We carved a baseball diamond out of the middle of a farmer's field adjacent to the neighborhood, using large rocks for bases and posts to mark the outfield foul line (when it was time for spring planting, the farmer plowed around our diamond, leaving our infield intact).

Today I live in a neighborhood with an all-weather, full-size basketball court/tennis court that would have been considered heaven to kids of another generation who were happy with empty fields. They're almost never used.

Kids played organized sports years ago, too — when they were in season. They didn't have pitching coaches and baseball academies and pitching machines. They didn't have off-season conditioning programs and Nike camps and 40 times and fall baseball. They didn't have year-round club soccer, volleyball and basketball.

They didn't specialize in a sport either or feel the need for it. Specialization is the worst thing to happen to youth sports since stage parents. It's not even healthy. Playing the same sport year-round means using the same muscles and joints in the same way. New York Times Magazine ran a lengthy cover story last year on the pitfalls of year-round youth sports for girls. The incidence of injuries among girls who play the same sport all year — especially club soccer — is staggering.

I know what I sound like — a middle-age guy lamenting the loss of the good old days. But the empty parks and yards do not look like progress; they look like we've lost something. Maybe it's a childhood.

Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesdays. Please send e-mail to drob@desnews.com