Tom Brennan has a great question here.
Have any of you ever played stick ball?
I have... but never in the street. Tommy Leecock and I would go over to our old grade school, P.S. 62, and we would chalk a box along the brick wall that would act as the strike zone.
And then the fun would begin...
What about you?
I played 3 versions:
ReplyDelete1) The box on the wall(fast pitch) in schoolyard.
2) Slow pitch on bounce, with spin and baserunning, in street.
3) Fungo hitting, also with baserunning, in street.
I used to play constantly, pitching to a box on stickball courts in Braddock Park in Queens. Mostly with my older brother John and my friend John. I'd give them 5 outs, I'd take two. They never won. I used to occasionally hit my friend John with pitches, because he (unintentionally) used to hit me a lot, because he was wild.
ReplyDeleteI used to try to hit homers beyond the stickball fence and the softball field behind it. The fence at the back of the softball field was high and there were trees. It was hard to do because of that barrier, and also because, if you really nailed a shot, a lot of times it had down-spin. But over time, I managed to get several out, and it was a big thrill.
Around that time, I went once at dusk with my younger brother Bob - I was 14, he was 10 - I was throwing hard as I could and he managed to hit one hard on a line - I couldn't see it, but It hit me two inches from "the package". Way too close for comfort!
Lastly, years later, when I was in my mid twenties, I played against my youngest brother Steve. Wicked lefty curve that this lefty hitter couldn't touch. His story follows.
From my brother Steve, who was THAT GOOD
ReplyDeleteYes … I played stickball.
We would play against the wall in the big school yards and use the shave tennis balls.
As kids … we played ALL the time. Neighborhood vs. Neighborhood. Days / nights / weekends.
Then there were times … I teamed-up with my best friend Jimmy and play 2 man teams / games. We were 15-16 and our opponents were 21-35. We took 2 outs and gave them 4 OUTS … It was never close.
The local bars would bet on our games and give us $$ each after we won. I threw a baseball hard - I was basically unhittable.
Age difference made no difference.
No stick ball for me, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we played the hell out of wiffle ball.........you could make the ball do all kinds of crazy things as a pitcher. Or, if we were short on players, we had some legendary Home Run Derby matchups.
Good times.
Yep, they sure were good times.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't use tennis balls ;we used Spaulding rubber balls (pronounced "SpalDEENS" of course).
ReplyDeleteBut I never reached your level of Major League Stickball. 😬
Bill, I used Pensy Pinkies - the Spaldeens seemed to slit open too much.
ReplyDeleteAnd wait til you hear about Steve's baseball adventures in a few days.
We used the pink balls and we did a Lot of whiffke ball in the NJ suburbs, too.
ReplyDeleteWhich pink ones---the Spaldeens or the Pennsy Pinkies, which we thought were inferior?
ReplyDeleteSpaldeens or the Kmart equivalent
ReplyDeleteWiffle ball was my thing. It helped me hit the curve ball but I never could hit the inside fastball.
ReplyDeletePensy pinkies for handball and stickball, baby. Wiffle ball for me was up until around 7.
ReplyDelete