About

Sandlots & Civics is written for children and adults together, with language clear enough for a young reader and ideas substantial enough for a lifetime of conversation.

It is not a course about baseball or a school program in disguise. It is an invitation to notice, wonder, examine evidence, talk with someone, and leave with an understanding or question that belongs to the learner.

Sandlots & Civics intends to grow into a multilingual experience. Language access is part of the project’s commitment to equity: AI may help create a first translation, but people who know the language and its cultural context should review each version for accuracy, meaning, and voice before it is published.

When my family moved from a Chicago apartment into our first house, an old wooden toy box was waiting on the screened-in back porch. The previous owners had left behind a few forgotten toys, some books, and—near the bottom—a stack of musty baseball cards.

I was four or five, already loved baseball, and became fascinated. The cards gave me a reason to read names and stories, study statistics, understand averages, make predictions, and track the standings. Before long, I was keeping score and updating a bulletin board every day. My first baseball book, bought through Scholastic, was The Baseball Life of Willie Mays.

I went on to spend my life as an educator. In the classroom, I became known for my work in mathematics and developed a deep love for civics while teaching sixth graders. After my classroom teaching years, I became a literacy specialist.

For fifteen years, I have wanted to create something that could offer others what those cards gave me: a familiar doorway into reading, numbers, history, questions, and a much larger world. Work, caregiving, and my own cancer journey delayed it—but the idea never left.

Sandlots & Civics is that idea, finally carried forward.

“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don’t do that, you are wasting your time on this earth.”

—Roberto Clemente

This is the first working edition: a small collection of historical journeys designed to test, learn, and refine the experience before the regular season begins.

View the journey collection. Where We Make a Home is open now, while the exhibit wall offers a visual preview of other journeys taking shape.

Help shape Spring Training by offering a thought or story privately.

Authentic primary sources carry historical claims, while concise context helps each source do meaningful work. Source-aware analysis adapts the Library of Congress Observe → Reflect → Question → Further Investigation approach.

Sources and holding institutions are credited precisely without implying partnership, sponsorship, approval, or endorsement. Meet the foundational source institutions.