Any Brooklyn girls recall the game- “Hello, hello, hello Sir?” (meet me at the grocer, etc) This was played with one of your mom’s stockings and a spaldeen inside of it. You lifted your leg next to the wall and hit the wall with the stocking & ball, singing the rhyme.
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.
we played 3 box and 4 box baseball on davidson ave in the bronx in the late 60’s both games have been described pretty accuratly we used to straddle the corners of the box in front of you to get a better reach into the box but tried not to put ur foot in the box hey harvey remember me we played 3 box all the time and i used to get u bus passes at clinton!!! lol those were the days of innocence jim
In Philly and Boston they had a game just using the half ball – see http://streetplay.com/pages/halfball.htm Was your game anything like that?
I,for one, preferred the Spaldeen over the Pinkie. It lasted Longer, was harder and had a better bounce. I loved my spaldeens so much that I would wash them in the bathroom sink. Funny how I JUST REMEMBERED THAT after all these years! My sister and I never had a dull moment as long as we had a spaldeen to play with.
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.
There were 2 versions of ‘Box Baseball’ that was played in the Bronx in the late 60’s – ‘Three Box’ in which one player ‘pitched’ underhand while the other player tried to hit it into the third box (closest to the pitcher) hits were determined by the number of times the ball bounced (1 for single – 2 for double etc) – ‘5 Box’ was played by bouncing the ball in the 5th box (furthest from you) then the 4th & 5th (only one bounce in each) etc and then reversing the pattern – the other player was allowed to play defense – that is – without going over the line you may stretch to prevent the ball from landing in the box.