Home Is a Base: South Shore’s Youth Baseball Revival

Rainbow Beach Park Advisory Council just wrapped up our youth baseball program in partnership with our friends at Lost Boyz Inc. - and what a joy it was to see all the kids out on the field!  Here are a few snapshots from those sunny afternoons.

Personally it took me a while to fall for baseball. It’s a bit like opera - you wait for that soaring aria, and when it comes, you’re hooked for life.

We don’t have baseball in the old country. I always heard of it as the most American of sports, but the more I watch and learn, the more it feels like a sport that makes you forget about America for a while... Football, to my old-country wiring, will always feel like going to war… but baseball? Baseball is like going home - though, in baseball, going home usually means you’ve been running in circles first  which God knows I did

And the best part - it’s one of the most affordable sports to get into. All you need is a bat, a ball, and enough people to argue about whether it was a strike.

P.S. A little secret… we’re now working on introducing boxing in the park. After all, Muhammad Ali- then still Cassius Clay - spent part of his early life right here in South Shore, living in a Jackson Park Highlands apartment. He walked these streets, trained in Chicago gyms, and carried the spirit of our neighborhood into the ring. It’s a legacy worth honoring - and continuing.