Election Day lines were historically long at the Barrett Playground at Eighth Street and Duncannon Avenue in the city's Logan section. Working the polls inside Barrett's recreation center, Kenneth Shropshire walked out to gaze at the line of voters.

What he saw stunned him, conceded Shropshire, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. The sight had nothing to do with the election.

"There were a bunch of kids playing baseball - for lack of a better phrase, disorganized baseball," Shropshire said. "No uniforms. No adults around. Just a bunch of kids, more kids than you needed on each team."

It had been years since Shropshire had seen this kind of field of dreams - kids, specifically African American kids, playing pickup baseball. Of course, Election Day was just six days after the Phillies had won the World Series, four days after the city celebrated with a parade.

Shropshire immediately called his friend Bill White, the former National League president and a great big-league first baseman of his day. White questioned whether adults had put the game together. Shropshire saw no evidence of it.

"We've talked about it so much. It's been such an issue," Shropshire said. "We talked about the election and what it meant. Maybe there's a new day for everything. The Phillies win, Obama wins, and maybe black kids will start playing baseball."

Shropshire had been at Citizens Bank Park for the World Series games.

"Every night, I looked around and thought, 'Boy, there aren't that many people of color here,' " Shropshire said.

Shropshire said the celebratory parade, which required no ticket, "felt more like regular Philly. It was definitely more of an integrated setup."

It may be reasonable to think that the World Series championship would bring in more fans, but also more African American fans, especially with a couple of African American stars so prominent in the Phillies' lineup.

Has that happened?

Kelly DuPree is a baseball evangelist. If he's not watching a Phillies game, he's probably got the College World Series or some major-league game on his television. If there's no baseball, he said, he'll watch softball.

"I watch everything," said DuPree, who lives in West Philadelphia.

Three decades back, DuPree captained Overbrook High's team - he was an all-Public League power-hitting third baseman - and he later played in the Fairmount Park A League and in an over-30 league that played at the University of Pennsylvania fields.

Now 49, DuPree runs an RBI League youth program out of the Shepard Recreation Center at 57th and Haverford in the city's Overbrook section. RBI, begun by Major League Baseball in 1989, stands for Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities.

DuPree teaches the game to young neighborhood kids, starting with T-ball. The game remains his passion.

If you're expecting DuPree to say baseball has come back in the city - "I don't see it," he said.

DuPree also runs a camp at Shepard, the West Philadelphia Youth Initiative Day Camp. The day after the Major League All-Star Game, he asked a dozen campers if any had watched that game, which featured five Phillies.

One camper raised his hand.