- Me playing for The Rascals.

Look at that hat.

I don't know where I would be today without the experiences I had playing youth sports.

Ready to go.

I think I played defense that year.

That's why I was standing in the back like that.

- I have no idea what positions are in soccer, except for goalies.

(energetic music) (Mikey chuckling) - Which I play, yeah.

- That was my favorite, because that was the only thing I had looked at.

(Mikey and Wonda laughing) (energetic music) - [Mikey] Ring the doorbell.

- [Wonda] Hi!

- [Mikey] Come on in, bud.

Come on.

- [Dorian] No, no.

- [Mikey] Come on.

- [Wonda] Come on in.

(Wonda laughing) - Look at this one, this one's cool.

What you got?

(lighthearted music) This one's from... - That's the soccer.

- Soccer.

I was a navy brat, raised by a single mom, and I tell you, I got to play sports all over the world.

And this one's Bermuda, right?

- Right, that's Bermuda soccer.

- Naval Air Station Bermuda, NAS, Bermuda, buddy.

I'm the dad of a 5-year-old now that's about to start playing sports, and I know the way he's gonna navigate through sports is gonna be a lot different than what I did.

'Cause when I grew up, you know, we didn't necessarily lead organized sports.

We were just out playing.

We made up our own games, we made up our own teams in the neighborhood.

I really want him to grow up, you know, playing sports carefree and just having fun.

So I decided to take him back to the place that I grew up playing sports and have so many fond memories of doing so, to show him there was a different time and a different place.

(lighthearted music) And you know, just for it to be fun for him and show him how much fun I had just growing up, and making up games, and just being out there having fun.

- [Lamont] This is where we'd play cup ball too.

- Right, yeah.

- [Lamont] Yeah.

- That's right.

- [Lamont] You would play cup ball here.

(metal ringing) You would play cup ball, you know, you hit the cup with your hand.

- What?

- [Lamont] And you had like, you run to that fence- - Cup ball?

- Huh?

Cup ball, yeah.

- Cup ball, that's right.

Yes, you heard it, right, cup ball.

(energetic music) So now, we're gonna show you how to play cup ball!

What you're gonna need are a couple of Dixie cups, and you want to smash it up.

(cup crunching) Keep smashing it.

(energetic rock music) You want to take your second cup, put that cup in here.

Awesome.

Take that cup, (cup crunching) smash it up again.

So now, it's basically a combination of baseball and dodge ball.

Ready?

(Dorian smacking ball) Oh!

- Cup ball, you run to the first bases over there, and then, when you come through, you had to touch home.

That was home plate.

- That's right.

Who put that basketball goal up at grandma's house of the ball field?

- That basketball goal was put out way before we came to Purdy.

- [Mikey] Yeah, this is totally different.

You can't even see the field no more.

- [Lamont] Right.

- That basketball goal would probably be about right here somewhere.

- Yeah, it should have been.

I don't know what- - But yeah, that would be home plate over there.

- [Lamont] Mhm.

- The basketball post was first base.

- [Lamont] Yep.

- Oh, the little mound right over there, that was second.

- [Lamont] Mhm.

- Third would be like in this no man's land over here, but yeah, we used to, (lighthearted music) like, you could still see the house back this way.

- Yeah, oh, none of this.

Like, everything was wide open.

Just, you know, it was like- - Hey, bud.

- this is just- - [Dorian] Huh?

- What do you think?

We used to play baseball here when we were kids.

- [Lamont] Stickball.

You have to get your daddy to teach you how to play stickball, man, I'm serious.

- Yeah, that's happening.

- That's where a lot of the kids that played high school basketball, that's where they learned how to play basketball.

- Right.

- You know, they- - Dirt.

- They played against the big guys.

- Yep.

- And the guys that, you know, when you go in for a layup, you go in to get killed, you know?

(Mikey chuckling) - Michael started out as a, you know, five, six years old playing sports, sifting through the sand in the outfield, and you know, just messing around, really, you know, being cute little kids.

(lighthearted music) But once my brother, Amer, started coaching him one-on-one, he started gunning.

Well, he went from just kind of playing around in the outfield, to hitting the ball over the fence.

- Hey, bud.

This is Amer J. Damron, same last name as you, right?

Damron.

You know, he taught me how to play baseball.

He taught me a lot of stuff.

Amer was everything to me.

(sentimental music) Like, I followed that guy around everywhere.

He was like a big brother, you know?

Of course, my uncle, he was the most positive male role model I had in my life, and he's the one that spent so much time with me, showing me how to play ball, and just showing me how to be, you know, a good person.

I was away in the Navy when we lost him.

This was the first time I, you know, made it back to see him.

(sentimental music) And you know, it was really important for Dorian to know him and what he meant to me.

All right, let's go.

Let's, yeah.

Amer was also part of a bigger collective of that community.

You know, they all looked out for us.

They always made sure we got to the ball field, you know, whatever sporting event, you know, there wasn't travel ball.

None of that stuff was going on back then.

You know, we didn't have like public transportation out there, (sentimental music) or you know, it wasn't walking distance.

We had Sam Robinson.

- [Lamont] The thing about Uncle Sam was, you know, a lot of us didn't have the transportation that we needed- - [Mikey] Right.

- [Lamont] to get to and from ball games, and Uncle Sam would run, he would make three or four trips back and forth to Purdy- - [Mikey] That's right.

- [Lamont] just to make sure all the kids got to the ball field, you know what I mean?

- In the back of trucks- - Yes.

- and everything getting there.

- Right, right.

- Yeah, we ran around and had a lot of fun.

And man, we really did have a lot of fun, but it didn't come without his cost.

We did get hurt.

So right about here- - [Dorian] Mhm.

- Mikey ran into another guy, and my leg right here, it broke.

Yeah, it was like, this is how it was shaped, like this, like my elbow.

And I was laying right here on the grass, and it was wet, (lighthearted music) and it was really loud.

My aunt said that she could hear my bone break from the car.

They just heard my bone break.

- And my mother called to tell me what happened, that he had broken his leg playing baseball.

And I'm still very emotional about it, because, you know, as a mother, your job is to be there to take care of your child - And the grass, yeah, I was laying out there in that grass.

Somebody had one of those T-Top Trans Ams, or something, and they took the window off the top and slid it up under my leg to stabilize it.

- I was extremely upset about it, but I knew that he was there with my mother.

- Get on the plate!

- And I knew she would take care of him.

(lighthearted music) I don't think that he ever played organized baseball after that.

I think from that point on, he switched to band, you know, until his senior year in high school, where he started playing soccer again.

- It really meant a lot for me to be able to take him back and just give him a small glimpse into my sports world growing up.

(enchanted music) But now, it's his turn.

And I'm more excited about his future in sports.

(enchanted music) (gravel crunching)