What up people this is Mick of the Brooklyn Knights. First I’d like to holla @ all my knights in Bk and statin Island. We almost took it last year and we coming stronger for 2002. Respect to all the harlem teams especially the bad boys for co-hosting a solid world series in 2001. I hope you all got your bats ready for this season!!!! Knights are coming!!!!!
Handball…by sam g. this was also played like baseball xcept played in small streets or back street between row houses played by 4 or more …bases drawn.. infielder & an outfielder (or more), batter tossed ball up from homeplate and hit w/fist and ran bases..sometimes past a certain landmark automatic h.run…also played on wide streets w/full infield and pitcher who had to pitch it on 1 bounce…
My daughter was doing a school project comparing what I did in middle school to what she does. One of the questions was what did I do for fun. Skully was the first thing that came to mind. I’m from Brooklyn and now live in Maryland so my daughter looked at me like I was crazy. I tried to describe the game to her but I was alittle fuzzy so I looked it up online. A couple of things I noticed right away were the board and the scully cap. Every block in my neighborhood had a perminant board about 6′ x 6′ or so dug into the tar of the street, no chalk to get washed away, I want to say we used a screwdriver to accomplish this. Our caps were also filled with tar from the street that we dug out with the screwdriver. This was best done on hot days so the tar was softer. I see alot of refernces to sidewalk game, again everyone I knew played it in the street. I did get annoying yelling “car” or if a car’s tire made your piece move, but since the street was our playground we lived with it.
I just read today’s NY Daily News and the story about the push to re-name Stickball Blvd after my cousin, Steve. I just wanted to thank all of you from the league who are involved in this drive, as well as Joviana, and the Bronx Borough President. Whether the Parks & Recreation Dept sees fit to pass this bill or not, you should all be proud of your efforts to honor Steve. Although I’m 7 years older than he is, he is still my hero, and I thank you all. God Bless You.
I used to play this card game with friends from Rochdale Village in Jamaica, Queens back in the ’60s. This game could get a little bloody at times if you drew a red card from the deck. Marc
Manhattan upper east side on 80th street we played Johnny on the Pony in the street from one side of the street to the other (sidewalk to sidewalk) and closed off the street so no cars could come down and stop our fun….Only the cops made us stop…LOL…What happen to the good old days being a kid in the streets…
Hi Jim, The game I’ve documented is based on 1970s vintage Bronx skully. It has definitely evolved through the years, and the memory of the way you played may be perfectly accurate (though not going backwards is like a day w/o sunshine IMHO–and I couldn’t imagine not hitting another player’s cap to get into the next box). For example, putting numbers in the trapezoids around the 13 box is definitely a Bronx/Harlem thing of the mid/late 60s, and never made it to Queens. And, believe it or not, if you played with 13 boxes, you definitely were higher up on the skully evolutionary cycle–we’ve seen pictures and talked to folk who played with only 9 boxes “back in the day.” There’s really no right answer about the rules–I know for a fact that we had rules on my block that kids 2 blocks away didn’t. Now that I think of it, the “bonus boxes” around “13” were introduced to my block by a kid who moved from another part of the Bronx! Please feel free to try the rules as we have here, or play the way you remember, or take a hybrid of both–just don’t change rules in the middle of the game! -Hugh McNally
If the SBHS web site wasn’t enough, this is the greatest. I grew up in Vanderveer Estates. Choy’s, Mano’s and Lenny’s Pizzerias [some of the first around], Mark’s Toy Corner, Carl and Mike’s candy store, Louie’s candy store near the library on Nostrand. Anyone hear from Teddy Friedman or Jackie Fagan? How about when JFK campaigned on the corner of Nostrand and Foster. I stuck my head in the car to shake Herbert Lehman’s hand and couldn’t believe it — an air conditioned car. Any grads of PS 269: Mr. Farb, Mr. Spiro, Mr. Shapiro, Mrs. Genge, Mrs. Ephraim, whom, I’m ashamed to say, Stewart Meyer and I gave an ulcer to. PS 89: Mr. Ezekiel, Mrs. Branhower. I still speak with Abe Schwarz and his sister Helen. We all lived at 1414 New York Avenue. Let me know.