What is this “league” stuff? Where were the leagues in 1947? Every game was a one-time event that lasted until someone had to leave or it got dark. Moms were home fixin’ dinner and Dads were working.

In Queens, the games in the street were played with as few as two people per side: one pitched and one played the outfield. The catcher may have been a fifth person who caught for both teams or until someone had to go. The ball used was a Spaulding but it was pronounced “spaldeen.” It was also called a Pink Pearl and cost 15 cents. The bats were old broomsticks sawed off — nothing fancier, no tape (what was tape?) and certainly not store bought. Two kinds of pitching were allowed: “no flukin'” meant you had to throw the pitch in on a bounce without spinning the ball. “Flukin'” meant you could pitch it in on a bounce and put spin on the ball. The usual car fenders and sewer plates were bases.

The other game where the ball was thrown in a line into a box on the wall was called “steam.” This apparently was a Queens only expression. No running bases. If you grounded the ball past the pitcher, you got a single; past the pitcher into the fence (in the schoolyard) on a fly was a double; over the fence was a triple; and over the fence and across the street into someone’s front yard was a home run.

There were lots of local variations depending upon geography (walls, fences, front lawns, fenders) but these were the games before leagues, before television, before Moms and Dads ran things, back in the days of really loud street arguments by ten year old males (only) over whether a ball was fair or foul. No political correctness. And all the games ended when these males got to be about 13 or 14 years old and went to high school.

This is ultimate truth I’m talking about… not what your father told you about how he played and you adopted the stories as if they were your own.

Dassit.