Category Archives: Spaldeen games
Someone just informed me…
Original author: Marilyn [e-mail]
Someone just informed me of this site. What fun it is! I was thrilled to see a basket of Spaldeens in the store and bought a half dozen. I don’t think I ever bought one as a kid because during WWII rubber was rationed and the only place you could get them was on the black market. We acquired ours on the roof when the boys lost them playing stickball. We would retrieve them and wash them in hot water, that revived the bounce and we played these familiar girls games. No one in the store where I bought them understood the meaning of these precious balls. I had fun bouncing them on the counter. I remember “A” my name best but the other games ring a bell too. Thanks for sharing. I grew up in The Bronx, near Crotona Park.
I grew up in Bensonhurst…
Original author: Dak [e-mail]
I grew up in Bensonhurst in the 60’s and we definitely had our choice of Pensie Pinkies or Spaldeens. We used to get them at Doc’s (later to become Egg Haven) across the street from PS. 97. Though I was a Spaldeen fan, Pensie Pinkies never went dead and never split open. But, there was nothing like writing on a new Spaldeen with a Bic pen. Ahhhhhh!
We played the “traditional”…
Original author: Marauder [e-mail]
We played the “traditional” stickball when I was a kid in Queens, NY, but we used a loaded whiffle-ball bat with a taped up barrel for a little extra weight. To us, it was a kids’ game. We grew out of it as we improved at baseball. We couldn’t all play on the same little league team and hardball was too expensive (we were ghetto) and didn’t have 18 guys who could play hardball to get a game going. Softball…face it, softball is for girls and old men. We took up fast-pitch (wall) stickball in schoolyards. Nowdays we play in a league all over the NYC metro area. There is no running the bases; the batter gets credit for a hit if the ball passes certain distances (marked out on the field) without being cleanly fielded or caught on the fly, as the case may be. Most players use either a metal bat, a combination wood/metal bat or a wooden bat with sheet metal rolled onto the barrel- it’s too hard to make solid contact with the old, broomstick-style wooden bats. Rules limit the size of the barrel. The kink is that we play with shaved and singed down tennis balls (We use old ones with not as much air in them). The effect is less resistance, so the ball is pitched faster and breaking pitches have some sick movement. Because the ball is also smaller than a conventional tennis ball, it is much harder to get a hold of one. However, pitching this smaller, lighter ball probably does even more damage than a baseball does to your arm over the long run. Typically, the games are low scoring with a ton of strikeouts. The top pitchers frequently strike out 15-20 batters in a 9-inning game. Basically, if the guy has good control, you’re going to be up against it. No-hitters happen, especially during doubleheaders, when games are only 7 innings. You don’t usually scratch out runs. Most scoring comes from home runs. During the playoffs, when both teams have their aces going, you’ll get 1-0 games where teams get less than 5 hits per side. But that’s what makes the game all the more intense. Any run you can scratch out matters immensely. There have been many leagues over the years. In the late 80s/early 90s there were about 200 teams of all skill levels. Because most of the better players joined forces and consolidated into super-teams, fewer people play now but the competition is much tougher.
In Bensonhurst Brooklyn…
Original author: Paul L [e-mail]
In Bensonhurst Brooklyn we played another version of boxball. We used 4 boxes and the pitcher threw the ball bouncing it in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th box in quick succession. The batter had to hit the ball back into the 1st box in front of the pitcher. Caught was out, out of the box was out. One bounce a single, etc. we considered the most advaced form of box baseball and the older kids were very good at throwing the ball in the 3 boxes with all kinds of spins and reversing bounces. You could almost have he ball grazing the ground by the third bounce and very difficult to hit. The games we played that were offshoots of punchball or slapball depended on how many players were available. We called them triangle (3 bases) and squareball (4 bases) They were played the width of the gutter (street). There was a chalk square in front of the batter that the pitcher had to lob the ball into for a strike. The batter could slap any pitch. Justballs was selling spaldeens as of a year ago.
I have read where punchball…
I lived on Stuart St. between…
Original author: Kevin McGrath [e-mail]
I lived on Stuart St. between R & Fillmore and we hung out mostly on the block until we got older and started hanging out in the park near 278 and the handball courts. Played stickball in the spring/summer, touch football in the fall/winter, handball & basketball in the park, weather permitting. Stuart Street boys, at various ages & times, were Danny & Carly Carlucci, Roddy Walsh, Ray Lyons, Chris Dengel, Gene Balise, Robert Russell, Robert “Hoya” Georgia, Jeff & Artie Pearson, John Kennedy, Paul Dutton, Dennis Westbay, Dominic Spatola, Gumpy?, Tom “The Bomb” Carnesee(sp?), Peter Crocilla(sp?), Dominic Montabano, Joey Musso, Palumbo twins, Bobby Hazel, Kevin “MAGOO” McGrath, Kevin Barton, Charly Hurda, John “Johnny Mac” McNicholas Girls: Christine Belici, Dolores Ontario, Pat McGrath, Joanny Hassler, Barbara Dunn, Beth Walker, Kathy Guerin, Georgia girls, Rosalia.
I’m with Jerry, I never…
Hello stick-ball players…
Original author: Tony Mirkin [e-mail]
Hello stick-ball players of the world. I used to play on 139th Street in Manhattan between Hamilton Place and Amsterdam Avenue. And this was in the late 40’s!!!. Aurelio Casiano (Cuchi), Paul Fondulas, Skippy Scibilo, Vicky Rodriguez, “Ginza” (Sorry I can’t recall the name)and Andre Ognibene and many others played this great game. Later on 141 Street between Riverside Drive and Broadway in the 50s I also continued the game. I shall never forget it. Keep playing and keep enjoying.Regards from London folks.
I knew Steve as a young…
Original author: Fred Carmona [e-mail]
I knew Steve as a young teenager. For three years we played little league baseball together on the team sponsored by Lochard Realty on Castle Hill Avenue. I didn’t stay in touch with him through the years as he attended Norman Thomas and I and the rest of the guys we knew attended Stevenson. I can only say that as a young man Steve was a good guy. As far as the sport goes, everyone who reads these messages will know what I knew 26 years ago, and that is “Steve loved baseball”, in any fashion. As long as there was a bat and a ball, there would be a game. I had found out about Steve’s untimely passing while browsing the different websites created since that tragic day. I was shocked as I am sure everyone else was when they found out. It is strange how playing sports creates this comraderie that stays with you forever. After years of living outside the borough and missing it terribly, I moved back to the Bronx. When I was bringing the last load of stuff to my apartment, I decided to pass by the old school to take a look at it’s condition. The school wasn’t what it used to be, but I saw something that I had not known existed in the “hood”. A bunch of guys playing stickball. I hadn’t seen that since I was maybe 8 years old. My father and his friends and sons played back on Elder Avenue in the 50’s and 60’s. That was when I got my first taste of baseball. As I pulled closer to the game I could see I didn’t know any of the guys except one. That was Steve. I was amazed to see how he had filled out as a man. Steve was a very small guy when we played ball together. I was afraid to approach because everyone was “into the game”. Guys were tense, talking trash etc. Seeing how things have since turned out, I am sorry I didn’t. A great man of our community has been lost. I will miss him. My love and prayers go out to his wife and family. You will be sorely missed. If there are any other tributes too, or planned fund raisers for Steve’s family, I would love to take part in them. Please anyone who is in touch with the league or knows of these functions, I ask that you forward such info to my e-mail address.