Like “stairball” and “pinners,” our baseball-style version of stoopball was called “off-the-point.” We played it on the granite step in front of the girls room of the parkhouse on Van Cortlandt Park South in the Bronx. There were always negotiations and clarifications on the rules, such as which fence posts were the foul posts, before the game began. Hitting the sweet spot–the corner of the granite step–with a new Spalding resulted in that “ping” sound that sent a rush through us and usually meant a hit.