The game called “pinners” above was a game we called “off the point” in the Bronx. We also played the other version,”off the wall” but you didn’t get a home run unless the ball hit the building across the street. You could still get an out by catching the ball off the building before it bounced on the ground. There were so many other great games. All you needed was a spaldeen and one other kid.
Vandeveer Estates – late 50s early 60s — all games, no question, Spaldeen…Pennsie Pinky was just a ball you could buy when you could’t get a Spaldeen…but you could always get a Spaldeen, ’cause you just didn’t want a Pennsy Pinkie. But when the ball was dead it was time to use it for ‘Squash’ – you know, handball with tennis raquets – because if a ball had too much bounce, it would move so fast it would be impossible to hit, and when it was on its last legs it was PERFECT for squash.
We were lucky – living at the end of a street in the ’40s-’50s. Punchball was our favorite, and we used the magnificent building called Chateau Frontenac as an automatic HR if you hit it on the fly. Otherwise ball was in play. I remember when I just wasn’t big enough to hit it, but then I was!! What a thrill the first times I hit the building. The location was East 19th Street and Tennis Court – a two block street in the heart of Brooklyn. Anybody grow up near there?
I grew up in Bayside, Queens,My Mom still lives in the same house.It was ringoleevio.I don’t remember thr rule. We also playe stickball with a broomhandle and a spaldeen.We also played punchball.skelly,boxball,stoopball and Chinesehandball The girls and sometimes th boys played Hop scotch,potsie?, jacks. Then there was Johnny on the Pony also known as Buc-Buc. I think all of this is almost gone
I lived in East Flatbush during the late fifties to early sixties then after moving out to L.I. came back to hangout with my friends through the early seventies. PS 209, on Ave D and East 48th St., was one place where we played stickball. 209 was shaped like a U and we played strikbox, width wise. We played “automatics” where your hits were determined by where the ball hit the opposite wall. Had lots of fun there. Spaldeens ($.25) were primarily used. We used Pensy Pinkies ($.30) for punch ball and king/queen. “Eggballs” were used as a last resort. They came in various colors. Asses up/ace king queen was played routinely. I also fished balls out of the corner sewers as did many of my contemporaries.
In our neighborhood in Queens we called it single, double, triple. There was no batter. The person up threw the Spaldeen against the side of a building (no stoop) and it would ricochet toward us into the “field” (cement and dirt). Of course, with a really good shot, we would all shout single, double, triple, home run! as we all scrambled in vain for the ball.