So much was left out of this article. Video games, for one thing.
At our rec league, if a game finished early and the field was free they let the kids play on it, there were all kinds of creative pickup games invented, depending on how many players there were. Not to mention the endless pickle game in the bullpen. We used to go over to the ballpark when none of my boys had a game, just so they could hang out and play in those pickle games. I hope it still happens; I think they have fewer teams now, but they do have some dads devoted to keeping it going. That kind of thing never happened with travel ball.
My boys and their friends also played in the back yard, with wiffle ball and bats. They did it so much, they wore a hole in the grass where they stood for home plate. Then it became a hole in the ground, so they used it for chipping golf balls. One of my sons found an arrowhead in it.
In my recollection, even when I was a kid, no-one ever played baseball at school on the playground. Football (touch), basketball, and soxxxer, because those only required a ball. Baseball would have meant that the kids had to bring gloves and bats to school.