Pomp amid fun-filled circumstances.

Does anybody play ball in a schoolyard anymore? The bats are broken, the balls wrapped in black tape. The bases are a milk carton here, a tin can there. Maybe a knee gets skinned when you slide across rocks. Maybe a window gets broken with a line drive. Maybe a home run ends the game because the ball rolls down the schoolhouse roof and gets caught in a gutter. Rats.

Strange thing is, playing ball in a schoolyard you learn stuff no one can teach. You get a feel for the game's geometry and movements. You learn when a ball will be caught and when it won't, when you can get to the next base and when you can't. You learn who can play and who can't. Soon enough, you need only see body language to know that a ball hit sharply to the shortstop's right will roll into the outfield.

No coaches, no parents, no umpires.

Just playing ball.

Having fun.

So it was nice the other day to hear a college coach say, "Nowadays, everything's organized and orchestrated. But our kids played the game the way it used to be played in schoolyards. They used their instincts. And they played for the purity of the game."

The coach, Bill Edwards, and his Hofstra University softball team nearly reached this season's Women's College World Series. Always a power in the Northeast, Hofstra won its seventh consecutive conference tournament and went to the NCAA's Stanford Regional. There it was seeded seventh among eight teams. Victories over nationally ranked Auburn and Stanford and two wins against Southern Illinois gave Hofstra a shot at the World Series, the equivalent of a 14th seed one step from basketball's Final Four.