Baseball is a game of rituals, and the ice-cream truck is perhaps the most beloved baseball ritual of all.

WSJ: MLB Wild Card: Bringing the Ice-Cream Truck Back Into Baseball �� Jason Gay

Maybe you had one of those Little League coaches who didn't let you go to the ice-cream truck if you lost a game.

WSJ: MLB Wild Card: Bringing the Ice-Cream Truck Back Into Baseball �� Jason Gay

The station van, an old ice-cream truck, is parked outside.

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But a lot of us played baseball as kids, and if you played baseball as a kid, chances are your favorite part of playing baseball was the ice-cream truck.

WSJ: MLB Wild Card: Bringing the Ice-Cream Truck Back Into Baseball �� Jason Gay

The station offers "stress breaks, " handing out treats from its ice-cream truck, maintains a "Green Team" beautification squad, participates in arts festivals and still engages with residents through the Andyman-a-Thon.

CNN: Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio?

The ice-cream truck solves the wild-card party problem.

WSJ: MLB Wild Card: Bringing the Ice-Cream Truck Back Into Baseball �� Jason Gay

They should summon the ice-cream truck.

WSJ: MLB Wild Card: Bringing the Ice-Cream Truck Back Into Baseball �� Jason Gay

One hugely affective cue is auditory: Thanks to resonator tubes pumping intake and exhaust sounds into the cabin, the BRZ snarls and burrs and howls like a garage-built retro rod, even when it's accelerating away from a light like an ice-cream truck (0-60 mph in about 6 seconds).

WSJ: 2013 Subaru BRZ Review: It's Thinker Than You Fast It Is | Rumble Seat by Dan Neil

It was a four-wheeled celebration that arrived at the field, usually in the middle innings, and it sat there for the rest of the game, playing its creepy-happy little ice-cream-truck song, taunting you.

WSJ: MLB Wild Card: Bringing the Ice-Cream Truck Back Into Baseball �� Jason Gay

"I had some teen-age girls who would hang around the (ice cream) truck and nothing ever happened, " he said.

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