Sounds like the 50s and 60s in a spare neighborhood lot. Can't remember the last time I saw a bunch of kids playing pickup baseball or football.
And into the 70s on the neighborhood little league field. Very little evidence of this now.
However, I spent the weekend at a 12U baseball tournament in Warsaw, OH. The games were played on 3 fields that were part of a little community park, including a swimming pool, basketball/tennis courts, pavilion with band stage, shelter houses, etc.. Very old-school Americana. I had a nice conversation not unlike the topic on this thread with the tournament organizer and he told me that a day/night doesn't go by during the summer when the fields aren't being used by local kids for pickup games. Maybe because it's Amish country, maybe not. But what some of us did 40-60 years ago isn't entirely a thing of the past.
On a side note, the Newark team, which is made up of Rec League players, beat a travel team from East Holmes 2 times Sunday to take home the tournament championship.