Category Archives: Stickball rules
I remember playing stickball…
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I remember playing stickball in Brooklyn in the 30’s and early forties. Ave. T between East 28th and East 29th Streets. Seems that there were a lot fewer cars on the street then. One bounce to home plate. The business of the distance, sewer covers, in my opinion, was determined by the length of the stick (broom handle). The longer it was, the further it went. With a long enough stick, if you caught the ball at the end of the stick, it never came down. I believe the first thing in orbit was a Spalding. Not only spin on the ball when pitched but squezzing the Spalding (bastardized to spaldeen I guess) with the middle finger gave the pitcher what might be considered a “knuckler” which, no one ever knew which way it would bounce when it hit the ground. If you grew up in Brooklyn before the war, there was bound to be some stickball somewhere in your back ground.
Hey im only 16 and i like…
I played stickball since…
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I played stickball since I was about 7 yrs old. That was in 1942. I played in Manhatten on 17th street between 8th and 9th ave. We diddn’t use the sewers for bases, being tough to slide over when necessary. 1st and 3rd base were on the sidewalk anyway. We used buildings for for foul lines. You could take as many pitches as you liked, but only got 1 swing. We always played games on Sunday as there were hardly any cars parked on the street in those days. We always played teams from different Neighborhoods and always for money. During the week we just had guys get up and hit, if you caught a fly you got up till someone replaced you. We also had a playground on the street, called Kelly Playground. We played ” against the wall” where you bounced the ball off the handball court and the batter swung after 1 bounce.We play with 3 players, a pitcher ,a batter and 1 outfielder. There was a tenement house wall above the handball court so you didn’t lose the ball. if you hit the wall and bounced between the wall and short line it was a single, between the short and long line a double, between the long line and the asphalt a triple. Anything on the asphalt was a homer.The 2 defensemen could field the ball and you were out if it was caught. 1 out per player, then you rotated to the bat. usually 10 runs was a winner. There was 1 more variation. Fast pitch. you stood against the parkhouse wall, that was the backstop. The pitcher fired the ball like a baseball pitcher, we had a box drawn on the wall to determine the strike zone. 2 fielders beside the pitcher, and as many bounes the ball made detrmined the amount of bases you got.
From: Marvin Lerman. My…
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From: Marvin Lerman. My memories of stickball go back to Flatbush, Brooklyn from the 40’s to mid 50’s. The playing fields were on East 4th St., East 5th St, both narrow and one way and on the wider two way Ditmas Ave. We used a spalline and improvised bats: broom handle, sawed off handle of an old, or not so old rake, hoe or shovel and once a thichish wooden rod that one of us found in a clothes closet, it was the best but he got into much trouble at home. The rules of play were as follows: …………. I had just completed E 4and 5 Street and was about to go on to Ditmas Ave. stickball which was much different but seem to run out of space and lost all of E 4th and E5th. Can someone please help. Reminiscing about my boys of summer was comforting,making me feel warmer and less gloomy while sitting out the Massachuttes Blizzard of 2003. Learned of the streetgames websight in William Safire’s On Language collumn in the NT Times 2/16/03 mag. section. Can’t find on the screen much of my earlier stuff. HELP!!! I East 4th St.: Home plate was painted on the road next to a friend’s house, as was a line designating the pitcher’s rubber. 2-3 players on each side. The ball was pitched on one bounce hard and with possible spin. 3 strikes, 4balls. No ump to call the balls and strikes, but we usually managed to agree. Singles were based on whether a ground ball hit within the curbs was cleanly fielded. 2,3 or 4 base hits depended on how far we’d hit the ball on the fly, under, over or through the branches of trees that overhung the road and where it would land, near a parked car or other designated landmark. A batted ball that hit on the fly a parked car or a house was an out. We’d often start on summer mornings, break for lunch and resume until suppertime. Sewers never came in to play. East 5th Street: Same rules as E 4th, except that there were 4-5 players per side, we ran ’em out, there were no automatic designated extra base hits and there were hardly any trees within 150 feet. Those games were usually played in in the early summer evenings.
From: Marvin Lerman. My…
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From: Marvin Lerman. My memories of stickball go back to Flatbush, Brooklyn from the 40’s to mid 50’s. The playing fields were on East 4th St., East 5th St, both narrow and one way and on the wider two way Ditmas Ave. We used a spalldeen and improvised bats: broom handle, sawed off handle of an old, or not so old rake, hoe or shovel and once a thichish wooden rod that one of us found in a clothes closet, it was the best but he got into much trouble at home. The rules of play were as follows: …………. I had just completed 4and 5 Street and was about to go on to Ditmas Ave. stickball which was much different but seem to run out of space and lost all of E 4th and E5th. Can someone please help. Reminiscing about my boys of summer was comforting,making me feel warmer and less gloomy while sitting out the Massachuttes Blizzard of 2003. Learned of the streetgames websight in William Safire’s On Language collumn in the NT Times 2/16/03 mag. section. Can’t find on the screen much of my earlier stuff. HELP!!! I East 4th St.: Home plate was painted on the road next to a friend’s house, as was a line designating the pitcher’s rubber. 2-3 players on each side. The ball was pitched on one bounce hard and with possible spin. 3 strikes, 4balls. No ump to call the balls and strikes, but we usually managed to agree. Singles were based on whether a ground ball hit within the curbs was cleanly fielded. 2,3 or 4 base hits depended on how far we’d hit the ball on the fly, under, over or through the branches of trees that overhung the road and where it would land, near a parked car or other designated landmark. A batted ball that hit on the fly a parked car or a house was an out. We’d often start on summer mornings, break for lunch and resume until suppertime. Sewers never came in to play. East 5th Street: Same rules as E 4th, except that there were 4-5 players per side, we ran ’em out, there were no automatic designated extra base hits and there were hardly any trees within 150 feet. Those games were usually played in in the early summer evenings.
regarding the 3 sewer question…
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regarding the 3 sewer question vs. 4 sewers: i played stickball in Holliswood Queens NY in the late 50s and I was taught by my late father. he once took me back to the South Bronx where he played in the late 1920s and early 1930s. 3 sewers was the furthest for a homerun and the ball had to pass three full sewers. he never mentioned 4.
We played the “traditional”…
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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.
My brother and I play one-on-one…
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My brother and I play one-on-one on a handball court in Queens. We chalk a strike zone on the handball wall and pitch as fast as we can throw. A ball hit over the court fence and over the roof of the 7-storey apartment building across the street is a home run. I am 62 and my bro 58. We hail from the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. It’s as much fun as tennis or racquetball and a hell of a lot cheaper.
I have been playing stick…
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I have been playing stick ball for a long time. When we play, we play in school yards where there are painted bases and base lines. But we play real baseball style-If there is a ground ball the ball must be thrown to the base for an out and so on. We have a high fence in left about 13ft and its 180ft away in the center there is no fence and the ball just keeps going but in right is the school and half way up is the home run about 20ft high and 190ft deep.