Major League Baseball took a step last month to reach out to young people with a big league game called the Little League Classic.

In this edition of Reading Baseball, Pete Peterson fondly remembers his days as a youth when going to Forbes Field in Pittsburgh was an all-day adventure.

Reading Baseball is a series of essays and commentaries by Richard "Pete" Peterson, the co-author, along with his son, Stephen, of  The Slide: Leyland, Bonds and the Star-Crossed Pittsburgh Pirates and the editor of  The St. Louis Baseball Reader.