Category Archives: Locales

Kenny, I’m glad that you…

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Kenny, I’m glad that you remember the Mott Street team. Actually, the Mott Street team was a collection of all the best players from the various blocks of Little Italy–Mulberry St., Elizabeth St., Mott St., Grand St., Prince St,. etc. Many of the guys who played against your team and the other fine teams of that 1950-1960 era are gone. Do you remember Vinny Head? Tiger? Big Gary? Jimmy Alber? They’d hit the ball as though it were fired from a cannon; they’re all gone. My generation of players–Mike Fink, Smitty, Anthony Arms, Billie Barns, Lil Maxie, Mimi, Crazy Dom, and the Beaver brothers (and a few others I can’t think of right now) were probably the last of the great stickball players from Little Italy (Mott Street). I, myself, was more of a schoolyard type player because crowds made me nervous, and I could never play well with hundreds of people lining both sides of the street during those “big” games. Although, once I did go up to the South Bronx with a Mott Street team to play a doubleheader against an outstanding Puerto Rican squad. On that particular day I fared well–hitting six line drives into the outfield: three of my liners fell in for hits (two singles and a double)and the other three were caught. My seventh at-bat I dribbled out to the third baseman.We got trounced the first game 8-3, but we were leading the second game 3-0 when an argument broke out in the eighth inning, and the game was never finished. That was my last and finest moment “rounding those bases.” Perhaps, it was the summer of ’71 or ’72.

Recently, I typed “Stickball”…

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Recently, I typed “Stickball” in Mozilla Firefox and was amaized at what came back.I thought stickball was a dead sport remembered only by people who had played it in New York City.I played against and with most of the players from the south Bronx during the 1950’s and early 60’s. I played for the Tigers in PS 51 from 1953 to 58 when they broke up. By 1960, most of the south Bronx teams were gone, but from them came a hard core of stickball players who who still wanted to play. We had the only players in the south Bronx that could field a team capable of competing with the Pleasant Avenue and Mott street teams. We had some terrific games against them and a lot of money was bet. Our team had Push-Push, Ralphie Torado, Chibie, Wally, Junior, Poppy, Bouncer, Me-Me, Orlando and Kenny (Me). Are any of you old-timers still out there? If so, send me an e-mail. Kenny

God Bless you and yours…

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God Bless you and yours MrGodswrench,i use to play slugs in the Bronx and stickball and skellzies i grew up on West Farms Road on the corner of Homes St. and Longfellow Ave.the info. you give about slugs is right thats it no more,no less.I tried to teach some kids and my son here on the island,by the way i live in Ponce,Puerto Rico.But they rather play nintendo,xbox,etc.Iam a born again christian also,Keep The Faith Bro.

Back in the late 50’s on…

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Back in the late 50’s on the Chicago South side at Fernwood School playground we used to play “Buck Buck – how many fingers up”. I never knew that it was also called Johnny on the Pony. Our best player at that time was Dick Butkus (Chicago Bears). When he would jump onto the other teams back’s, almost always would that other team cave in, giving us the win.

Hi, I am not sure if this…

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Hi, I am not sure if this game I played in the in the mid 70’s was made up in my neighborhood or not, but it was a form of stickball, we called it SCOONY. We played in a bocce ball court, a pitcher, catcher , second baseman all were inside the bocce court. A centerfielder stood outside the bocce court wall. and the first and third basemen stood just outside the court lined up with their base. The pitcher pitched the ball on one bounce, spining the ball if he wanted. We played with rules of baseball, bunting, stealing, tagging up but when you tried to steal, you could not take a lead, and could only steal AFTER the catcher caught the ball. Another rule was that the batter MUST bat his opposite hand, (right must bat left)and for a bunt to be legal, it had to pass a FOUL line drawn into the sand before the game started. This game was very entertaining and we played it for hours. We used a pinky or a spaldeen, and sometimes a tennis ball ( if we couldnt buy a spaldeen). For a bat we used either a broom handle or a store bought stick ball bat.If anyone else played this game, please email me at muns0n015 [at] aol [dot] com and tell me about. I grew up in Long Island City ( QUEENS )

This is a South Bronx tale:…

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This is a South Bronx tale: the setting is mid to late ’60s, Kelly Street 10 hundreds block = longer than most with wall to wall five story tenement buildings. We played stickball starting from the second fire-hydrant sewer lid (homeplate) towards the end of the block. Anything over the “wire” not caught was an automatic homerun. Only two guys ever hit the ball onto the roof of 1069 thanks to a favorable wind: Manny and Junior. We seldom played pitch ball but rather bounced the ball before hitting it or hit it in the air. Balls stuck on fire-escapes or on the roof before the “wire” were outs, down the basements were doubles. sidewalks were all you can run. The wire was a cable hanging across the street behind the second sewer lid which was a few feet behind second base. Only players from our street were allowed to toss their sneakers onto the wire. Those trophies were never taken down. When there weren’t enough guys to play a game, two guys with bats would hit the ball back and forth one from homeplate and the other from the third sewer lid towards homeplate. Spaldeens were the prefered ball, used also for slugs off the wall of Mr. Friar’s building 1045 Kelly Street; or hitting off the stoop of 1048 Kelly Street. Louie, Jorge, Mickey, Augie, Joel, Victor, Junior, Moses, George Pinocchio were the regulars. Stickball on Kelly Street died in 1978 when the whole block was nuked for redevelopment. We also played a mean game of skelzies and had the best aerial kite battles between glass-cord diamonds and razorblade sneekies. Those were the days!