashioned sandlot game, said Olson. One of the largest Batter's Up programs started this past summer in Dallas, where more than 2,000 kids at Boys and Girls Club participated. Started three years ago, the initiative provides baseball equipment to city recreation departments, Boys and Girls Clubs, and after-school programs. Executive director Jess Heald of Taos, N.M., said 35 organizations in 18 states are participating. The 74-year-old Heald, a retired bat designer for Rawlings Sporting Goods Co., said manufacturers donate much of the equipment, and contributions from benefactors help purchase additional gear.

Most kids today do not play baseball unless registered by a parent for an organized team. Many youngsters show up at their first practice having never had contact with the game, as opposed to the kids of yesteryear who learned from siblings and older friends. They are not playing and practicing the game enough today. Young children do not play catch enough. They are not getting in enough reps, throwing and catching the ball, batting, etc.

Young children in America must not say goodbye to sandlot baseball. There is still hope that the sandlot and playground baseball play concept will not die. Judging from the many letters I have received following Eric Olson's Associated Press article, young children in many small towns of the United States are still playing sandlot baseball.

Contributing to this article is Eric Olson, The Associated Press. Photos by Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, and Don Weiskopf

Sandlot Ball Is Still Being Played

"Just wanted you to know sandlot baseball still survives in our little town. My son plays ball simply because he loves it. He and his friends get together often for a few hours. It warms my heart when my son and the guys are going to the park to play a game." Baseball Mom, Lisa P.

"I read your comments regarding sandlot games becoming extinct and wanted to let you know there still is a sandlot game in our area. The kids still love to play the game who ever shows up." Karen Kershner, Louisville/Superior, Colorado

The reasons for the sandlot’s demise, baseball coaches and sociologists say, go back to the changing family structure, video games, parent’s fear of crime, and the proliferation of organized and so-called “select” teams for more-talented kids.

Johnny Damon of the Yankees said the structured environment of select ball sacrificed the fun youngsters got from playing on their own. Damon said, “I think nowadays kids are getting so worn out playing baseball year-round that by the time they get to the high school level, they’re kind of tired of it and tired of the politics of it, instead of just going out there and playing baseball.” The number of ballplayers in the United States has remained fairly constant throughout the years, although studies have shown fewer youngsters from the inner city are picking up the game.

There were 16.1 million participants in 2006, according to the most recent Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association International survey. But almost 12 million of those play in organized leagues; the remaining four million said their most common form of play was “casual.” Mike May, the association spokesman, said of the sandlot players, “That number should be higher.”

Don Weiskopf, a 79-year-old retired college professor from Eugene, Ore., advocates a revival of sandlot ball on his web site, www.baseballplayamerica.com. A former pitcher in the Cleveland Indians’ organization, Weiskopf said youngsters learned the game best in an unstructured setting. “The fundamentals of baseball must be practiced continually, even at the big-league level,” said Weiskopf. “The lack of pick-up games and sandlot ball today has hurt the development of young players.”

Many children, he said, have missed out on the simple pleasure of playing catch with a parent or sibling. “Since they are not playing enough catch, the throwing skills of young children have diminished,” Weiskopf said. “They need to make playing catch fun and challenging. Young players need more skill-based, fun-resulting experiences, as opposed to high-pressurized organized league play.” Major League Baseball’s RBI program – Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities – is probably the best-known initiative to increase interest and participation in the game. But RBI features structured league play.

Batter’s Up USA is taking a more informal approach to rekindling interest in the game. The goal is to introduce youngsters to baseball and have them play in a safe and stress-free environment with limited adult involvement. Started three years ago, the Batter’s Up initiative provides equipment to city recreation departments, Boys and Girls Clubs, and after-school programs.

Batter’s Up USA’s executive director, Jess Heald of Taos, New Mexico, said 35 organizations in 18 states were participating. The 74-year-old Heald, a retired bat designer for Rawlings, said manufacturers donated much of the equipment. Contributions from benefactors help purchase additional gear. One of the largest Batter’s Up programs started last summer in Dallas, Texas, where more than 2,000 youngsters at a Boys and Girls Club will participate.

Batter’s Up may be as close as anyone gets to reviving the old-fashioned sandlot game.

Dan Gould, the director of Michigan State’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sport, laments the demise of pick-up baseball games. Gould, 56, spent much of his youth on the sandlots of upstate New York, and he said children learned more than baseball when they played among themselves. They could make their own rules, like closing right field when there were not enough players. Anyone who hit to right would be out.

Children could learn negotiation skills. Was it a ball or strike? Was he safe or out? Was it fair or foul? They learned organizational skills, like how to pick teams equitably or how to reconfigure the teams if one side was beating the other by a wide margin. They learned how to get along – up to a point.

Weiskopf said playing in an unstructured environment allowed youngsters to experiment with different skills and to have more repetitions. Weiskopf said most children showed up at their first practice having never had contact with the game, as opposed to those of yesterday who learned from siblings and older friends.

We were both the coaches and umpires. The players picked the captains who then picked the teams, assigned positions and determined the batting order. We even resolved our own disputes, modified the rules to suit the number of players. We learned how to cooperate, how to be good winners and good losers. Essentially, we ran our own game. No one was excluded. Nobody said, "You can't play." Later, with the growth of parks and recreation facilities, neighborhood children met at the local playground. When enough players arrived, they would have a good ball game, even rotating and playing different positions.

What can be done to get kids back to playground baseball?

