Life is good when you find yourself at a little league ballpark.  Not just any park, but one that allows me to be standing 25 feet from home plate on two separate fields.

The folks responsible for the Cherokee, Kan., ball fields are fantastic. This small community of fewer than 1000 souls manages quite well providing recreation for the children of their area.  A week earlier I was at an Astros game in Houston's Minute Maid Park.  As great as that was watching the game with my youngest son, the experience in Cherokee topped it. 

You see, at bat on the T-ball field was grandson Zak, while to my right on the Little League field, grandson Jake was batting.  It just doesn’t get any better.  

These ball fields are completely volunteer managed and funded.  No extra tax assessment, no paid employees, no need for limo parking.  The games always begin with the national anthem, all players are respectful and the fans sit with each other. At the end of the game the coaches and all the kids shake hands.  What a remarkable way to teach children.

The experience was like watching the Obama administration on one hand and the hardball rules of capitalism on the other.

Apparently the massive amount of money the government has been spending hasn’t trickled down to the people and companies in need.  So far we have blown billions, fired company officers, sold Hummer to the Chinese, canned Pontiac and gave Chrysler to the Italians. 

We have wasted billions with fat cat financial groups in New York while closing independent auto dealerships all over the country, putting thousands out of work.  I’m sure “date night” for the people who used to work at Rogers Dodge in Alvin, Texas, is food from a can or frozen package rather than fun-night in Paris, France.

It is a difficult hurdle to be working in any small business and realize if you work really, really hard and are successful and have your whole life invested in the venture that it can be taken away in seconds either by a directive, new tax or new policy.  Makes you wonder whether everyone might end up working for the government just to enjoy job security.  

You know the facts have been adjusted when record unemployment is being reported as good news just because the rate of the new jobless claims is smaller than an earlier period of time, even though more people are out of work.  During the depression, we put people to work doing community projects like building parks, bridges, schools and even ballparks.

These people received money from the Works Progress Administration, but they worked and built things that are still in service and being used today.  Contrast that with throwing money into the political wind and seeing most of it wasted or used by some crow to build a nest.  It’s too bad none of the WPA-type economics is taught any more.

The  T-ball teams have boys and girls playing with each other and getting along.  Each time a ball is batted into the field, a mass of kids pounce on it in a cloud of dust. 

My little guy was busy filling his pockets with dirt.  I thought that was funny, but his mom told him to stop putting dirt in his pocket, to which he responded it was sand not dirt.  After all the players have had a chance to bat in an inning, then everyone runs around the bases before they take the field.  No score is tallied and everyone gets treats after the game.  Little League is a different story.  The players have rules, one team wins and another loses, players make great plays and they also make errors.  Pitchers have good games and bad and all learn teamwork is very important.

I get to feeling the people in Washington want to treat all of us as if we were playing T-ball.  Everyone is the same and only the powers that be know the real score.  Since everyone gets to run around the bases even if they struck out, all should be well. 

But then, life isn’t T-ball.  Life has winners and losers.  The players who work hard do better than those who don’t.  Talent is also important and that’s why the boy who is twice the size as my grandson bats in clean-up and the one who can zip the ball pass the batter gets to pitch.

We all realize in our own life that some people are more equal than others, but the key to making things work is being a team.  "Teamwork" and "success" are only words if we continue to reward the slackers just to make them feel they won a T-ball game.

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Kansas Liberty columnist Bill Wyckoff is president of Labette Bank, a community bank with locations throughout southeast Kansas, and an occasional contributor to the Wall Street Journal and Fox Business News. He lives on a farm outside Altamont, Kan. A graduate of Kansas State University with an MBA from Southern Illinois University, he enjoys collecting antique John Deere tractors and driving his hemi orange Dodge Challenger. Email bwyckoff@labettebank.com

The Week in Review