YO,I USE TO LIVE ON WEST FARMS ROAD ON THE CORNER OF HOME STREET AND LONGFELLOW THATS WHERE WE USE TO PLAY STICKBALL, SOMTIMES WE USE TO PLAY ON BRYANT AVE.I STUDIED AT P.S.66,SO IF ANY OF THE GUYS FROM THE OLD BLOCK READS THIS DON’T FORGET TO WRITE.THAT I REMEMBER NOW THEY WERE FELIX,JOHNNY,AND JIMMY CLASS THESE GUYS WERE BROTHERS,THERE WAS CARLITOS,EVERYBODY KNEW ME AS PEEWEE.WE PLAYED ALL THE OTHER GAMES ALSO.
i played chinese handball and i love it my way is much much more lenient. we dont have boxes whatsoever and the last person playing handball was the ace-killer because he was so far away from the ace it made it harder for the ace to get it. I learned many different variations of it including one where your allowed to let the ball hit the floor twice but u have to hit the ball onto the wall similarly like american. I also played watermelon which was not my favorite. I also played asses up but only the person who got the other person out could hit him. Oh well. Im tryin to learn how to cut.
Hi, I am not sure if this game I played in the in the mid 70’s was made up in my neighborhood or not, but it was a form of stickball, we called it SCOONY. We played in a bocce ball court, a pitcher, catcher , second baseman all were inside the bocce court. A centerfielder stood outside the bocce court wall. and the first and third basemen stood just outside the court lined up with their base. The pitcher pitched the ball on one bounce, spining the ball if he wanted. We played with rules of baseball, bunting, stealing, tagging up but when you tried to steal, you could not take a lead, and could only steal AFTER the catcher caught the ball. Another rule was that the batter MUST bat his opposite hand, (right must bat left)and for a bunt to be legal, it had to pass a FOUL line drawn into the sand before the game started. This game was very entertaining and we played it for hours. We used a pinky or a spaldeen, and sometimes a tennis ball ( if we couldnt buy a spaldeen). For a bat we used either a broom handle or a store bought stick ball bat.If anyone else played this game, please email me at muns0n015 [at] aol [dot] com and tell me about. I grew up in Long Island City ( QUEENS )
Do you ever remember playing a game called stoop-ball? 10-20? Stepball? Off the Step? Off the Step.com is a site that uses the basis for most of those games and puts them into a fun and challenging game! Visit www.offthestep.com to check out the ruels and join the message board! We do know that the site is under developed but it’s a work in progress. We hope to have big updates in December. Buy Off the Step products at www.cafepress.com/offthestep! Cheers!
This is a South Bronx tale: the setting is mid to late ’60s, Kelly Street 10 hundreds block = longer than most with wall to wall five story tenement buildings. We played stickball starting from the second fire-hydrant sewer lid (homeplate) towards the end of the block. Anything over the “wire” not caught was an automatic homerun. Only two guys ever hit the ball onto the roof of 1069 thanks to a favorable wind: Manny and Junior. We seldom played pitch ball but rather bounced the ball before hitting it or hit it in the air. Balls stuck on fire-escapes or on the roof before the “wire” were outs, down the basements were doubles. sidewalks were all you can run. The wire was a cable hanging across the street behind the second sewer lid which was a few feet behind second base. Only players from our street were allowed to toss their sneakers onto the wire. Those trophies were never taken down. When there weren’t enough guys to play a game, two guys with bats would hit the ball back and forth one from homeplate and the other from the third sewer lid towards homeplate. Spaldeens were the prefered ball, used also for slugs off the wall of Mr. Friar’s building 1045 Kelly Street; or hitting off the stoop of 1048 Kelly Street. Louie, Jorge, Mickey, Augie, Joel, Victor, Junior, Moses, George Pinocchio were the regulars. Stickball on Kelly Street died in 1978 when the whole block was nuked for redevelopment. We also played a mean game of skelzies and had the best aerial kite battles between glass-cord diamonds and razorblade sneekies. Those were the days!