Baseball in the summer

In Sumter, during the summer, baseball is king. While in other parts of the world, American Legion baseball is a memory that goes hand in hand with drive-in movie theaters, carhops and soda fountains, it is alive and well in Sumter, S.C.

American Legion ball draws to the ball field the men with white hair -- and no hair -- and the young couples and the moms with children and the teenagers who want to show off in front of their friends. Summer nights in Sumter mean baseball.

Riley Ball Park has seen decades of Sumter's teenaged boys don the signature blue and red uniform of the American Legion Post 15 team -- or as folks in Sumter fondly call them, the P-15's. The park has seen some mighty wins. It's seen enthusiasm and disappointment. Sweat from the brows of hundreds of boys has watered the field of green grass.

The stands hum with conversation, occassional cheers to the batter or jeers to the umpire.

Breezes are few. The air hangs thick with humidity, and fans' skin glows with a summer stickiness they've become accustomed to as South Carolinians. Hair sticks to faces. Cardboard fans rat, tat, tat against the air in front of those flushed faces. Mosquitos and gnats and flies feast on legs barely covered by shorts and t-shirts.

But the heat and the bugs don't matter. When a P-15 hits the ball deep and lands a spot on base, when the bases are loaded or when a streak of blue and red whizzes past home plate, a cloud of dust flying, it's all worth it. The old men, the couples, the moms, the kids, the teens, they all clap and whistle and howl.

The smell of boiled peanuts mixes with the smell of sweat. Peanut shells litter the concrete floor of the stands. Boys and girls tote trays filled with sodas and popcorn through the crowd. And sometimes trips have to be made to the snack bar for hot dogs topped with sauerkraut.

No one's a stranger. Everyone sitting around you is your friend and wants to share with you their enthusiasm about the P-15's, about how things are at work or about how the kids are doing.

In Sumter, Riley Ball Park is abuzz with life in the summertime.