Always thought Skelly was a Whitestone, Queens game. Throughout the ’60’s I played just about every morning with my friends at PS 209, Clearview’s neighborhood elementary school. Great fun! We all bickered over whether candle wax or melted crayons was better fill for our bottle caps (soda bottles).
Wow What a site I grew up in Strawberry Mansion in the late 40’s-early 50’s We played all these ball games, plus many card games w/ baseball cards that now would be worth a lot of money.We flipped, slid them down the slope between the houses, tosed them against the wall-who needed TV Thanks for the memories
I grew up playing this in Washington Heights in the 70’s (160th between Ft. Washington and Riverside Dr.). We used to use specificly Heineken bottles for glassies (we could never get Lowenbrau necks to break off without shattering). At one point we started using two poker chips glued together (the different color combinations helped us keep track). Anyone else use poker chips?
ON THIS DAY 04/19/07 AT MATILDA PARK,UNKNOWN SENSATION STEVE BIGTYME PLAYED BARRY MARBLE HILL. BIGTYME WAS BEATEN 21-0. BUT WHAT BARRY DIDN’T KNOW WAS THE BROOKLYN CON AND WAS GOADED INTO PLAYING BIGTYME WITH ONLY HIS LEFT HAND. BIGTYME COMMENCED TO WAXING BARRYS ANUS 24-22 AND SUCKERED BARRY INTO A SUBSTANTIAL MONETARY BET. NEXT ON MY LIST IS “ROOKIE”. YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE CHUMP!
I REMEMBER GOING TO SCHOOL WITH COLE POWELL IN THE SOUTH BRONX IN J.H.R. PS. 52 ON KELLY STREET. WE HUNG OUT TOGETHER AFTER SCHOOL. HE WORK IN A CHILDRENS FURNITURE STORE ON WESTCHSTER AVE IN THE SOUTH BRONX.I ALSO REMEMBER PLAYING STICKBALL WITH WILLIE MAYS ALSO JOE TORRE OF THE N.Y. YANKEES.PLAYED A GREAT DEAL OF STICKBALL ON THE STREETS OF THE SOUTH BRONX. MOST OF ALL STICKBALL GAMES WERE PLAYED FOR MONEY.I AM 75 YEARS OLD NOW AND HAVE GREAT STORIES OF THE SOUTHBRONX,IT WAS LIKE WESTSIDE STORY MOVIE.WELL SO LONG FOR NOW,IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO CONTACT ME,I WOULD VERY PLEASED T0 REMENESE WITH THEM OF THE SPECIAL YEARS OF THE 40S, 50S,& 60S.I NOW LIVE NEAR SAVANNAH GEORGIA. RESPECTFULLY, JERRY GRINGER
I am almost 48 years old and grew up in brooklyn. At Saint josephs school(I was in the last graduating class 1973)we called it cocolivio.St Joseph was on Dean street and vanderbilt avenue.When we moved to the linden houses(off of linden blvd.wortman ave to be exact)I think then it was called ringalivio. At St.Joseph we played cocolivio,skelly,off the wall,stoop ball,kings,hand ball,stick ball,punch ball,we had tops,yo yo’s,and flipped baseball cards.Who needed a play station?GOD I miss those days.
I grew up in Floral Park Queens during the 70’s and played a ton of stoop ball with my pals from P.S. 115. We played with baseball rules, with singles, doubles, triples and home runs determined by the distance an uncaught ball flew before hitting the ground. Bunting wasn’t allowed so the ball had to at least make it past the guy throwing it at the stoop. We had a bit of a lawn in front of our house, and that was all singles territory. Anywhere in the area of the sidewalk was a double. Into the street was a triple and making it across to the other side of the street was a home run. If the ball was caught, or went foul (rebounded off to the sides or up into the door above the stoop) that was an out. Three outs and you changed who was up. You could play with only two people or as many as you liked, but we usually never allowed more than three people in the field at a time, or it was too easy to catch. Pointers were not worth any special amount of points, as in some variations, but considering it was the best way to get distance, you always tried for one. My special “Submarine Sidearm” throw, as I was fond of calling it when I was 8, was very good at getting pointers!
I lived in Park Slope and we were fortunate that on one side of the street we had the amory. So we would use the domed roof that the building had to benefit when playing stickball. The opposing team would not know where the ball would land. The majority of the times the balls would come back down. Other times they wouldn’t. We had a couple of daring friends the would climb the wall and make it up the roof to retreave the balls that were stuck up there. The pinky balls were tossed down so that the younger kids would play w/them and the spaldeens were kept or tossed down to one of us. We would also use the armory wall to play off the wall. To me, it just depend what you were playing. The spaldeen was good for playing stickball and the pinkee was good for playing king’s.
I have at last got my pimple ball. I can now die in peace.I bought some from a guy named Marc Polish.Iam 82 years old and played punchball, we used to call it fistball in south brooklyn red hook. they sure were great games. if interested Marc Polish has some Ph. 609 823 7661 or e=mail mpolish [at] verizon [dot] net frank oropello e-mail oropello [at] aol [dot] com