Category Archives: Locales
What neighborhood in Brooklyn…
What neighborhood in Brooklyn were you from? We’ve been finding that Stickball in Manhattan was mainly slow pitch, in the Bronx fungo (hitting by yourself). IN Queens – fastpitch, wall ball – or what was jsut called stickball was played mainly as you describe. In fact, we’ve just talked to someone who has a L.I City Queens league based on this. Brooklyn seems to have had a combination.
We played stickball in the…
We played stickball in the schoolyard of P.s. 209, Brooklyn. We never played with more than three people on a team. Our rules were simple, chalk box on the wall for the strikezone, no arguments there just look at the chalk on the ball. Hit the top of the fence on a fly and you had a double. Hit the bottom of the fence on the fly and you got a triple. Anywhere over the fence and you touched them all. No toe left on my Pro-Keds after a month. It’s too bad I can’t find anyone to play stickball with in Southern California. I’ll always be a Brooklyn boy at heart. Talking about this makes me want to get up and walk down to Nathan’s and get a bag of those greasy fries, nothing like it in the world.
I grew up in Manhattan,…
I grew up in Manhattan, in what is now known as SoHo, in a loft. On the floor of our house we had a hopscotch board. We made it out of tape. My grandmother and I put it down on the floor one day so we could play the game together. Maybe she was embarassed to play this game in a playground with me. She was in her mid sixties. Now I look at my mother who is in her mid sixties and don’t think it’s too old to play at all. When my grandmother did it when I was a kid I understood why she hid it, because she seemed so incredibly old.
You mean with all the good…
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The Stickball Classic was scheduled for Staten Island today. Last night’s barrage of rain made the game date questionable. This morning players and game assistants looked out to pouring rain, particularly in the Brooklyn/Queens region. Although the rain had stopped by game time, many of the teams and assistants scheduled to be at the event were not there. Stickball Commissioner Curtis Sliwa decided to call the game. The make up time will be shortly announced. The players were obviously disappointed. As the weather cleared and the sun peaked out, it became clear that games could have been held, however, the call had already been made and announced. Players and fans will have to wait to determine who will represent Staten Island in the 1999 Stickball Classic. It should be noted that one of the 3 teams that showed up were the Brookfield Bomber, a team that has already secured its place in the finals by taking the Brooklyn crown in the first week of competition. Even though the day would not be “official” fun was not to be denied. Players decided to take advantage of the day and play anyway. A good crew of players was on-hand when we left midway in the first game. Please post the results of the games so we know what happened. Hope to see you guys at the next one.
This was a great time for…
This was a great time for both me & my family. Thanks to Micky Greene, Curtis & his GA crew, the Daily News, Dodger Sym-Phony members, Spalding, NY’s Finest, and the people on 133 Ave in Ozone Park, et al for making it a super quality time day for me & my sons. If you can get out to the SI event this weekend you and your family won’t be disapponted. Warmest personal regards to all! Kevin McGrath Sr. (Father of the Lost Boys and proud winner of a two sewer pin.)
Man, was I surprised and…
Man, was I surprised and excited to find this site!! First off to Hugh McNally…You’ve done an outstanding job of putting the rules together in an articulate manner. Very professional. (It reads like it was written by a technical writer.) Anyway, I played Skully (or Skelly?) growing up in the Bronx and Queens. The game was slightly different between the neighborhoods I grew up in. In lived in the Bronx until second or third grade. I remember playing first with the broken necks off Coca-Cola or Heinekein bottles which we removed by running the neck-end of the bottles over a manhole cover. Eventually we began using the glides off of the bottoms of chairs and desks. (The desks had large glides, while the chairs had smaller ones.) I remember melting down Crayola crayons into the gliders. (It was pretty cool trying to customize the colors in your cap for that unique look.) I remember just using the plucking technique. There were two: 1)Flicking the middle finger from contact with the thumb (for power shooting, i.e.- Blasting or for long-distance shots) and 2)Flicking the index finger from underneath the thumb, while using the other three fingers as a brace (much like when shooting pool). This technique worked best for finesse shots (i.e.