Streetplay Discussion Archive

This is a sidewalk game of skill called “Pack.” The currency for payoffs was in “tickets” (cards); these were usually movie star cards or WWII cards depicting airplanes, ships, or war scenes. The only piece of equipment was a pack of cards (these could be ordinary playing cards) tied up with rubber bands or tape. The “court” consisted of four sidewalk boxes in a row. At one end was the base or starting line. Three boxes away (i.e. at the start of the fourth box) was the LINE. Assume that an order of play was agreed upon (more about this later). Then, in turn, one tossed his pack from the base line toward the LINE. Closest to (or on) the LINE determined the order of play for the rest of this round. If more than one was on the LINE, priority went to the later ones. To play, one picks up his pack and kneels, putting one knee where the pack was. With the other arm not on the ground for balance, one would toss (or place) his pack. One had to get his pack on the LINE to convert his pack into a KING; for only a KING could “capture” another pack. To capture another pack, your pack must lie on top of his (leaning but partially on top is OK). The captured player pays the capturing player one ticket and removes his pack from this round of the game. Getting on the LINE or capturing lets you immediately play again. The round ceases when all but one pack remains. Playing order for the beginning of the next round is the order in which players were captured in the previous round. Obviously it is good to be last (so that you can either go for the LINE or drop quite short of it to avoid being captured early. The last player to begin the round is called LARRY. How to start the game: Someone says “Let’s play pack.” Everyone immediately yells, “Larry.” Somehow (by oldest or bulliest player making an arbitrary decision) they agree on the order in which people yelled “Larry.” The first one who yelled “Larry” gets to go last; the second one, next to last, etc. Bad features: Parents did not approve of this for two reasons: (1) It promoted gambling, little kids invariably lost all their tickets to the big kids with their longer reach. (2) Very quickly, a hole would be worn in your right knee of your best corduroy pants. Good feature: It encouraged the purchasing of “tickets”: These usually came in a strip of eight which had to be cut apart. Much war history was learned by kids reading the backs of their tickets.

My name is Ira Gutman and i grew up in the Glenwood Projects/Brooklyn,N.Y. from 1953-1965 and i have fond memories of playing “Ringoleavio!

Stoop Ball — As played in the early ’60’s on Ave Z and E. 13 Street. Our stoop was a brick structure 5 steps high. We had to stand at least 2 “boxes” (lines in the cement) back. You threw the ball at the stoop, and had to catch the bouce-back in no more than one bounce. Catching it on one bounce was 5 points, with no bounce, 10 points. If the ball shot back, straight at you because it hit the tip of the step, and you caught it “on the fly”, it was 50 points. — Very hard to do. You continued your turn until you couldn’t catch it on the first bounce. Usually 100 points won the game.

We played with pitching against a wall with a chalk strikezone. It was a deadend street in Brooklyn that backed onto what we called the Long Island Railroad–actually the freight line. Past the pitcher on the ground was a single, unless caught. Over the fence and down to the tracks was an out, unless it made it all the way down the hill on a fly, in which case it was a double. Up the hill on the other side was a triple. All the way across the tracks and the fence on the other side was a home run. Over the top of the 6 story building that was across the tracks on the other side was a grand slam. We used to have to stop and go down to the tracks and get the balls to restart the game. You needed 3 or 4 balls if you really wanted to play all day. The BMT was right next to the “field” on the left hand side. Foul balls onto the BMT were only chased if you were out of balls because we would catch hell if our mothers saw us climbing the fence to go onto the subway tracks. We preferred spauldings because you could throw a wicked curve with it. When we first started playing we used broomsticks, but they soon came out with “official” stickball bats. Stickball was the greatest game ever invented. Why isn’t it a professional sport?

Off The Point. Not to be confused with Off The Curb. Front of Building had an Abutment rising about 24″Inches with a angled Top. One player in Middle of street, Second player across street up against wall. You would hit The Point at top of abutment & try to hit Wall across street for a Home Run. No running. Who ever caught Ball (Spaldeen) on fly was up next. This Pink Ball was a way of life in The West Bronx.

To be able to play on Andrews Avenue (West Bronx) each player had to be able to hit a minimum of a sewer. Two Sewers and you were a Strong hitter. Ron & myself were Three sewer hitters making us the Home Run Kings. On rare occasions you hit both Three sweres & over the Six(6) story building. Rules were as previously mentioned – Down The Line – Right car was First – Second was Middle Sewer- Left car was Third. Lived for THIS game – Also same game without Bat was Punchball.

I was thinking of the games we used to play with a Spaldeen. There were games for only one person up through a full baseball team. As I remember them they were: 1 Person Catch with yourself- throw the ball up and catch it. Practicing your pitching against a box on the wall Throwing the ball against the wall to see how high you could throw it. On the roof was the ultimate Throwing the ball off the wall (or stoop) and practicing your catching ability. 2 Persons Box Baseball Hit the penny. Stickball Catch American Handball, paddle ball, etc. Off the wall Stoopball 3 Persons Monkey in the middle Running Bases Salugi (?) or keep away Chinese handball Larger Groups Punchball Slapball I’m sure there are more. But for 25 cents, nothing could beat thatbeautiful pink ball with the word Spaulding stamped on it. We didn’t need our parents making schedules, driving us all over the place. Just us and a little ball, and we were in heaven for hours. Mark Podhorzer Now of Atlanta GA, but in my heart always from Brooklyn

We statred out using an old mop handle as our “stick,” but as we got older we would pool our money and go to the local lumber yard and buy a 32-34″ piece of closet pole and wrap the bottom with black sticky electric tape (before the pine tar era). We even graduated to an old beaten up tennis ball rather than a pinky.

In our neighborhood (Boro Park section of Brooklyn) street stickball was played “up the middle.” No pulling the ball beyond the street curbs or parked cars (which were in play). It was strickly an up the middle hit or an out. We played the “one bounce” version which allowwed tricks on the ball to increase the ball movement and give the defense an edge.

Ken Edwards Brighton Beach 50’s and 60’s. You would wake up in the morning and wait. Soon you would hear, “Hey Kenny, could you come out?” If your parents were up, you would say, “Ma, can I go out and play?” In about 20 minutes, you had about 10 to 20 friends trying to figure out what to do first. Sometimes it was stickball, sometimes dodgeball, sometimes it was skelly or chinese handball. If it was too early in the morning, water would be flying out of somebody’s window and they would yell, “can’t you kids play elsewhere, it is too early in the morning.” No matter what, you were with a group of friends. This lasted till your mother popped her head out of the window and yelled your name to come home. 4 October 1997