Wow, just found this site while browsing. I played stickball as my main passion in Bayonne NJ in the 60s, and I thought we invented the game there. I have the same memories as some of the other people, the Spalding could really take off form the bat, but it didnt curve as well as some of the cheaper balls. Loved the Spaldings until they cracked in half! I guess the best thing about the game was that you could just be your best; you would find someone who was good and then you would just play and play. My buddy at that time was a guy named Larry Adamson. I had heard of switch hitters, but I never heard of a switch pitcher- not until Larry. I was an imitator, and I was surprised at how easy it was- back then of course- to throw a reasonably good pitch with my left hand; We had some mighty battles. My best memory sounds made up, but it is true and I will tell it anyway. I might as well tell it here, my kids aren’t interested in hearing it! I was pitching, two out, bottom of the ninth, and I was ahead by a run or so; Larry was up with some men on base, and on a full count he cracked the pitch back to me, and the bat slipped out of his hands. This is a very vivid memory for me, even about 40 years later. The ball and the bat (a broomstick) were both coming at me. I stuck my hands out, put my head down, and closed my eyes. Amazingly enough, I caught the ball and ended the game. Not so amazingly for being so stupid, the bat hit me right in the head. Fortunately, it whacked me while it was spinning, and the point of the bat did not go through my skull. I had a good lump, and was dehydrated as usual after a long July or August game in the schoolyard on 47th street, and then we both went out and got some ices and that was that. I think that was the last game I ever played, although I did not know it at the time.
This is the kind of satisfction that you just dont get at work! I have often thought about how my adult life is really an attempt to get back to the pleasures I had as a supposedly “underprivileged” youth.