- hitting your opponent soft enough to keep him around for bait on your next shot, or when shooting around the Skully so that you didn’t get stuck inside, or overshoot your intened box.) After moving to Queens (Springfield Gardens area), I remember using the caps off the Dellwood milk containers. We started weighting them down with candle wax. Wax was surpassed by Playdoh or clay later. But eventually the preferred top came to be the bottoms from Push-Up ice cream. We’d weight them down with multi-colors of clay and scrape them against the ground to help smooth them down underneath. They were awesome!!! We would even put a chrome tire valve cap (taken from a car or bicycle) in the center of the cap and use it as an aiming site! The other technique that I was introduced to in Queens was called, “Flying your cap”. This was usually used for covering very long distances (i.e.- shooting back into town to become (or after becoming?) a Killer.) It could also be used to shoot at any time. (It was preferred when shooting from corner to corner across the board.) This is how we did it: 1)Place the cap in between your thumb and the first digit of your middle finger 2)While keeping your forearm parallel to the ground and against your waist, pull your arm back 3)Push your arm forward briskly, while flicking the first digit of your middle finger forward (much like when some flicks away a cigarette butt) The top should now be propelled forward as it rotates (from the flicking of the finger) and should cover a long, or short distance (dependent on the force of the forwrd arm thrust and the flick of the finger). Using this technique you can hit your opponent from long distances. (Think of the little pistol with the rifle stock that Lee Van Cleef used in “For a Few Dollars More”). I also remember the start line being far enough from the “1” box that you’d be better suited trying to “fly your cap” than to pluck it. The shooting sequence of players was determined by the closest one to the “1” box. I also remember the fun of blasting your opponent so hard that he’d start rolling on his side all the way out of town (he wasn’t allowed to stop it on his own.) I live in California (Bay Area) and am 33 now, but still love to play. I’ve shown this game to my nieces and nephews and they all love it!! I’ve also shown it to a few of my buddies and they love it too! It’s like being a kid all over again. I just moved to a smaller town outside of San Jose, and intend on teaching the kids in the neighborhood and in my new congregation how to play this truly timeless game!!! Anyone out there, please feel free to e-mail me at: thunt [at] obsidianinc [dot] com or NYsquared [at] aol [dot] com P.S.- I also have fond memories of playing Stickball (played in the street or between two walls of a school builing), Ring-O-Leavio, Punchball (with the sponge ball or Pinky), Roundup, Freeze Tag, Dodge Ball, and the favaorite with the girls…Run, Catch, and Kiss.
For the record, I remember…
For the record, I remember we called them “Pensa Pinkies,” but these were the same squashy pink balls that everyone seems to call “Pensie Pinkies”. They were best for stoop ball. I wish I could remember how we played, but the point in our version I’m pretty sure was always how high and far the ball went, not where you bounced it from. We always aimed at the corner of the sidewalk and the street and tried to get the ball to rebound over the heads of our opponents to the opposite side of the street. We played on St. John’s Place in Brooklyn near the Botanical Gardens. This would have been about 1965. The game we called handball was just like baseball except that we hit the ball with our fist instead of a bat.
Wow, people who remember…
Wow, people who remember Skully! Just for the record, I remember playing the game in the early 60s, probably about 1965 in Brooklyn. We lived in a dead-end kind of street (St. John’s Place) near the Botanical Gardens, so cars weren’t too much of a problem. As I remember it, only bottle caps were allowed. We called it Skully. The start point was well away from the first box. For some reason I think we referred to using the finger-flick (middle or index finger against thumb) that propelled the cap as “binking.” All the caps I remember were made with crayons on the radiators, although I do remember Mom helping us by creating a double-boiler set-up on the stove to melt wax–she did it, of course, to avoid the waxy mess we’d make on the floors. The other (even messier) method was to fill the cap with crayon chips and then balance it on a hot desk lamp. We always drew the board with chalk. The board was about 5X7 feet. At the end you became a “killer.” We also had the three hits to get someone out and the rule about getting stuck in the center box, but I’m a bit hazy about the rules. This sure brings back memories, though. Does anyone remember “pensapinkies?” did everybody call those squashy pink stickball balls by that name? I think they actually were “Pennsylvania Pinkies.” Speaking of getting Mom angry, to make stickball bats we always cut off somebody’s broom and taped the cut end with black electrician’s tape. Somebody mentioned “Coco-Leavy-o.” Somehow I remember it as just “Cocoleo” but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. Help! Now I live in Tokyo, where nobody has any idea what I’m talking about when it comes to street games. Thanks for the memories