Several weeks back I saw a post on Facebook from a guy looking to get a bunch of people together on an upcoming Saturday at a local park to play some sandlot baseball, with the intention of not only playing a game but also to discuss the formation of an actual sandlot league in St. Louis. My eyes lit up and I immediately posted my interest in attending and went about spreading the invite among my followers on my personal Facebook page as well as other social media sites that I’m plugged into.

For me, playing some kind of ball has been in the back of my mind ever since I last played corkball at Tower Grove Park back in 2009. While the corkball thing was fun, it was also *really* difficult to get people to participate in. It seemed like, at best, we’d have maybe two or three people show up, and oftentimes it was just me and maybe my son there. So despite my best efforts at the time, I decided to throw in the towel. The arrival of another kid in the winter of 2010 also extinguished a good portion of my free time to continue the endeavor into subsequent summers. So that was pretty much the end of Tower Grove Corkball.

So fast-forward to the pandemic and I began to catch wind of pickup or “sandlot” baseball teams and even leagues forming across the U.S. and Canada. The first of these that I found was through my connection with the baseball-punk band the Isotopes, and that was the East Van Baseball in Vancouver, BC. I liked what I saw and, even though I was rapidly aging through my 50s, longed to see something like this form in St. Louis. Well, lo and behold, we have something now! Born out of a post on the Cherokee Park Hit & Catch All-Stars Facebook group is St. Louis Sandlot! Headed up by a Twin Cities export, Josh Stulen, this new group of ballplayers and its Southside Slingers offshoot (the only “team” to spring forth thus far) have begun playing on random-if-not-more-regularly-as-of-late Saturdays or Sundays at Fox Park in the city of St. Louis. There’s a really nice baseball diamond there that rarely ever gets used called PAL Memorial Park (the Cardinals built it over 20 years ago using money from a grant from the late Daryl Kyle). Still very casual but we run the bases, keep score, etc. Will try to play into December if the weather allows for it.

If you’re interested in playing, follow @stlouissandlot on Instagram (where it’s also recommended to follow the #sandlotrevolution tag in general). Apparently Instagram is the go-to app for finding all things sandlot baseball-related as far as social media is concerned… so far. Longer term goal is to get involved with the Sandlot Revolution next summer. Anyway, if you’d like to come out and play some ball, please join us! Bring your gloves, bats (wood only), and drink(s) of your choice. Our next gathering is this coming Sunday morning (November 12) at 10am at Fox Park.