i grew up in the Bronx, walton ave. We played stoop ball in the school yard on one of the steps leading to the school which faced the schoolyard fence. single if it was not caught; double if it hit the bottom half of the fence; triple the top half and home run over the fence. if you caught the ball on a grounder, fly or off the fence without bouncing it was an out. so was missing the stoop.
The game called “pinners” above was a game we called “off the point” in the Bronx. We also played the other version,”off the wall” but you didn’t get a home run unless the ball hit the building across the street. You could still get an out by catching the ball off the building before it bounced on the ground. There were so many other great games. All you needed was a spaldeen and one other kid.
I grew up in Bayside, Queens,My Mom still lives in the same house.It was ringoleevio.I don’t remember thr rule. We also playe stickball with a broomhandle and a spaldeen.We also played punchball.skelly,boxball,stoopball and Chinesehandball The girls and sometimes th boys played Hop scotch,potsie?, jacks. Then there was Johnny on the Pony also known as Buc-Buc. I think all of this is almost gone
In our neighborhood in Queens we called it single, double, triple. There was no batter. The person up threw the Spaldeen against the side of a building (no stoop) and it would ricochet toward us into the “field” (cement and dirt). Of course, with a really good shot, we would all shout single, double, triple, home run! as we all scrambled in vain for the ball.
We use play a game called pinners. I don’t know where it got its name but it was a lot like stoopball. The batter would throw a ball at a decorative ledge on the side of a build. Fielders would stand in the street and try to catch the ball before it landed in the street. Past the curb on a fly and in front of the 1st player – base hit; double past the 1st player; triple if it hit the car across the street; home run if it landed across the street. Ground balls were an out. We played with 2 or more players and everyone batted. We played with a tennis ball or a pink ball.
I remember that there were 2 tests you gave a ball to check it. First you bounced to see if it was dead or live. Second, you sqeezed it to see if it was cracked, soft or hard. Once, I was in the candy store and a little kid was buying an egg ball and wanted to check it out. He innocently asked the store owner: “George, can I squeeze your balls”. We cracked up and the kid did not understand why. Remember stoop ball and 5 boxes.