Hello Lou, I found this site quite by accident. I just wanted to pass on my condolences to you and your family. I understand your grieve and my heart goes out to you in your loss. I too have lost someone very dear to me recently, your friend Richie. But he chose to take his own life. I lost him 3 times, in divorce, recently in friendship and now forever to God. I try to make sense of all this but it seems so hard.
Stickball is a GREAT game! It is sure better to have the kids playing stickball, than sitting around the house playing video games. I am trying to help revive the game. I purchased a large quantity of the original SPALDEENS, or “Pinkys.” I also carry the “official stickball bats” made by Spalding. As you may know, these are VERY hard to find!! If anyone is interested, you may contact me at mlbbaseballs [at] aol [dot] com for more information. Keep on playing everyone!!
Great site. I learned about stickball at 15 yrs of age from a fellow by the name of Bobby Graham, a Brooklyn guy who worked at the same place where I was doing summer jobs in Roxbury MA. We used to play after work on Fridays while waiting for our paychecks to be issued. Loved the game from the first moment I laid my hands on that broomstick. We played fast-pitch in local schoolyards with a strike zone on the wall. Ground rules varied according to the game site, but a home run was always over the school building or across the street. The “official” ball was the pimple ball; we only used pinkies when unable to find pimple balls at the 5&10. In fact, pimple balls ultimately got so hard to find that we would go to extreme lengths to retrieve them in the course of game. It was always a sad thing when someone hit a pimple ball right on the seam and split it. Haven’t seen a pimple ball in a LONG time, though. I remember spending many hours practicing and perfecting my pitching technique. Those were the days when a kid had plenty of time on his hands after school and before dinner. It got to the point where I could reliably hit the door handle of my house garage door from across the street. Developed about a half dozen different pitches, including a wicked Elroy Face inspired sinker. Had some wicked grudge match games against local neighborhood rivals. One of my great sports moments was pitching nine straight no-hitters against them. They refused to play us any more. I guess we still own the bragging rights in that rivalry. Nice to be able to share my memories with people who remember and understand this great street sport. Better than golf IMO.
WE USE’D TO PLAY EVERY SUMMER DOWN RHAWNHURST SCHOOL YARD-BEST DAYS-MY DAD DIDN’T THINK SO CAUSE HE LOST ALOT OF GOOD SHOVELS AND BROOMS TO STICKBALL. I GUESS WE WERE THE LAST GENERATION OF REAL STICKBALLERS-MID TO LATE 80’S IN OUR TEENS. WE PLAYED FAST PITCH AGAINST A PAINTED BOX AND WE JUDGED THE BASE HIT TYPE BY THE DISTANCE. ANYWAY…I MADE SOME COOL STICKBALL T-SHIRTS -I HAVE MY OWN SCREENPRINTING BUSINESS-IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED WRITE BACK. ENJOY THE MEMORIES
i lived in a few places in brooklyn, we lived on lincoln place for a while, then we moved to the projects that were on what used to be ebbets field, over by bedford ave. But my most fondest memories come from when me and my mom lived in prospect heights, on Eastern parkway right across from the brooklyn museum and the botanical gardens. there was a park with a playground in it and a huge circular track around this big ass grass field! i remember it was big enough where the kids had 2 makeshift baseball diamonds on it and there was room for the jamaican and haitian cats to play soccer on it. the track was i guess just a big asphalt walkway but you could ride bikes on it and jog or whatever, the playground had two swingsets on it and 1 sliding board…(not much as far as playground stuff goes) but it had an old parks and recs maintenance house on it that we had two fast pitch stickball courts on, and a “self hit” or slow pitch one in the center of the playground. we did so much stuff… we used to play co-co leavio on bicycles!!! YOU TALK ABOUT AN INTENSE GAME WITH GREAT LANDSCAPE! we had swing races where you get 4 to 5 kids or so on a team, the first kid jumps on…standing up was the best way to do it…up pumped your swing until you were deemed “up” (past a certain height level) then you had to come down and hand off to the next person, this took daring sometimes because the most fearless would jump off the swing while it was up high then the next kid would catch the chain and keep the relay race going!!! those were some of the best times of my life and i will never forget them for as long as i live.
Hello,Im organizing a winter stick-ball championship. “Jersey Style”.March 18th 19th.and the 26th Championship game.Call 646-996-6292. call or email for schedule,directions,and rules. 3 players per team $60 dollars a team. *game stats *game balls and official stick ball bats *Foul poles *heated dugout Champions receive hooded sweatshirts and trophies. MVP will receive $100 bucks cash bonus
What an excellent site. I was just talking to a co-worker about pimple balls and decide to do a search. I came upon this site. Man, in Mayfair/Holmesburg life was great in the 70’s and 80’s. Wall ball, ass ball, step ball, wire ball, stick ball, half ball, homerun derby, man hunt, hide the belt. All classic games only played in Philly as far as I knew anyway. Oh, can’t forget wiffle ball. We had the perfect field for wiffle ball. We would play ovet at Forrest Elementry at Cottage and Bliegh St. We played between two buildings. Hitting the ball past the defense and the ball hitting the wall below the ledge was a single, above the ledge but below the window was a double, in the area where the window was, was a triple and above the window was a homer. The defense could catch it off the wall and it was an out. If they missed it and it hit the ground then it was a hit. Great game!
This message is for benny brugman of tampa florida.benny I really appreciate you sending me a invitation to the stick tournament, on April 22 to April 23. I would really want to go, but I have family wedding to go in atlanta ga. Its sound like a great and exciting time to play stick ball. I wouldn’t have miss this for any other reason.I am 74 now and can still a very long ball.Its funny when had games in the bronx or any borough,no one in the family could have weddings, births, funerals, to have us miss any games. well thanks again. have a fabulous time. From one of loyal stickball players. Jerry Gringer of Georgia.
This message is for benny brugman of tampa florida.benny I really appreciate you sending me a invitation to the stick tournament, on April 22 to April 23. I would really want to go, but I have family wedding to go in atlanta ga. Its sound like a great and exciting time to play stick ball. I wouldn’t have miss this for any other reason.I am 74 now and can still a very long ball.Its funny when had games in the bronx or any borough,no one in the family could have weddings, births, funerals, to have us miss any games. well thanks again. have a fabulous time. From one of loyal stickball players. Jerry Gringer of Georgia.
This message is for benny brugman of tampa florida.benny I really appreciate you sending me a invitation to the stick tournament, on April 22 to April 23. I would really want to go, but I have family wedding to go in atlanta ga. Its sound like a great and exciting time to play stick ball. I wouldn’t have miss this for any other reason.I am 74 now and can still a very long ball.Its funny when had games in the bronx or any borough,no one in the family could have weddings, births, funerals, to have us miss any games. well thanks again. have a fabulous time. From one of loyal stickball players. Jerry Gringer of Georgia.