Outsmarted by a Child

All-Sports Stadium in Oklahoma City hosted the Big Eight Conference baseball tournament for 23 straight years from 1974 through 1996.

Beyond the seats down the leftfield line was a giant grass hill that was packed with kids during every game. They ran up it, rolled down it and transformed into Olympic sprinters anytime a foul ball landed nearby.

There also seemed to be an unwritten rule that a foul ball was not officially yours until you escaped and reached the top of the hill without getting tackled by another kid. Once they made it to the top clutching the ball, they would raise their arms in triumph like a champion, often drawing cheers from the crowd that had stopped watching the game to watch them instead.

Further down the line kids gathered near the bullpen where college pitchers, who were often unsupervised and bored, entertained themselves.

Each game pitchers carried extra baseballs to the bullpen to warm up. Sometimes a pitcher would hold up a baseball, get the kids attention and then toss it onto the hill just to watch the chaos unfold.

Following one game a pitcher proudly told me he had traded a baseball to a kid for a hot dog.

I laughed as I explained that a baseball cost about $5 while the hot dog cost $2, meaning the pitcher had just been outsmarted by a child.