Stickball was a big Bronx game as well.
I lived on Decatur Avenue which backed up on Woodlawn cemetery.
in the late 40's early 50's We played stick street ball (like Willie) but also
pitched to boxes across E 211 St (never knew the name), painted on the concrete wall of the cemetery, and hit the spauldeen across a big lot (now filled by another apartment house). I went back to take a peek a few years ago and the boxes are still there.
In Queens (we moved in '52 or 3), my stickball was played in Jewel Ave Park...against the tall wire fence of the handball court. there was a plate conveniently painted for balls and strikes. It was 350-400 feet across the concrete softball field to the far fence...With a Spauldeen, one could quite readily hit it that far.
The staples of my ‘yoot’ [read youth] in the early 50s were chalk and Spaldeens. 90% of our street games involved one or the other, or both, eh?
What’s a "Spaldeen?" Well, a Spaldeen, is a pink rubber ball, the size of a tennis ball without the felt. The name is a corruption of the pronunciation of the company name, Spalding, probably colored by a Noo Yawk City dialect.
Our main beverage in the day wuz “chocolate egg crèmes’ which we bought daily [at least once] from the same ‘candy store’ where we got chalk and our Spaldeens!
Our main game was stickball and its many versions: fungo stickball(grounders), catcher-flier-up, triangle, boxball, one-bounce over a manhole cover, fast-pitch over a manhole cover, etc. If you could hit a Spaldeen over three manhole covers [more than 3 sewers] then you were a local hero!
My favourite stickball iteration was fast-pitch-up-against-a-wall which required only a broomsick, chalk and a Spaldeen. A box is drawn with chalk on the wall which defines the strike zone. About forty feet away, a heavy chalk line is drawn on the ground which designates the mound. The pitcher throws as hard as he can into the box to try to strike out the batter. If he throws four balls outside the batter’s box, the batter is awarded 1st-base. A disputed call is settled if there is chalk on the ball which is wiped clean after every pitch. It only takes a second.
Our favourite fast-pitch venue was PS 65 bcuz it had a big fenced-in courtyard. A single was a ground ball hit past the pitcher/infielders without being caught. A double was a fly ball, hit over the pitcher’s head, without being caught. A home run was a fly ball hit over the 18-foot courtyard fence. A triple was a fly ball that hit the far-away fence and dropped to the ground..
Adding gr8 interest to fast-pitch stickball was running down your favourite lineup from MLB.
My lineup wuz: 1) Alvin Dark 2) Eeddie Stanky 3) Whitey Lockman 4) Monte Irvin 5) Bobby Thomson 6) Willie Mays 7) Don Mueller 8) Wes Westrum 9) and Sal “the Barber”. Guess who?
It should be noted that if you played fast-pitch [with lineups] you had to be a switch-hitter. Thus if Don Mueller was up, you had to bat lefty; if Monte Irvin was up you had to bat righty, eh?
Most of the 40 or 50 street games that we played with chalk and/or Spaldeens were made up on the fly requiring LOTS of imagination and creativity. I doubt if future generations of kids will [ever] be able to reprise that era.
