On our Queens street in the ’60s and ’70s we played both the baseball version of stoopball, which I think we called Single-Double-Triple, as well as what Joe H. described, which we called 5-10-20.

I’m surprised no one mentioned the problem of the spaldeen going forward over the roof rather than bouncing back. In Single-Double-Triple we’d often aim for the edge of the step in order to get the powerful return, but this also meant we’d sometime miss the edge slightly high, resulting in a ball that would go up but also continue forward and either bounce off the house or go up on the roof.

With luck the spaldeen would continue to bounce on the roof, and go completely over, so we could retrieve it from the backyard. The balls that didn’t make it to the backyard were bad news. Not only did they end the game, but also it meant they’d gotten stuck in the roof’s gutter, from which they’d eventually go into the downspout and then clog our house’s drainage plumbing. For some reason this would upset my otherwise patient Dad. 😉