Michael McCarthy and John McDermott, two Boston schoolteachers who grew up in the city and now live in the suburbs, watch like proud parents as this week's crew of 125 day campers turn the once-unused field on the Jamaicaway into a summer place where the joy of achievement and children's laughter fill the air. The camp is a weaver of dreams. Like Stacie Dolan's of Brighton, who plays outfield, shortstop and second base. She turned 12 yesterday and has been playing baseball since she was 5 on the team her father coaches.

"Someday, women will be playing baseball with the men at Fenway Park," Stacie predicted. She would like to be one of them. "A lot of girls can do as well or better than men."

Jennifer McGrath, 7, of West Roxbury, who plays second and third base, was unequivocal. "Girls can play better than boys," she said.

Eight-year-old Michael McCarthy of Roslindale agreed. "I don't mind playing with girls," Michael said. "There's one on my Parkway Little League, and she's one of the best players," he added, in that West Roxbury circuit.

At Daisy Field, the game is baseball, not softball in deference to the girls. "Everyone here is a player," said McDermott, a father of four. "Not boys. Not girls. The only way to teach anyone a sport is to teach him or her to be a player."

The summer baseball camp was McCarthy's idea. He grew up in Mattapan, is the father of four and administrator at the Rogers Middle School in Hyde Park. "I used to pass this place on my way to Fenway Park and thought what a waste it was that it wasn't being used," McCarthy said yesterday.

"City kids are important to me, and I thought this would be a great way to use the many empty fields in the city while giving the kids something to do."

McCarthy got permission from the Boston Parks and Recreation Department to use the field and from the Metropolitan District Commission to use the adjoining Kelly Ice Skating Rink, both without charge. The rink is used for batting practice, calisthenics for the Rocketeers and indoor games when it rains.

He got corporate support from a number of sources, chief among them the Red Sox, Ronald McDonald's Children's Charities and Reebok. Ocean Spray Cranberry provides the soft drinks. With more corporate support and people willing to coach for a small stipend, McCarthy said he could do the same for vacant fields and lots all over the city. Of the camp's 15 coaches, nine are schoolteachers, seven from Boston and two from Brockton.

The camp runs for five weeks, costs a week or for a family membership, and is for youngsters between 7 and 13. However, McDermott, a Rogers School teacher, said the camp has "a very liberal scholarship program." In the first year, most of the children were from Jamaica Plain. Now, they are from all over the city. About 450 children attended the camp this summer.

Both kids and parents love the camp. Parents who could never get their kids out of bed in the summer now have them getting up at 7 to get to camp by 9.

"He gets dressed in three minutes now," Jean Guarino of Roslindale said of her 9-year-old son, Anthony, a fifth grader who is spending his third week at the camp. "He was going to come here for just one week and that wasn't enough," Guarino said, laughing. "He loves the coaches and has learned a lot."

Theresa McIrney of West Roxbury has her 11-year-old daughter, Jennifer, and her 9-year-old son, Paul, at the camp. "It's Paul's third week and Jennifer's first. She came because her brother did, and now they both love it," McIrney said.

Ten-year-old Carlos Castillo of Dorchester and his 9-year-old sister, Karlenis, are attending the camp for their second year. Their parents, Carlos and Flor Castillo, said their children are learning as much about how to work with others as about physical education and baseball.

The Castillos and the other parents said they have put family vacation plans "on hold" so their children can attend the camp.

Sometimes, parents have a hard time prying the kids from the camp. "There was a boy who came reluctantly with his mother,"

McDermott said. "By the time camp was over that day, he was smiling. By the end of the week, he was begging his mother for another week."

Campers are divided into eight teams, and for all of them the day starts with calisthenics. Then, there is coaching in skills such as bunting, base running, pitching, outfield, infield, ground balls, catching fly balls. The coaches have expertise that more expensive camps would envy -- for example, David Fouracre, the Brockton High varsity coach, and Thomas Pileski, the Brockton High athletic director.

During the summer, Red Sox pitcher Tony Fossas, whose two children attend the camp, and teammate Ellis Burks have come to the camp to talk to the children. At the end of each day, "a player of the day" is named, and on Friday, a "player of the week" is named.

Each Friday, every child is awarded a marble and cast iron trophy, because the emphasis is on each child doing as well as he or she can.

"Our emphasis," said Mary Grady, a Rogers School teacher on the camp staff, "is on teaching the individual child to do his best, not that he has to win a game."

The children are sorry that the camp is closing for the season tomorrow. "I like it here," said Roberto Paulino, 11, of Jamaica Plain. "Last year, I wasn't so good and they taught me to hit and pitch and throw overhand. Now, I want to be a professional baseball player."