The use of "Boundaries" doesn't refer to the limitations of playing sports in the street. If anything it was much more challenging than playing on a field or court. Not only were you outrunning your opponent, but you also had to outrun cars, crazy dogs - and sometimes girls running you down with 26" bikes (Eva May) who wanted to kiss you. Eeeewww!
The way we played street sports would be impossible to play on a field or court. This was due to the boundaries and obstacles we used to define the ins and outs, the plays, the lines of scrimmage, sidelines, lines for singles, doubles, triples, home runs, etc...
90% of street sports owe their existence to the invention of the Spalding Hi-Bounce pink ball (pictured above/right), traditionally known as the "Spaldeen". They cost 15 cents at Murray's candy store and lasted only up to a couple of weeks at best (before splitting or going dead) but they were great. When you first bought one they had this reddish/pink line around the seam (indicating newness) and a smell I will never forget. But don't fall for imitations (Pensie Pinkies) or - God forbid - the pink sponge balls, or you'll get laughed off the block! When they went up to 25 cents each, my life changed.
Ya had your stoop ball, box ball, pole-to-pole, laying a patch (see Skid Marks and Blood Brothers from April 4), crack top, buck buck, bottle caps (were those last three games or sports?) and more.
Stoop ball was a simple game that was played using rules similar to baseball. But instead of having the ball pitched to the batter, the batter hitting the ball with a bat into the field and the fielders fielding the ball, what would happen is this... The guy who was "up" (we'll call him the 'batter') stood facing the stoop about four steps away. The fielders (you could have one, two or three fielders) played 1) behind the batter on the sidewalk, 2) middle of the street and 3) across the street on the opposite sidewalk (when you were playing one-on-one the fielder would play the middle of the street position). The batter would then throw the Spaldeen against the stoop. If it came off the stoop as a grounder, bouncing before the street and was caught - one out. If it was bobbled or missed - Error; man on base. If the ball managed to get into the street on a fly and bounced once without being caught - single. Twice - double. Three times - triple. If the ball made it onto the other side of the street without bouncing - HR. The ideal shot would be for the batter to throw the ball and have it land on the point of one of the steps. That sucka would take off! If thrown hard enough, the ball could end up in the neighbor's back yard - across the street.
Box Ball. The 'boxes' are the forms of concrete laid out in squares which make up sidewalks all over New York and other urban settings. There were, at least, two versions of Box Ball that I know of:
1) 2 boxes separate you and an opponent in a straight line. The object is for you to hit the Spaldeen into the opponent's box using the palm of your hand as a paddle. You scored points only when serving, and when the opponent missed a return. There is also a 4 box variation for 4 players. The boxes being adjacent, making up a square.
2) 5 boxes separate you and an opponent in a straight line. One player begins the game by throwing the Spaldeen into the 'first box', directly in front of his opponent. Whether the player gets it into the box or not, it's then the opponent's turn. Once you are able to get the ball into the first box, you then try to throw the ball into the box that is two boxes away from your opponent, the 'second box', and have it bounce in both the second box and again in the first box, once each, then so on... The first person to bounce the Spaldeen successfully in all 5 boxes between him and the opponent once, wins.
Pole-to-pole was our version of football. Without goal posts, side lines or yard lines we used the boundaries the environment presented us with. The side lines were the curb of the sidewalks - that's easy. You touch the curb - you're out of bounds. The length and 'yardage' associated with the playing field was determined by the distance between telephone poles. One telephone pole was considered one end, or goal-line, of the field. Go one more (the middle pole) - that was the 50 yard line. Get past that before going 4 downs and you get a first down. One more pole and you're at the opposite end or goal-line. From play to play, lines of scrimmage were marked by spitting into the street at the point of the last tackle or where you went out of bounds. Yes. I said tackle, and with all the spitting going on between plays, to mark scrimmage, it got slippery and messy out there.
Typical plays were the 'button hook', 'out and in', 'over and out', 'out and over', 'the bomb' and 'the flea-flicker'.... "and I'll hit you" ... 'behind the red Chevy', 'by Mrs. Silverman's garbage cans', 'on the manhole cover in front of the Billy Ryan's house'.
We also played stick ball, punch ball, roller and foot hockey, basketball and other sports, between our block and others, but those are stories for another day...
2 comments:
What would we have done without our Brookly street sports and games?!!! Stoop ball WAS one of my favorites, as was "skellies" (I think that may be what you're calling "bottle caps". I remember filling a soda bottle cap with melted wax, the extra weight would knock your opponents cap WAY OUT off the chalk marked marked box playing board. The box had nine smaller boxes within it, one in each corner, one bewteen each of those, then good old winning box number "9", smack dab in the middle. The goal was to "flick" your cap with your finger from the start area to the #1, then on through the #9 box to win. Of course the better you were, the less "flicks" it would take, and the better defense you could play by knocking your opponents caps WAY OFF the "field". Another of my fav's was "pitching in". We'd find an empty wall somewhere on the block, draw a strike box on the wall, then fill it in with chalk. A batter would stand in front of the box, the pitcher somewhere in the street would throw a "spaldeen" or "pinkie" (a few cents cheaper than an original spalding, but A FEW CENTS CHEAPER, when a penny was worth something!!!) at the batter. If the batter didn't swing, and there was chalk on the ball, STRIKE ONE! After three strikes, and one out, the two would switch positions, and start again. If a grounder was hit and got by the fielder, SINGLE. If a fly ball made it to the first story across the street and on the fly, DOUBLE, second story TRIPLE, third story or over the roof, HOME RUN. We spent many a time sneaking up on other people's roofs looking for ours, and others balls, sometimes finding half a dozen or so, YEA!
But I do remember that chalk, of many colors, was sold at most candy stores, and was an integral part of a lot of Brooklyn street games. SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT, But not enough time to tell it all at one sitting. But GREAT memories!!! Thanks for your blog DAVE!!!
Skellies! That's right. I forgot the 'official' name for that. They actually sold sticks of wax in the candy store for this purpose.
We had a different name for "Pitching In". It was another variation on 'stick ball', which we played against the wall in the school yard.
Funny how even in different parts of Brooklyn there were different dialects or different names for things.
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