Oh my gosh,
@Fyrefox and
@mike4lorie, I just had a couple of moments of sheer joy remembering all the hours I played hide & seek, flipped baseball cards, played pickup baseball or over-the-line, and rode bikes around the neighborhood with the boys.
One more thing. Adults taught us the basics of games, but for everyday play they encouraged us to customize the rules to suit the number of players, ages, skill levels, equipment available, etc. If the teams were lopsided, you swapped players to even them out. The idea was to play, not to cream the other side.
It didn't matter if you had poor skills when playing something, you were welcome to join the game. That is, unless you were a crybaby, bully, bad sport or a tattletale. Those kids were sent home packing. You'd get a few chances to redeem yourself, but if you hadn't figured out your social skills by about 10 years old, you were doomed.
I'm so very grateful that we didn't have "helicopter parents" in those days. Woe to the few kids who did - they hated it. I never, ever would have gone home and complained about some other kid being unfair.... my mother would have handed me a dust cloth and told me to make myself useful. So not only no sympathy, but a day of chores.


Didn't need to learn that lesson too many times.