[Simon]

None of the kids in my neighborhood was in Little League. But we played pick up games in the park all the time.

No parents or coaches were there. Just kids playing ball to have fun. But I'll tell you something, both teams played to win too.

With no parents or coaches to tell us what to do, we didn't pick the bad players until last, and that included anyone who had any disabilities.

Some kids never got a chance to bat. Other kids we'd hit to all the time since they couldn't catch a ball coming out of the sun to save their lives and would dive out of the way of a line drive.

I think it's good for kids to have fun. But there seems to be a lot of artificial structure being created for them today. And it all seems to be oriented at preserving childhood at the expense of nurturing maturity.

All part of the bigger gameplan really.