Category Archives: Curbball
NorthEast Philly and Feltonville…
NorthEast Philly and Feltonville in the late 40s and 50s. Step(stoop) ball, curb ball, wall ball, wire ball were all the best games. Many of the row houses had alleys between them, so you got points by the times you hit both walls. Only had smooth Pennsie Pink and white-pimple balls, and each had it purpose. Loved the smell of the new ball. Charlie, Mike, Leroy, Bobby all great street ballers. Richie was a big kid that usually won, and beat you up if he didn’t. Nancy was as tough as Richie and she beat us up too, but nobody cared. LOL
Grew up in Juniata Park during…
Hey everyone, I grew up…
Hey everyone, I grew up around 165th and Gerard. School at PS 114. Then we moved to Jersey. Eventually I came back, to Knox Pl, just off Mosholu Pkwy. But left again.LOL. I remember playing stickball, curb ball and stoop ball all over the neighborhood. Some friends were Mike Gearty, Joe Marsicano.
I just found this site and…
I just found this site and it’s great.We played skully for hours on end on 189th St.in Manhattan.In between,we’d play stickball,off the point(curbball)or Johnny ride the pony.Also,I noticed someone mentioned “slugs”.We called this “Chinese” which I found out was short for Chinese handball.How about that,a bottlecap,a broomstick,and a “spaldeen” was all the equipment we needed for fun from March to November.Who needs Playstation?
Spaldeen was the ball of…
Hey I am 48yrs old and for…
Hey I am 48yrs old and for some odd reason I was talking to my wife about some games I played up in Baltimore as a child. We would buy a penn pinky and play on the steps of the school house. If you were good enough you would slam the ball on the corner of the the steps which would make that ball fly, otherwise if you hit the ball on the flat surface of the step yuo would have a ground ball. We chalked in bases and played just like stickball. I beleived we called this game curb ball…Did other places play this way?
I think people are confusing…
I think people are confusing Curb Ball and Stoop Ball….Stoop ball was played against a stoop of someones house and we also played with fielders. Catch it on a fly and you’re out! Past the sidewalk on one bounce was a single, past grass a double etc. Curb ball was much the same but played ONLY against the curb while we were in the street…and there were bases that u had to run! There was no running involved in stoop ball…Dee (The Bronx)
off 164th and the concourse,…
off 164th and the concourse, in the mid-late 50’s, we played mostly 1 bounce “fungo” (self hit) stickball with a spaldeen. hits dtermined by distance. in riverdale from 1960-69, we played with a shaved tennis ball (which curved, threw screwballs) against a chalk box in the ps 24 schoolyard. sometimes had an outfielder. that was MY game. also played bench ball, punch ball, stoop ball, and curb ball (back in the old neighborhood-the concourse). and box ball.
In the Bronx we also played…
In the Bronx we also played curb ball – played in an intersection with 5 or 6 on a side (although sometimes played with less) – corner sewers served as bases – players typically played positions similiar to baseball (1st base – 2nd base/ss – 3rd base – outfield) – After throwing the ball off the curb you ran – Play was just like baseball with the exception that if the ball did not go fair it was a strike – 2 strikes was a strikeout.