Remember those Spaldings that would go 400 ft. or better if you connected right?
Stickball is becoming a thing of the past.
It was a huge part of my youth.
Just curious who else played this forgotten past time.
We were all Yankees back then
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kg
[This message has been edited by kgblues (edited March 04, 2000).]
We grew up in the suburbs (Bergen County) and played a game that we called stickball, that bore no relationship to the city game of stickball.
Our game was played on the blacktop courts of the local schools (in our case, the Junior High had the best "field"). A strike zone was painted on the wall of the school building, and that strike zone counted.
The equipment was a split baseball bat (you hit with the flat side) and a dead tennis ball (we usually brought a bunch of balls, and collected them all at once after a few hits).
Flyballs that were caught or bouncers that were fielded cleanly were outs, as were strikeouts. Over the fence was a home run, against the fence on a fly was a triple, against the fence on fewer than three bounces was a double, others were singles. Runners were all imaginary, and advanced the same number of bases as the batter.
You could play this game with as many as three or four on a side, or as few as one on one. The more players, the lower the score.
We had a lot of fun with that game. You could also play it against your garage door if your parents let you (repeated punding of a garage door with a fast-pitch tennis ball will eventually knock out the panels).
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"Does Coggins look like Bonds?" - Bill White 1975
Yup kg...played stickball (always used a broomstick or mop handle) and stoopball...remember that one? It is sad that you don't see anyone playing these anymore (at least I don't). God, you brought back so many good memories! It was a happy and memorable part of growing up for me, too. Those truly were the days!
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Ambassador of Goodwill
of The Ansky39 Fan Club
Yeh kg, I also played stickball. Growing up in the Bronx, we'd play on the street. The bases would usually be a couple of parked cars, a fire hydrant, and and almost always home plate would be a manhole cover.
Every so often the Spalding would split in half, for some reason we would keep the halves....."Remember those Spaldings that would go 400 ft. or better if you connected right?" 400 ft.?....My best was 300 ft., I must of played in the deadball era.
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[This message has been edited by bxny (edited March 06, 2000).]
Being raised by yuppies in the suburbs in Jersey, the closest I got was "4-Square". Stickball is definitly more fun...
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JimF@Bronx-Bombers.com
Ansky39's Neighbor's Best Friend's 9th Cousin, Twice Removed.
stickball sounds like fun, but i've never played. i have played countless games of backyard baseball. being the only girl out of our group that played, i learned how to pitch overhand. since i grew up (and still live) on the shore, we used to play at the beach during the summer. thats alot of fun, unless you lose the ball in the ocean! it made sliding easy and a distraction for the fielder. nothing like a pile of sand being sprayed in you face. and the best part, playing during the fireworks, it was like playing under the lights!
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bthl's #1 fan
pres. of the bthl fan club
I am sad to see you go but keep your hopes up and something good will happen to you. Don't go out there not knowing what you want or people will take advantage of you, so take charge and be on your merry way.
CB 6/99
LOL! Never play te game Cricket, the English version of "baseball". Oh God, it's stupid. There's cones at first and third and you hit the ball (you only have one chance to hit the ball if you don't your out) and then right handers would run around the cone at first base and then back again to get the bat which is like a paddle. Then, you can hit again and your team gets a point. To get you out they must hit this thing called a "wicket" that is this base with three like broom handles sticking out of it. It's a WEIRD GAME, those Europeans.
We played wiffle ball as kids, and then as we all hit to third grade (I was the last one to get to that point) we went up to the Elementary school and played baseball. This kind of hard core one with no walks. And often you would get hit, lol. If you hit it the the corn field it was a home run.
Nowadays, hitting it to the corn field is nothing, no biggie. Now it's past the corn field. LOL! Now that I'm in eighth grade the corn field is too close lol!
The Teams were called:
Josh's Phillies and Phil's Yanks (I was on that team, and since me and ole Travey-boy were Yanks fans thats the name)
We dont play much anymore because the one kid is now in college and the other is a very busy sophomore (busy in the lightest sense possible)
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"Seventy-five percent of my life is basketball. The other twenty-five percent of my life is my bum. That's where I spend my Saturday nights..." Coach Eric "Jeter"
I never played but I'm sure I would have been a "three sewer man" if I did. Stoopball sounds interesting - you have to pitch the spaldeen right onto the corner of the step to make it bounce right. So many games - so little time.
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A39FC
Best GoYanks!
Stickball was played EVERY day as was stoopball and sewer manhole ball. Whenever we found a "hardball". usually with lots of tape we player the real thing.
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Nome
"The way a team plays as a whole determines it's success. You may have the greatest bunch of stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the team won't be worth a dime." George Herman ("Babe") Ruth
I never played but my dad did. He played stick, stool, and sewer ball. He usually had a sewer for home, a parked car for first, another sewer for second, another parked car for 3rd, and a cop chasing them out of the street telling them to stop playing in the way of the cars.
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We're the Yanks and we're on the top,
We sweep out the opposition with a broom and mop,
Give the bat to Bernie, he ain't shy,
Every single year we get a by,
Jeter divin on the dirt, makin the double play,
Mets fans, close your eyes, 'cause today is a Yankee day!
Sure, growing up in the Bronx, I played stickball.... and stoop ball, and paddleball, etc.
Stickball was great..... nothing more fun than dodging cars. (lol)
...btw, I never knew the ball was called Spalding until years later... as kids we called them "Spaldeens". Anybody else remember that??
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"When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player and join the circus. With the Yankees, I've accomplished both." - Graig Nettles
[This message has been edited by smr15 (edited March 13, 2000).]
I think spaldeen is correct. Spalding is a sporting goods company. Ask your corner grocer.
