Gearheart Baseball Games

Shortly after we started having reunions we began what we lovingly call our "Gearheart Rules" baseball games. At each reunion, anyone who wants to participate can play the game, even down to very small children. The rules of the game go like this. Every child gets a hit. No matter how long someone must pitch to them, they stand there until they get a hit. Sometimes, with the smallest children, an adult will help them along, but they still get to hit the ball and run to first base. The second rule is that no matter how good the adult player, he or she must mis-catch, mis-throw, mis-slide, etc., so that the children get to go all the way around the bases and score a run. This makes for some hilarious games, with the adults falling down, missing the ball, running backwards and other stunts, in order to make sure that the kids get to tag the bases. When the kids get to the age where they are growing up and participating in regular ball games and getting pretty good at it, then the rules are called off and they are treated pretty much as adults. The adults must use the opposite batting arm when it is their turn but run the bases normally. We usually have four or five outfielders. Uncle Larry gets to do the pitching on one team because he participated in competetive fast-pitch baseball for many years. He's really very good at it, and seems to be able to tailor his pitches exactly to the needs of each child. The other team selects a pitcher among themselves and the game is on. We have had a few new members of the family that are somewhat "competetive" in nature, shall we say, and they seem to have some difficulty adjusting to the "Gearheart Rules". Eventually, though, they catch on and seem to enjoy seeing the little ones run the bases and score a run as much as the wildly cheering throng on the sidelines. Many a happy hour has been spent yelling for the kids as they furiously run the bases and come home to score. I'm not sure that anyone remembers the final scores in the game, if any, but they must be something like 75 to 70, because there are lots and lots of baserunners.
This event is planned for and scheduled into the long reunions, especially. We try to use a local field close to where we are staying, if available. If there are none, then a wide open space in a park will substitute just fine. We don't have a trophy for this event because we would have to buy too many of them, but a great time is still had by all.