The Sandlot isn’t a horror movie, but it sure felt like one if that’s where you first learned to play, and every pitch came with a jolt of nerves. To most, the term is synonymous with the heart of the game itself. You’ve seen it unfold in city streets as stickball, or scratched out of dirt in any small town. Those ragged edges were my introduction to the game, and I cherish those gritty, hard-won memories more than anything I’ve done since.

Kids today play on neat, manicured fields, where they hit off a tee, everyone gets a turn before being out, and scorekeeping is often ignored. Compared to our rough-and-tumble games, I wonder what they really learn about baseball in such a controlled environment.

More than 50 years ago, our “stadium” was a cement walkway leading into a triple-decker apartment where home plate sat. Behind it, massive, rusted garbage cans served as our backstop. No grass, just rocks, weeds, and nothing close to a real diamond. There wasn’t an outfield, just a fence that separated us from a junk-filled yard. Hitting it over the fence was a home run, and someone had to retrieve the ball.

We didn’t have a big roster, just four of us: me and the three Italian kids from the triple-decker brothers Nicky and Vinny, and their friend Angelo. We learned the game of 2-on-2 with one ball, one bat, and no gloves. We fielded everything bare-handed.

The rules were simple but tough: If you hit a grounder, field it and beat the runner to first for the out. Pop-ups had to be caught bare-handed, often with a sting. Your partner was the catcher; if he missed, he dug through the garbage cans for the ball.

What we didn’t know, we asked about. We modified the rules as we went, and we had an absolute blast. It was nothing like the structured world of today, with kids hitting off tees with fancy bats and expensive gloves. We just played and let our imaginations run wild. Nobody bothered us, nobody told us we were doing it “wrong,” and we learned how to solve our own problems while we played.

I never left a game mad. I remember the fun with those guys and going upstairs for Nan’s Italian food. I couldn’t wait to do it again the next day.