Category Archives: Boxball
Hey Big Daddy, I…
Hey Big Daddy, I absolutely remember triangle baseball. I lived in the bed-stuy section of Brooklyn. We used to play on Pulaski St. Between Stuyvesant Ave and Willoughby. It was a one-way street where we played most of our neighborhood games and we played them all. Stickball, chinese handball, fast pitch stickball with automatics, off-the-point, stoopball, boxball, ringalievio, hide-and-seek, kick-the-can, johnny on the pony, skelleys, marbles. All these games were great but I haven’t heard anybody mention – Spinning Tops – a wooden top (shaped like a hot air ballon) with a metal point on the bottom and we would wrap a string around the it then throw the top on the asphalt making it spin. We would play games like crack-the-top. This game was played by two or more players and the object was to shoot your top at the top on the ground in an attempt to crack it.You would choose to see whose top would be layed on the ground. Then taking one turn at a time each player would spin his top attempting to hit the top on the ground. If you didn’t hit it in one shot you could pick up the top in your hand while it was spinning and throw against the top on the ground then you would get another chance.If in your turn, you couldn’t hit the object top then you would have to lay your top down to be the target top. –Making wooden carpet guns–. The easy way to make one was with a piece of 1×4 or anything similar about three feet in length. Then we would attach a thick rubber band to the front with a nail. Toward the back part of the gun on the top edge, we would then attach a clothes pin with one leg cut off using a few rubber bands to hold it in place.This would act as the trigger. We would then cut little squares from a section of linoleoum flooring to use as ammo. We would then pull back the front rubber band holding it in place under the clothes pin. We would insert a piece of ammo between the the two legs of the rubber band and to shoot the ammo we would press down on the leg of the clothes pin thereby releasing the ammo. How about –Scooters–, made out of a wooden box a two by four and a one skate. We would decorate the box with bottle caps, paint and anything we could think of. I live in Florida now and we have a group of about 20 to 30 ex New Yorkers. Every year we have an annual xmas picnic. At the picnic we have a fathers against sons stickball game and we play a serious game of skelleys. Those were the best days of my life and if had it all to do over again, I wouldn’t change one thing from my childhood days growing up on the streets of the big city. By the way if someone knows where I can find some Spalding HI-Bouncers if they still exist please post the info on this site.
I played box baseball in…
I played box baseball in the Linden Projects (East New York, Brooklyn). We also played boxball. For boxball we used four boxes (2×2) and each player got a box. Then we would tap the ball back and forth between the players until someone couldn’t return the ball into one of the other boxes or couldn’t hit it before it hit the floor twice. There was also another game which used 5 boxes (in a straight row). First you have to make the ball bounce once in the #1 box. Then once in the #1 box and once in the #2 box & so on until you did all 5 boxes.
Hey, are two-square and…
Hey, are two-square and…
I can picture a brand new…
I can picture a brand new spaldeen vividly today, almost smell it. What a great feeling to go to the local “candy store” and buy a new spaldeen. Always preferable to a pensy pinky, which were also good.We used spaldeens in stickball, punchball, fungo, slapball, A’s-up,stoopball, and different “box games”-boxball, box baseball, five boxes, hit the penny, etc., in Bayside, Queens. As far as Johnny Pump goes, it brings to mind the old game “Johnny on the Pony”. I would love to buy some spaldeens, if there is a place to order them, I’d like to know.
Sounds like the game you…
Sounds like the game you called boxball was similar to what we called slapball. Open fisted with pitching. It could be played in parks or the street. We also called it triangle when there were only 3 bases, 1st third and home, and it was played along the width of the street. Punchball didn’t include pitching. You’d throw it up and hit by yourself – overhand side-armed or underhand. You could really whack those balls far.
I,m writting from Philly…
I,m writting from Philly and I,m trying to find out if you have a game in NY which is similar to our version of “Boxball”.”Boxball” in Southwest philly was very similar to baseball as we had four bases and a pitchers ‘mound’.It was played in the street where their were spaces between the parked cars.Anything could be a base-a car fender,a lamp-post,a tree, a curb- or the bases could be marked with chalk or a broken red brick.The ball of choice in Philly was the “Pimple Ball”.The game could be played with any number of players and you could change sides as some players came and went.According to what block (the street you lived on) you played on the rules would change whether you could hit the ball with a closed or open hand.When you did hit the ball it had to hit inside the infield or you where out. A swing and miss was also an out. Chopping the ball was called a “Baltimore Chop” and of course that was an out.Once you hit the ball you ran the bases in the same way as regular baseball.The ‘pitcher’ pitched the ball by bouncing it to the hitter on one bounce.Before the game could begin it was decieded if the pitcher could put a spin on the ball when he pitched it in. This spin would make the ball do tricks equal to a curve or sinker in real baseball.This was determened by asking “Stuff or no stuff?” before the game.If you have a game close to this what do you call it ? Is this your game called “Punchball”I would appreciate reading any responces
Hey guys! Looking for a…
Hello from Southwest Philly!I…
Hello from Southwest Philly!I would just like to add to John (from Red Hook) comment’s on Dec.17,1999.I think the game he is describing is close to what we in Philly call boxball.However the ball he describes-the ” pimple-ball” was the ONLY ball we used for ALL our games.Once it broke it was used for half- ball.We recently play a reunion boxball game and because the “pimple-ball”is no longer manufactured we had to use a ball close to a spaldeen.John is right, the spaldeen is smaller and livlier than the old “pimple-ball” and it resulted in a lot “errors” by the old guys.Just want to say how much I enjoy reading the old stories folks share in this website.It was great being raised in the city(any city) wasn’t it?