What some people call Box Ball, we on Cabrini Blvd. between 177th & 178th Streets in Washington Hights, NY we called SLUG. Slug was played on a street bldg. wall and the expansion joints on the street was the dividing line to the curb. Also, baseball was played in the Court Yards to the entrance of buildings (somewhat confining, but you played a good quick game..
as a kid in the Bronx i played stickball, handball and slugs. what fun it was to play stickball. we played against the wall – fast pitch, one bounce and the 3 sewer home run derby. i remember playing fast pitch with the coke factory behind us. a hit was anything not caught after one bounce. an out was over metal mess fence, over roof and the person who hit it there had to get it. sometimes the workers in the coke plant had windows open for air and watching us kids play. if ball went through open window it was an out. fast pitch and one bounce was two strikes per out. left the Bronx and came to Worcester ma. everyone was into hardball and never heard of stickball. still love stickball at age 62. in wheelchair now but want to play. would love to start a league here. any ideas?
Thats chinese handball! or ace, king, queen. I dont remember it being called slug. Names of games changed in all areas of ny in the 1960’s.In QUEENS it was,hey you wanna play ‘chinese’. We played in the school park against the brick wall of a park bathroom building.We used a spaldeen.It was a very fast game,played low to the ground,and wore out alot of Keds sneakers. You had to find a good place with a wall or fence in back of you,so you didnt have to chase the ball.
I don’t have much to add, so forgive me for repeating anything: Spaldeens cost about 25 cents in the 1960’s in my neighborhood in The Bronx near Morris Avenue and 164th Street. Occasionally Harry’s candy store sold “seconds” for about 15 cents or twenty cents. The Five and Ten on Morris Avenue sold P Pensie Pinkies, which I remember as softer and inferior balls — they were for girls’ games. They were not the ball of choice for the boys. And new Spaldeens had some kind of powder on them — and had a distinctive smell. And some were harder than other — those are the ones you wanted, because they bounced better. We didn’t play stick ball on my block but we played Slug — also known as King Queen Jack on some blocks — who remembers that game? It was played in the boxes on the sidewalk, against the apartment house wall — WHO REMEMBERS SLUG?
Several years ago, I was trying to explain the game of skully (skullies) to my wife, when I came upon this site. I told my brother and sisters about it, and haven’t been back here since. Recently, we were talking about other games we played in the city (Bronx) and we all remembered the game SLUGS. We never knew it as any other name, no one on the block called it Chinese Handball, Ace-King-Queen, etc. It was always known by us, and everyone around the block, as SLUGS. We lived and played this game around 181 St., on Valentine Ave, and over at P.S. 9/115, which isn’t even called that anymore (damn, imagine that, they changed our school names). Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, it’s been 30 years since I lived and played in the Bronx. Can’t tell you how much I miss playing stickball, and off-the-point (stoop-ball), off-the-wall and skullies (we use to take the school chairs into the hallway or stairs where they had those big iron grids covering the radiators, the grids just the right size to pop the metal chair slide off the bottom of the chairs – which we all know kicked ass over the bottle cap tops, or the bottle rings tops). And then there was kick-the-can, Ringoleavio, and on a hot summer day, we open up those fire hydrants and use a can with the lid removed on both ends to direct volumes of arching water all over… damn, it was great. Anyway… just wanted to share, and will be forwarding this forum to my brother and sisters so that they too can be assured, we weren’t fooling ourselves… it was called SLUGS.
Wow! Thanks for the memories.If you came to the block with a bottle cap we would probably under estimate you because that was like a beginners style.I wonder if school chair caps was a Bronx thing ’cause they are the only ones i saw posting it. I used to play on Marion ave. and also Decatur ave in The Bronx during the seventies.We took our mothers can openers to school and took the caps off of the chairs to get a professional’s cap. Small caps were called beenies and large were bullies. Sometimes we used clay instead of wax.If your cap began to roll you’d better yell “no kicksies” or we’d kick it like a soccer ball and more than likely you were guaranteed to lose.I think the drug infested eighties destroyed these games like ringoleavio,slugs,of the curb,stick ball,off the wall,kick the can,…………….you get the idea.
God Bless you and yours MrGodswrench,i use to play slugs in the Bronx and stickball and skellzies i grew up on West Farms Road on the corner of Homes St. and Longfellow Ave.the info. you give about slugs is right thats it no more,no less.I tried to teach some kids and my son here on the island,by the way i live in Ponce,Puerto Rico.But they rather play nintendo,xbox,etc.Iam a born again christian also,Keep The Faith Bro.
This is a South Bronx tale: the setting is mid to late ’60s, Kelly Street 10 hundreds block = longer than most with wall to wall five story tenement buildings. We played stickball starting from the second fire-hydrant sewer lid (homeplate) towards the end of the block. Anything over the “wire” not caught was an automatic homerun. Only two guys ever hit the ball onto the roof of 1069 thanks to a favorable wind: Manny and Junior. We seldom played pitch ball but rather bounced the ball before hitting it or hit it in the air. Balls stuck on fire-escapes or on the roof before the “wire” were outs, down the basements were doubles. sidewalks were all you can run. The wire was a cable hanging across the street behind the second sewer lid which was a few feet behind second base. Only players from our street were allowed to toss their sneakers onto the wire. Those trophies were never taken down. When there weren’t enough guys to play a game, two guys with bats would hit the ball back and forth one from homeplate and the other from the third sewer lid towards homeplate. Spaldeens were the prefered ball, used also for slugs off the wall of Mr. Friar’s building 1045 Kelly Street; or hitting off the stoop of 1048 Kelly Street. Louie, Jorge, Mickey, Augie, Joel, Victor, Junior, Moses, George Pinocchio were the regulars. Stickball on Kelly Street died in 1978 when the whole block was nuked for redevelopment. We also played a mean game of skelzies and had the best aerial kite battles between glass-cord diamonds and razorblade sneekies. Those were the days!
Check this out. My name is Parish Da Moment and back in the day, in south bronx on 173 and Monroe ave in 1982,83,84,85. My friend and i played SLUGS(what people call chinesse handball). Now i have to boast about my street game(SLUGS)ON THIS STREETPLAY DISCUSSION. I still and allways have skills in SLUGS(CHINESSE HANDBALL)even at the age iam in 30ish something.THIS IS A ROLL CALL for anybody who thinks they have any skills. I take on the young,old,male,female cause my skills is still on PAR,for THE OLD TIMER AND YOUNGER CATS,that means I HAVE GAME!!! whew! I had to get this off my chest.To get in contact kingptm [at] yahoo [dot] com Any takers. Eastside all day,all night ya heard!!! PEACE.
I just found this site and it’s great.We played skully for hours on end on 189th St.in Manhattan.In between,we’d play stickball,off the point(curbball)or Johnny ride the pony.Also,I noticed someone mentioned “slugs”.We called this “Chinese” which I found out was short for Chinese handball.How about that,a bottlecap,a broomstick,and a “spaldeen” was all the equipment we needed for fun from March to November.Who needs Playstation?