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A39FC
Best GoYanks!
quote:
Originally posted by smr15:
nothing more fun than dodging cars. (lol)
makes basepaths obsolete! just don't hit the cars with the ball, some people take offense to that.
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bthl's #1 fan
pres. of the bthl fan club
I am sad to see you go but keep your hopes up and something good will happen to you. Don't go out there not knowing what you want or people will take advantage of you, so take charge and be on your merry way.
CB 6/99
Yep, I played stickball. Cars were the bases, and the manhole cover in the middle of the street was home. By the way, they were "spalDEENs", not spaldings. I was the queen of stoopball, and curbball, always got the spaldeen right on the tip of the step or the curb, that sucker bounced so high in the air.......I can still hear the thunk......And we used to wrap black electrical tape around the broom handle. The vestibule of our apartment house was always filled with stickball bats, and can you imagine, the super used to throw them out as if they were garbage! I mean, WHAT was he thinking?!
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Official Bouncer - Ansky39 Fan Club.
"I love baseball."
- Roy Hobbs
"If they ask, 'who was our star?', give them 25 names..and if you forget our names, just tell them we were Yankees......"
Great topic kg! Good post everyone...
Here's a few more stickball/spaldeen stories......
It's Spaldeen
A SUMMER MEMOIR: STICKBALL IN THE CITY
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Ya know, it is so cool to be a baby boomer sometimes. Why else would they re-release spaldeens? I can't wait to get my hands on another spaldeen, and if I can't find any kids to play with, I'm gonna take a broom handle and wrap it with tape, grab my spaldeens and take my dogs to the beach and knock a few homers into the waves....hell, they love chasing balls anyway. P.S. to SMR - I too learned just a few years ago that spalding and spalDEEN were one and the same. Does anyone know how we started calling them spaldeens?
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Official Bouncer - Ansky39 Fan Club.
"I love baseball."
- Roy Hobbs
"If they ask, 'who was our star?', give them 25 names..and if you forget our names, just tell them we were Yankees......"
Oh yeah we used to play handball with the spaldeens too. God I miss those summer sounds.....I can almost hear Mr. Softee comin' around the block.
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Official Bouncer - Ansky39 Fan Club.
"I love baseball."
- Roy Hobbs
"If they ask, 'who was our star?', give them 25 names..and if you forget our names, just tell them we were Yankees......"
I played the schoolyard variation of stickball in P.S. 19 schoolyard in the Bronx. We used to go through about 6 Spaldeens a day!
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aaahhhh, sickball..I remember it well..My mom lost alot of brooms back then, and then, suddenly, you could buy colored stick ball bats with black sticky tape on them. The spaldings costs 25 cents, which required us to collect a lot of empty bottles for the refund..And when spaldings weren't available, there was the lower quality pinkie!! I remember the cops taking away the bats on several occasions as well..Balls hit on the roof, required the hitter, to go get it..Manhole covers and car door handles as bases...those spaldings could fly, and normally played barehanded...thanks for the walk down memory lane..
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[This message has been edited by bronx keed (edited April 10, 2000).]
Jeez...you kiddin'? I too grew up in the 'burbs but we played every kinda ball you could imagine...street ball, sandlot, backyard...used broomsticks, wifflebats, wooden bats, aluminum bats, wiffle balls, tennis balls, baseballs, golfballs, amusement park "ball-pit" balls...any ball we could get our hands on.
THOSE WERE THE DAYS.
The best was using an intersection as your field so that each corner was a base...only problem was CF was pretty much a house.
As for the British game Cricket, I had a very close friend years back who was born in Guyana, a small country in South America under heavy British influence. Well, let me tell you, he was the best baseball player I've ever met and he honed his skills by playing Cricket. He could hit, field, run, and throw. Little League coaches used to try to hit grounders past him and couldn't.
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See Ya!
Goto Dinologic.com
How 'bout the ground rules? How many of you came up with wacky ground rules to fit your yard/field/block?
We had a rule in my yard called a "homer-double". If you hit the ball into a certain patch of ivy, you had an automatic double. But then, you had the option to try and stretch it into a homerun. The runner stood on 2nd base, the fielder at a designated spot. Someone yelled "GO!" and the runner took off for 3rd, the fielder for the ball. If the fielder was able to get the ball out of the rough and make an accurate throw to the catcher (which was usually a tire) the runner was out.
Oh, the drama!
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See Ya!
Goto Dinologic.com
we constantly made up our own rules to fit each back yard. in my backyard if you hit it over the fence into the garden, home run. or if it wound up in the neighbors yard behind the garden, home run. if you hit the ball on our deck or roof, or in the neighbor's yard along the "first base line" it was a foul ball. our bases were dirt patches, a fence post and a tree. no ump so there were no balls. three strikes you're out, three foul balls you're out. no walks, either hit or strike out. pegging was allowed, especially if you were going for the out at home cause we never had a catcher.
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"We're a great team. Nothing can change that. Nothing can change greatness."
KFP, You know Staib park as well as me I'm sure. You remember the old field? Someone pitched me a golf ball, and I'm telling you I almost hit the Stanley Warner theater.
I'm a lefty of course.
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kg
Oh man...the STANLEY WARNER???! I'm not even sure I remember it being called that...vaguely, vaguely. Of course I know Staib...practically grew up there. We used to play stick ball against the old bathroom building in the park section.
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See Ya!
Goto Dinologic.com
Hey do any of you ex-stickball players listen to Curtis Sliwa on 770am WABC, he does Yankee talk during the season. Well, he is the stickball commisioner of New York City and last year he held stickball classics, which were attended by the likes of Joe Torre and Willie Randolf. This year I havent heard him mention it and when I called him the night after Opening Day, where i met him, I didnt have time to ask about it. If any of you are listeners, let me know if you have heard anything.
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