What is round and gets beat with a stick?  Sometime it gets knocked around pretty good.  So much in fact… that it has stitches.  Two hundred sixteen to be exact.

Well sure.  It is a baseball.  The National Pastime.  That is its nickname, at least.  A pastime is an activity that someone does regularly for enjoyment rather than work…. or…  a hobby.

Truth be told, I don’t know many people my age who play baseball.  Unless you count softball.  Then I know quite a few.  But back to it.

For me… there was always a love of the game.

Tonight we went to see our grandson Isaac play.  He is seven.  He is on a team with other seven year olds… and six year olds.  The game can be pretty daunting at that age… I supposed.

That is about when I started playing organized ball.  But we were just like the Cincinnati Reds.  We didn’t play like these kids at all.  No.  I am sure we scooped up every grounder, hit screamers out of the park, turned double plays.  We were like…. incredible-players.  Superstars with wings on our feet.

At least… that’s the way it felt when I was seven.

But no matter what… through all the years… wherever we played… when the game was all said and done… there would be kids running around the base paths.  I was always one of those kids.  It was like I could never quite get enough of the game.  I had to go out and run those bases… ONE more time… and slide into home plate with all my might.

They finally made me quit doing this is college… but that’s another story.

There was a true love of the game.

These days I still have that fond spot in my heart for it.  I love to go watch and remember.   And there’s nothing like getting a ballpark burger…. or frank…..  with BOTH  mustard and ketchup.

Yep.  It is a good pastime.. if I must say so myself.

But these days…. for my pastimes… I mostly swim and take walks and such.  Shoot a camera… from time to time.   To play baseball now feels too much like work for me.  And by definition then… it is no longer an activity of leisure.    And at this age… I really need my pastimes ….. to feel like pastimes.

“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”  –   Joseph Addison

“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.”  –  Moliere