baseball

In the memoir “Baseball”, Lionel G. García recalls the days when he and the kids in his neighborhood played their own special sort of baseball. What I think the memoir says about children's play is that it takes traditional games and sports and enhances certain aspects of them with the children’s imagination in order to make it more fun and interesting. There are several lines in the memoir that support my argument as to what the memoir says about children's play, with one being in the explanation of one of the rules of the version of baseball that the children in the memoir had invented: “But the second, more interesting option allowed the fielder, ball in hand, to take off running after the batter. When close enough, the fielder would throw the ball at the batter.” This line shows one of the methods by which the batter can get “out”, or not make it back to the home base, which in traditional baseball is done by having a fielder with the baseball reach a base ahead of or behind the batter, given that the batter is not already on a base or has an available base behind him. However, in the children's version of the game, the children added an additional method in which a fielder chases and throws the baseball at the batter, which the children thought as fun and interesting. Of course, this shows that the running and chasing aspect of baseball is appealing to the children, and as a result, the children enhance this aspect of baseball, by using their imagination and creating a new game rule, for the purpose of maximizing the joy and interest they get out of this aspect. Thus, children's play, such as the version of baseball in the story, enhances certain aspects of traditional sports and games with the imagination of children. Another line, in the same context of the memoir describing the special rules of the children's version of baseball, is in the following: “To complicate matters, on the way to home plate, the batter had the chance of running anywhere possible to avoid getting hit [by the baseball possessed by the fielder].” Here it is shown for the purpose of adding fun and interest to baseball, the children allowed the batter to run anywhere, even outside of the area in which the game is played, to evade the baseball that may be thrown by a pursuing fielder to get him out. In traditional baseball, there are baselines along which the batter has to run on to get from base to base, but to enhance the game, the children had increased the fun and interest in the running and chasing aspect of the game by allowing the batter to run anywhere without the limitations of baselines. Therefore, this line from the memoir presents how the children play and modify baseball using their imagination to make the game more fun, and supports my argument. A third line that supports my argument is when Father Zavala, a priest of the local community, talks about the version of baseball invented by the children : “In what enormous stadium would it [the children's adaptation of baseball] be played to allow such freedom over such an expanse of ground?” In this line, the memoir shows that Father Zavala , who has never seen traditional baseball be played ( shown in the line: “It was the only kind [the children's kind] of baseball game Father Zavala had ever seen”), was amazed by how the version of baseball that the children played had no boundaries of the playing field and thus could be played across the streets of the town of their community, which covers a huge “expanse of ground.” This nonexistent boundary of the children's version of baseball and the freedom to run and chase others was the work and invention of the children's imagination. Freedom of the territory of the field in the children's version of baseball enhanced an aspect of traditional baseball by having no boundaries in the game. As a result, the children who enjoy mostly this aspect of baseball, have their fun magnified. This falls under what my arguments says about children's play in children's imagination enhancing certain aspects of a game or sport in order to make the game or sport more enjoyable by children, which supports my argument. Moving on, a fourth and penultimate line that supports my argument is located in the memoir's introduction to the children playing their version of baseball: “We love to play baseball. We would take the old mesquite stick and the old ball across the street to the parochial grounds to play a game.” This excerpt shows that the children in the memoir enjoy playing their version of baseball despite having to use a crude and makeshift baseball bat, baseball, and other equipment that generally revolves around hitting, throwing, and catching the ball, which indicates that such aspects of baseball do not appeal to the children in the memoir due to their love for baseball but use of such poor equipment. However, there is an aspect of baseball that does appeal to them since the children love baseball, and by inferring from what is shown in the other lines presented, the children like the running and chasing aspect of baseball. Therefore, the children make up for their crude equipment and the hampered aspects of baseball that includes hitting, catching, and throwing the baseball by enhancing the other aspect of baseball that they get the most fun and interest with, as seen from previous lines, with addition rules and freedoms created by their imagination, which is the essence of children's play, as defined by my argument. Hence, this line, which shows that the children play baseball with their own modifications generated by their imaginations in order to enhance the aspect of traditional baseball that they enjoy the most, supports my argument. Finally, in the observation and conclusion of what adults, who have seen traditional baseball be played, see in and think of the children's version of baseball that they like to play, a line summarizes this part of the memoir: “Once when, he [Uncle Adolfo, a professional baseball player] returned for a visit, he saw us playing from across the street and walked over to ask us what we were doing. ' Playing baseball, ' we answered as though we thought he should know better. ' What a waste of a good ball, ' he said, marveling at our ignorance.” This line tells that some adults, such as Uncle Adolfo, a professional baseball player, who know about, recognize, and understand traditional baseball do not approve of the modifications the children had made that made baseball more fun and interesting to them. Instead, such adults would rather stick to the accepted rules. This constitutes the difference between adults' play, which is more traditional and standardized, and children's play, which is more creative and uses imagination. In this case, children's play is looked down upon by adults due to its irregularities and rules that seem absurd to them but are fun and interesting to the children, which strengthens my argument in that it shows how children's play uses the imagination of children to make certain aspects of games and sports more fun. To conclude, what the memoir “Baseball”, by Lionel G. García, says about children's play is that children's play takes traditional games and sports and enhances certain aspects of them with the imagination of children in order to make it more fun and interesting for children.