On Tuesday afternoon, with God in his heaven and a sweet breeze holding the temperature in the low 80s, I’m gazing across the green and pleasant expanse of Cockeysville Middle School’s playing fields. But the only ones doing any playing are a middle-aged lady and her Scottish terrier.

The lady tosses a ball, and the pooch fetches it. This seems to delight the pair of them. But, on this lush acreage of baseball fields and soccer and lacrosse fields and running track, where in the world is everybody else?