One of the truly great holidays of the year is upon us once again. The Fourth of July, the country’s celebration of independence, is nigh. The occasion is best observed by grilling out, chilling by a pool, enjoying ice-cold beverages, tossing a ball around and capping the day off by viewing spectacular fireworks shows.
The Fourth is perhaps the apex of summertime. It is a celebration of freedom. It’s also the time in which baseball’s all-stars showcase their talents in an annual tradition. Culver City is fortunate enough to have a talented group of all-stars of their own. Last Sunday, the Culver City Little League All-Star team hosted the rival all-stars from Beverly Hills in a showdown at Botts Field. What a game. After stranding runners in the bottom of the first, and falling behind the following inning, the boys from Culver City smashed their way back into the game off a mammoth home run to pull ahead. But Beverly Hills battled back, and so it went – back and forth.
In the bottom of the fifth, with the tying run on first and a 0-2 count, a Culver City slugger belted a moonshot over the second fence in left-centerfield to take the lead, 6-5. The boys added some insurance runs after that, and went on to win 9-5.
The game brought back a lot of memories of my own Little League days. And that’s one of the joys of baseball – it’s a pastime that many of us remember fondly. Learning baseball was a large part of growing up for kids of my generation. There are a lot more sports and other activities available to young people now, and that’s for the best. But baseball is a good way to connect one generation to another. And that’s one more thing to love about the Fourth of July – it connects generations of Americans together in the shared bond of independence.
