Category Archives: Other Spaldeen games
Growing up on the same Bronx…
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Growing up on the same Bronx block for 21 years, we called the game “slugs” although i do recall the other names (ace, king, queen and chinese handball). It was one of the most popular games on the block. As a kid, I’d watch the older guys play with awe and once I started playing, i loved it. Expecially after learning to “cut” the ball, which would fool the hell out of an opponent, unless he had a nastier cut than you. Then there were all the other “rules” we’d throw in like “waterfalls”, “baby waterfalls”, “hindus”, etc. I’m just mad that I can’t remember what all of these mean or how they were used in the game! I remember how the whole neighborhood would get into the game and we’d play for hours, with sometimes 8-10 players at a time. Then it was on to skelsies, johnny on the pony, or ringolevio. Ah, the good ole days.
Soft Pinkies rule. One of…
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Soft Pinkies rule. One of my most savored kid memories was walking back to school at lunch in NE Philly having just stole () a Pinkie from the corner candy store. Throwing a fresh pinkie at a nice tall brick wall on a spring afternoon is heaven on earth. Does anyone remember playing SUICIDE – a game with a sponge (Pinkie) ball against a wall (school wall). You would throw the ball to hit 1st the ground then 2nd the wall so the ball launched high in the air. If you caught it, the person who threw it must touch the wall b4 you get to peg him with the ball. If you try and catch someone else’s ball and miss, its your bum on the line. Still don’t know why it was called suicide. Likely many names for this game. Chris
We played curb-ball in suburban…
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We played curb-ball in suburban NJ. It was also called off the curb. The neighborhoods had sidewalks on both sides of the street. In between the sidewalks and the street was a strip of grass about the same width as the sidewalk. When you were up, you threw the ball against the curb, and it rebounded toward your opponent on the other side of the street. If he fielded it cleanly (either in the air or a grounder) you were out. If it made it pass him, or he bobbled it, you got a single. If it landed on the strip of grass (after flying across the street), it was a double. The sidewalk was a triple, and the front yard a home run. If the ball went the other direction, it was foul. The game was the greatest way to improve eye hand coordination and fielding. I miss it.
The “pinky” ruled at Brigham…
Pennsy Pinkies were introduced…
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Pennsy Pinkies were introduced during my childhood, in the sixties, so it’s clear that kids from the fifties and earlier would not know them. I remember how excited I was when I was told that there were these great new balls that were better than spaldeens. They did have the Pennsylvania keystone symbol on them. “Hindu” was the do-over term specifically for when the ball took a really bad bounce because of a rock or something on the ground. I found out the derivation of the term when a kid from out of town, during a handball game in the schoolyard, called “hinder” when the ball hit a rock on the court. That told me that the word referred to a hindrance on the playing field.
I’ve been playing Wall-Ball…
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I’ve been playing Wall-Ball for about 10 years now, I remember when I was little I’d walk by the local schoolyard and see older guy playing this baseball game against the wall. Since then a lot of things have changed. I remember we didn’t have a pitching mound so some kids would take wood chips and cover an area on the grass, eventually it killed all the grass in that area and the Local School board paved it over, so now we have a little strip that resembles a mound. Every Sunday here in Toronto the school is packed with 2-3 games going on side by side. We all use tennis ball and normal baseball bats and play 2 outs and we even have Pilons in the outfield marking the foul lines. We got the Double play rule where if you ground out to the pitcher and theres someone on base ( ghost runner ofcourse)the pitcher would pick up the ball and try to hit the box wherever he was standing and the trick was to get it past the hitter who was trying to block it with the bunt technique. Wall ball or Box baseball has come a long way for us and I hope it continues.