Tag Archives: spaldeen types
Great site. I…
Great site. I learned about stickball at 15 yrs of age from a fellow by the name of Bobby Graham, a Brooklyn guy who worked at the same place where I was doing summer jobs in Roxbury MA. We used to play after work on Fridays while waiting for our paychecks to be issued. Loved the game from the first moment I laid my hands on that broomstick. We played fast-pitch in local schoolyards with a strike zone on the wall. Ground rules varied according to the game site, but a home run was always over the school building or across the street. The “official” ball was the pimple ball; we only used pinkies when unable to find pimple balls at the 5&10. In fact, pimple balls ultimately got so hard to find that we would go to extreme lengths to retrieve them in the course of game. It was always a sad thing when someone hit a pimple ball right on the seam and split it. Haven’t seen a pimple ball in a LONG time, though. I remember spending many hours practicing and perfecting my pitching technique. Those were the days when a kid had plenty of time on his hands after school and before dinner. It got to the point where I could reliably hit the door handle of my house garage door from across the street. Developed about a half dozen different pitches, including a wicked Elroy Face inspired sinker. Had some wicked grudge match games against local neighborhood rivals. One of my great sports moments was pitching nine straight no-hitters against them. They refused to play us any more. I guess we still own the bragging rights in that rivalry. Nice to be able to share my memories with people who remember and understand this great street sport. Better than golf IMO.
I was on the employee bus…
I was on the employee bus tonight and brought up pensie pinky balls. and the games we played. A my name is Alice…. there were 4 other women all aged about 40-55 ish and NOT ONE knew what I was talking about. Grantd I live in Houston now, but some of these women are from back east, like PA. They all thought I was nuts! So here I am Googling it for them.
In the East Bronx in the…
In the East Bronx in the ’50s, Spaldeens were the ball of choice; Pennsy Pinkies were second choice. Ethan Robbins could punch a Spaldeen over the outfield fence. I was in awe. But I have a question. Did they always say “Spalding High-Bounce Ball” on them? I seem to remember them saying “Spaldeen”.
What an excellent site….
What an excellent site. I was just talking to a co-worker about pimple balls and decide to do a search. I came upon this site. Man, in Mayfair/Holmesburg life was great in the 70’s and 80’s. Wall ball, ass ball, step ball, wire ball, stick ball, half ball, homerun derby, man hunt, hide the belt. All classic games only played in Philly as far as I knew anyway. Oh, can’t forget wiffle ball. We had the perfect field for wiffle ball. We would play ovet at Forrest Elementry at Cottage and Bliegh St. We played between two buildings. Hitting the ball past the defense and the ball hitting the wall below the ledge was a single, above the ledge but below the window was a double, in the area where the window was, was a triple and above the window was a homer. The defense could catch it off the wall and it was an out. If they missed it and it hit the ground then it was a hit. Great game!
we played with pensie pinkies…
Played stick ball at PS…
Played stick ball at PS 46 in Bayside (Queens) N.Y. from 1960-1967. The ‘field’ consisted of the fence (used for the handball court) behind home plate (that was drawn on the ground), a fence from home plate with a distance of approximately 125-175 feet (it ran on a diagonal) and a fence (that was the foul pole) that ran down the right side of the field until it met the other fence in the right corner of the field. The foul pole on the left side of the field was a post on the fence approximately 175 feet from home plate. The pitcher stood approximately 50-60 feet away from home plate. There was no running. The batter would hit the ball and the result would be as follows: 1. A grounder caught by the pitcher was an out. 2. A grounder not caught by the pitcher was a single. 3. A fly ball caught by the pitcher was an out. 4. A fly ball that landed between the pitcher and the fence was a double. 5. A fly ball that hit the fence was a triple. 6. A fly ball over the fence was a home run. I used a number of bats that I purchased for 59 or 69 cents at the local candy store. These bats came in a variety of colors, were regulation size and width and of course they had the unmistakable black tape wrapped around the upper portion of the bat. The ball used was either a Spaldeen or a Pensie Pinkie. What a great game.
Someone mentioned the game…
Anyone looking for a Pimple…
I grew up in East New York…
I grew up in East New York and Howard Beach. We played punchball in both neighborhoods,but not as Peter B. described above. Punchball, which we prefered the Pensie Pinkie for due to it’s being softer was basically played the same as baseball (on the street, in parking lot, even a driveway between houses when we were younger (in this version if you hit the wall on the fly you were out). The “batter” punched the ball (anyway he pleased), but overhand produced longer hits. In H.B. we played a game called “slapball” which was similar to Peter’s version of punchball, but played with out 2nd base. The field was a small triangle, the pitcher who stood in the center of the triangle had to pitch the ball over the plate, underhanded, on one bounce. The batter could wait for a pich he like, when the ball was hit, openhanded, it could not pass the line between 1st and 3rd or the batter was out. All other rules were the same as baseball (no stealing). The Spaldeen was our preferred ball for stickball since it was more durable. Of course most of the time we played with any ball we could fish out of a sewer, or pull out of a drainpipe that we’d climb up to.