We've come a long way from a bunch of kids in the back yard with a stick, a tennis ball and some sweatshirts for bases but it's still hard to resist the temptation of a pick-up baseball game. As a campus programmer, or even just a student who wants to get involved, you can bring the whole campus community together with a faculty-student softball game.

In the spring, some of the best events are those that take advantage of the great weather and this should be no exception. Any open field or baseball diamond makes a great location for this event. If your campus doesn't have a baseball diamond, or it is unavailable for public use, find an large grassy area and use sidewalk chalk to mark the baselines. All you need are a few balls (the likelihood one of getting lost is usually pretty high) and bats, and enough people per team for an outfield. Participants are welcome to bring their own mitts or play without them.

To make it more of an event, try to bring some food to the game (peanuts and crackerjacks?) and be sure to have plenty of water and sunscreen on hand. If possible, offer some sort of prize for the winning team. One of the best ways to reward the winners is to allow each team to pick a charity ahead of time and offer a monitary donation to the charity of the winning team.

This event is really fun if you can bring in a large number of faculty players to compete against the students but if you don't think you'll be able to field a full faculty team, you can mix things up and have departments or dorms compete. Who said the biologists couldn't play baseball?

It's time to get out there and enjoy the weather with America's pastime and with an event this easy, there's no reason this one won't be a home run.