He began playing baseball on the Chicago sandlots. Ossie Vitt was a product of the sandlots of San Francisco. First played on sandlots in particular, scoring and record-keeping gave baseball gravity. Landrith was a star in the sandlots of Detroit and at Michigan State University. Growing up in the sandlots of San Antonio, Batts batted and threw right-handed. He played baseball during military service, and on the sandlots of Cambria County. In his youth, he would play ball in the sandlots of La Crosse. He dropped out of school in the sixth grade and played baseball on Milwaukee sandlots.