Category Archives: Stickball
Reporting from Parkchester…
Reporting from Parkchester in the 60’s. We played in the courtyard of the U-shaped PS126. Singles, doubles, triples by hitting the opposite wall above the windows of each level. A narrow band below the roof was a home run, but on the roof was an out, for the ball was lost, and the batter had to run down to the candy store to buy a new Spaldeen ($.25?). If nobody had money, the game was over. My best stickball story is from the Saturday afternoon when I was having such a blast playing that I forgot my altar boy assignment for the 5:00PM mass at St. Raymond’s. My mom was so ripped when I strolled home at 7:00PM that I had to go to three consecutive masses the next day. From humiliation came responsibility, I guess. Great website, great memories from the Bronx.
I grew up in Long Beach…
I grew up in Long Beach on Long Island in the fifties, where we played the fast pitch version of stickball…a “strike zone” chalked on a wall and a long asphalt school yard to blast away at. We used the distance demarkation method for single-double-triple etc, and the same strikeout, caught grounder or caught fly for outs. There was no base running; stickball in Long Beach did little for aerobic fitness. We used broomsticks and two brands of pink rubber balls. Preferred was the Spaulding version, prenounced “Spauldeen.” Amazingly, “SPAULDING” was imprinted on the ball, we could all read, yet swore by that pronunciation. The other ball was the less desireable Pensy Pinky, which didn’t bounce as well, and also a had greater propensity to be disassembled by a solid top-spin whack. Two halves flew from the bat. Was that a single or a double? I was not a good hitter because I developed a tendency to flinch very early on. In my first game, as a fifth grader, I ducked a close pitch but stood up too quickly. The rebound off the wall whapped me right in the ear. Talk about sting! I can still feel it.
I grew up in the Fredrick…
I grew up in the Fredrick Douglas Housing Projects on 104th St. between Columbus and Manhattan Avenues in NYC back in the late 50’s and through the sixties. I must have been really under privledged back then ’cause I’ve never even heard of a pensie pinky or anything thereabouts. Oh yeah I played StickBall, Stoopball, Punchball, hell, even Whiffleball. We even pitched and hit bottlecaps, but the only ball I ever knew was the “Spaulding” better known as the “Spauldeen” and that’s what we used, except for whiffleball of course. Anyway, there was one thing we did to old, beaten-up, dead, on their last leg spauldeen’s just before sending them to that big spauldeen factory in the sky… Does anybody out there remember “Roofin” a spauldeen!!! Oh yeah! If you had an arm and thought you could throw it up onto one of the taller 21 story project buildings you were not to be messed with!!!
I just found this place…
I just found this place & it awoke memories that I didn’t know that I had. I think I only played stickball less than a handfull of times. I lived in the Bronx ’til I was 6 & moved to Queens. The street games, OK the ball games didn’t exist in the new surroundings. There were pre made playgrounds & basketball hoops — never could get into that. After looking this site over, I remembered playing & I wanted to play again. I told my 13 & 16 year old daughters about stickball & they were exicted & wanted to play. They invited a friend over each and after going to the dollar store, got a broom (& promptly removed the stick) & a can of tennis balls (sorry, no spauldeens here in Central Connecticut). We played for a couple of hours and everybody, including this overweight 40+ kid, had a blast. Now, my kids want to teach me to play suicide. It sure as hell beats watching TV or watching someone else play video games. Thanks for waking up this kid! Scott Fisher
Alley bat was played in…
Alley bat was played in a school yard or an alley wide enough to accommodate a boy swinging a broom stick (the stick ball bat). The batter stood at a wall facing the pitcher. On the wall behind the batter there was a strike zone drawn using chalk. Usually the entire zone was chalked in. The pitcher threw fast balls, curves, etc. at the batter. Three strikes and a batter was out. Three out and the pitcher and batter exchanged places. When the ball was hit, where it landed or struck the surrounding structure determined if it was a single, double, triple, home run or foul ball. Nine innings were played as in baseball. The spaldeen was used, but a tennis ball could also be used. If the batter did not swing at a pitch, a ball or strike was determined by where it hit the wall. If out of the strike zone it was a ball and no chalk was on the ball. In the zone was a strike and the proof was in the chalk.
Hi…this is Barbara. Just…
Hi…this is Barbara. Just got a chance to review the letters….seems to me I recognize plenty of the information and the players. I surely remember the days of the 50’s and the days of betting on games. Bouncer and I bought our first new car with stickball winnings one summer (1966). Bennie, I hope to make the 2001 Old Timers game in Miami. Jay…the winner of the world series is really “up for grabs” since it was not played out as it should have been. Originally the fourth day of the series was to be used for “rained out” games..but that was changed (along with many other “rules”)so it did not happen. Sadly, that added to putting a damper on the series.Both the Youngbloods and the Repo Men were playing great ball.
who won the stickball world…
Hey Big Daddy, I…
Hey Big Daddy, I absolutely remember triangle baseball. I lived in the bed-stuy section of Brooklyn. We used to play on Pulaski St. Between Stuyvesant Ave and Willoughby. It was a one-way street where we played most of our neighborhood games and we played them all. Stickball, chinese handball, fast pitch stickball with automatics, off-the-point, stoopball, boxball, ringalievio, hide-and-seek, kick-the-can, johnny on the pony, skelleys, marbles. All these games were great but I haven’t heard anybody mention – Spinning Tops – a wooden top (shaped like a hot air ballon) with a metal point on the bottom and we would wrap a string around the it then throw the top on the asphalt making it spin. We would play games like crack-the-top. This game was played by two or more players and the object was to shoot your top at the top on the ground in an attempt to crack it.You would choose to see whose top would be layed on the ground. Then taking one turn at a time each player would spin his top attempting to hit the top on the ground. If you didn’t hit it in one shot you could pick up the top in your hand while it was spinning and throw against the top on the ground then you would get another chance.If in your turn, you couldn’t hit the object top then you would have to lay your top down to be the target top. –Making wooden carpet guns–. The easy way to make one was with a piece of 1×4 or anything similar about three feet in length. Then we would attach a thick rubber band to the front with a nail. Toward the back part of the gun on the top edge, we would then attach a clothes pin with one leg cut off using a few rubber bands to hold it in place.This would act as the trigger. We would then cut little squares from a section of linoleoum flooring to use as ammo. We would then pull back the front rubber band holding it in place under the clothes pin. We would insert a piece of ammo between the the two legs of the rubber band and to shoot the ammo we would press down on the leg of the clothes pin thereby releasing the ammo. How about –Scooters–, made out of a wooden box a two by four and a one skate. We would decorate the box with bottle caps, paint and anything we could think of. I live in Florida now and we have a group of about 20 to 30 ex New Yorkers. Every year we have an annual xmas picnic. At the picnic we have a fathers against sons stickball game and we play a serious game of skelleys. Those were the best days of my life and if had it all to do over again, I wouldn’t change one thing from my childhood days growing up on the streets of the big city. By the way if someone knows where I can find some Spalding HI-Bouncers if they still exist please post the info on this site.