I grew up in Ridgewood on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. We played stickball on a short street which was on a hill with first and third painted in (2nd was the sewer). We would hit by ourselves (no pitching), with 2 strikes.

The thing was that if you hit it over the roof before second base you were out and if you hit it over the roof over 2nd base across the block, you won the games. These rules were to protect the ball from being lost.

Neighbors were not particularly happy about us playing in the street, we were loud, the ball might break a window, land on the porch, etc. so they’d call the police. If the cops would come and catch us they’d stick the broom handle in the holes of the manhole cover and snap the bat, so we’d have someone on watch who would call out “Chickee the cops” if he saw them coming. If warned we’d hide the bats by rolling them under the cars next to the curb.

To this day I still can’t throw out a broom handle.