Dodgy elbows and baseball’s wastelands

I chanced upon an early morning softball game in a park near where I live on Sunday.

The church bells from the nearby Russian Orthodox church rang incessantly through the clear blue morning and only the trash talk from the team of Dominicans could possibly compete.

When I say they were playing in a park, it would be more accurate to say this large expanse of concrete near one of the less glamorous parks New York has to offer.