Category Archives: Locales

I am originally from the…

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I am originally from the Morris Park section of Da Bronx. We played in a playground called Loretto Park. The park was between Morris Park Ave and Van Ness, and Haight & Tomlinson Avenues, The “parkie” (attendant) was a woman we called Polly. If you were from the Bronx it was a sliding pond, a see-saw, and a spaldeen. Nothing else would do. The City of New York even painted a skully court in the park for the young kids to play on…us older kids played it in the street. I can remember being the first kid in the park after lunch. The sliding pond was about 200 degrees in the sun, and all you wore were shorts, you’s sit on that hot stainless steel board and burn you freakin butt….but it was fun, and no one cared less. There were no rubber mats at the end, or sand pits, you just landed on blacktop and took the abuse like a man. It was fun in those days.

As a Brooklyn and Queens…

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As a Brooklyn and Queens kid of the 50’s, I have to cast a vote for the one and only ball that any repected kid would use in my neighborhoods. You bought a Spaldeen (At Uncle Milty’s Candy Store). Period. That other ball would be like using some artsy fartsy chocolate syrup for an egg cream instead of U-Bet. And nobody bought a stickball bat. I couldn’t believe when they started selling them at the local stores!

The ONLY acceptable, official…

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The ONLY acceptable, official ball to use in my neighborhood in da Bronx to play stickball, punchball, stoopball etc. was the GREAT Spaldeen. We use to pick up two ball at once, hold them at about eye level then let them drop to see which one bounced higher. We’d do this until the candy store owner screamed “Hey you kids..stop makin’ my balls dirty”. Then we’d have to make a quick choice and buy it.

I grew up in the Bronx,…

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I grew up in the Bronx, and learned to play all sorts of games with a Spaldeen.(I am a 49 year old woman who lived on Hoe Avenue, between Aldus Street and 163rd (Bruckner Blvd. from 1958-1963). Howevever, when it came to box baseball, we always tried to use a cheaper, therefore softer ball. This enabled us to use our knuckles to make an indentation on the ball, and hopefully cause it to curve, or dive away from the “batter”.I also played the three box version, where you pitched it to the box in front of the batter, they had to hit it back to the box in front of you, and if you didn’t catch it on a fly it was a single, double, triple or home run, depending on how many times it bounced. One ball and one friend, or just one ball, by yourself,and hours could be passed so easily! By the way, what we called “roofing” a ball was standing on the sidewalk in front of the building and seeing who could throw it up onto the roof! Five stories was as high as I could throw it onto the roof, but then, there were only five story walkup buildings on my block. We always had a kid stationed on the roof to throw the one and only ball we had among us back to us on the sidewalk.

I remember playing a game…

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I remember playing a game called “Suicide” back at P.S. 99 in the Midwood part of Brooklyn. Whoever had the ball would throw it at the wall, and if someone caught it before it hit the ground the person who threw it would get an “automatic out.” If someone touched the ball and dropped it, that person would have to run towards the wall before they got pegged by someone. Getting pegged was another way to get out. Each out would spell “A-S-S.” Spell it and you had to leave the game. The last person left had the honor of pegging everyone else. There was nothing like being on the good side of that wall.

I’m 34 YO and grew up in…

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I’m 34 YO and grew up in a suburb of West Philly playing three kinds of stick-ball. One-bounce stick-ball had two or three outs an inning and you got either one strike or two fouls. Fastball involved pitching into a box painted on a wall and has three strikes and four ball walks. Half-ball involved cutting a tennis ball or pimple ball in half and playing by fast ball rules, with no walks. All hits were automatics with telephone poles or manholes determining the bases.

Hello, my name is Steve Mercado

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hello, my name is Steve Mercado. Chairman of the Board of The New York Emperors Stickball League. I, along with 2 other gentleman, devised and wrote rules & regulations for our league in the Bronx over 8 years ago and to this day those rules & regulations are the bible of stickball played in the street with 8 men on the field. We are in the process of constructing our web site at bronxpages.com and plan on a huge year 2000. Thx! We have our annual fundraising dance March 18 in Coop City.

Hi, Jerry. I grew up not…

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Hi, Jerry. I grew up not far from Jackson Heights. We played single, double, triple, which sounds a lot like your Stonewall Jackson (probably named after your neighborhood, no?). Anyway, did you really have a batter, or was the “batter” actually the person who hit the ball against the wall?