The key to the return of sandlot baseball is the thousands of public recreation and park agencies across the country. Children today do not play enough playground baseball, and we need to revive the concept and promote a movement. More opportunities to play baseball in parks and playgrounds need to be provided by local park and recreation departments and school districts. City playgrounds should be open longer and the necessary equipment provided.

A major effort should be made to have local recreation and park agencies nationwide spearhead a multiple-sponsorship of Playground Baseball of America, a non-profit organization coordinated by the National Recreation and Park Association and state affiliates. Such a national movement would require the joint cooperation of local and regional recreation agencies and ably supported by a national service organization, school districts, major and minor leagues, law enforcement agencies, the news media and funded by corporate sponsors.

Will city recreation agencies be willing to provide facilities and administrative support for Playground Baseball to become a reality? They will if the number of participants, program funding and volunteer leadership justifies their involvement and sponsorship. If successful, Playground Baseball will force Little League and other youth leagues to make changes. Youth baseball will also benefit by giving kids an alternative to Little League. Even more importantly, the program will contribute immeasurably to the revival of sandlot ball and the pick-up games concept, as it will to baseball itself, helping return the national pastime to America's parks and playgrounds.

Many years ago, during the summer, in the afternoons following school and on weekends, youngsters made the neighborhoods reverberate with the sounds of playing games in parks, vacant lots and in the streets. Among the many games were stickball, scrub, over-the-line, wall ball, strikeout, and later on, wiffleball. There were always 3 or 4 of us to play some version of a game. If we couldn't hit to right, we would stack the fielders, so there was enough to go around. If kids didn't have enough players for stickball, they would play Army Ball, "Catch-a-fly and you're up". Photo by Bettmann.

Favorite Pick-up Games Ever mindful that the large majority of young kids today do not play pick-up games, nor do they and their parents know how, the following low organized games are a few of those that young children used to play. Quite often, they were played from morning hours to the evening.

Work Up Equipment: Baseball and bat. Directions: Work-up is where one player gets to bat until he or she makes an out. When the hitter makes an out, he moves into the field and the fielders move up one position until each has a turn at bat. “Working up” starts from right field position and continues from right to center field; then to second base, first base, pitcher, catcher, and finally the batter. The batter tries to stay at bat for three successive runs while those in the field try to put the runners out. If there is only one batter, he runs between home and first base and continues as batter until he is put out, or successfully completes three successive runs. If there are two batters, they run from home to first, to third and home again. If there are three or more batters, all the bases are used.

Wall Ball Equipment: A wall with a drawn strike zone, rubber or tennis ball, and home plate. Directions: One or more players stand about 20 to 40 feet from the wall, preferably concrete. The game begins by having each player throw a ball against the wall. As a drill, throws can be fielded by the player who made the throw. As a competitive game, a player other than the thrower has to field the ball and the “pitcher” can vary the type, speed and difficulty of throws. Rules can be established as to catching the ball on a fly or a bounce. The players can keep score and the one who has the most points will win. Another game involves a pitcher pitching an imaginary game against the wall. He keeps the count, outs, innings and score. To make this an even more competitive experience, two pitchers can oppose each other, alternating innings and keeping score.

Army Ball Equipment: Hard rubber ball and bat. Directions: This popular West Coast “stick” and ball game often involves three players, a pitcher, batter and fielder. Of course, more players can play. As to how the game got its name, the field was spread from any makeshift backstop to any tall building, barracks, whatever. This was strictly a pull-hitting game. Batters cannot hit the opposite way. If the batter hit the building above one level, it is a double, another level a triple, and the roof and over, home run. There are no walks in Army Ball. The batter stays at bat until he hits or strikes out. This serves to make hitters wait for desired pitches.

Over the Line Equipment: Ball and bat. Directions: Referred to also as Line Ball, this is a favorite playground, school and yard game. With two teams 30 feet apart and perhaps 6 players on a team, the object is for the batter to drive a ground ball through the other team. Each team has a bat. The first player tosses the ball up and tries to bat it across the other team’s goal line. The ball must hit the ground between the two lines. The other team tries to field the ball and then attempts to bat it back across the opponent’s goal line. Each member of each team gets a chance to bat. One point is scored for each ball that crosses the other team’s goal line. Another variation is for the players to throw rather than bat the ball.

Scrub Equipment: Baseball and bat. Directions: One player is at bat, with a catcher, pitcher, first base and other fielders. All players are numbered: the batter is scrub; catcher, one; pitcher, two; first base, three; fielders, four and up. The batter hits a ball pitched to him, and runs to first base and back. If he is put out by being tagged at first base or home, striking three times, hitting three fouls or having a fly ball caught, he goes to the field and takes the number of the last fielder. Each player moves over one position and number, first base to pitcher, pitcher to catcher, and catcher to batter (scrub). If the batter gets home safely, he will bat again. Each batter is allowed to make three runs before taking to the field, provided he is not put out.

Catch-A-Fly and You're Up Equipment: bat. Directions: One player is at bat and the rest of the players are in the field or down the street. When a fielder catches a fly ball, he gets to hit. Most kids will come up to the plate swinging, trying to hit a home run or a hard line drive. Some will hit a few on the ground so they will stay up longer. So a pitcher may want to throw high pitches to make the batter hit flies. Rather than be close behind the plate, the catcher will position himself safely farther back. If he catches a pop fly, he may be allowed to hit.

Play Catch Equipment: Ball and gloves. Directions: Ever since baseball was invented, Play Catch has been regarded as the game's most valuable drill. Although better known as a warm-up drill, playing catch with another player can also be made a game, one that can be fun and challenging. A player, for example, can see how many times out of 10 throws he can hit a designated target, such as a glove, chest area, or around the knees.