Stickball
Title
Stickball
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"Growing up in the Bronx in the '30s, the game of baseball was known to us as the sport played by professional ball players with names like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig or Mel Ott."
Date
2010
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Coverage
1930/1949
Identifier
1940s_(unfinished)_stickball_4-14
Text
Stickball
Growing up in the Bronx in the '30s, the game of baseball was known to us as the sport played by professional ball players with names like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig or Mel Ott. The game was played in places like Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds or Ebbitts Field. We did not play baseball. None of us owned gloves, bats or hardballs. On one occasion, my junior high school class went to Yankee Stadium as a class outing.
Once when I was in high school, I walked from my apartment in the East Bronx on Fox Street and Longwood Avenue, to the Yankee Stadium in the West Bronx at 161 Street past Jerome Avenue, a distance of close to four miles, to save five cents carfare. I followed the route of the 161 Street trolley. I took some fruit and left plenty of time to get to the Stadium before the game started. Yankee Stadium was an awesome structure. As a New Yorker, I took crowds in stride, but it was always exciting to get caught up in the thousands of fans converging on the stadium before game time. I waited on line to buy a bleacher ticket, filed in and took my seat in the bleachers behind center field. My most vivid memory of the game was of Joe Dimaggio's rear end.
The game we played that was our equivalent of baseball was stickball. The number of players on each side was determined by the number of kids we could round up. If there were eight kids on the street, there would be four on each side. All that was required was a pink rubber ball that was bought at the candy store for five cents, and a broom stick handle. I never knew why the ball was called a "spaldeen", until years later when I learned that it was manufactured by the Spaulding Company. Some guys had their own bat which they had cut down. There were subtle differences in various mop and broom handles--some longer, some thicker.
Stick ball could be played like baseball with a pitcher, or it could be played with the batter throwing up the ball and hitting it. I believe in baseball this is called hitting fungoes. When it is played with a pitcher, the ball is thrown as in baseball, overhand, but balls and strikes are not called.
Growing up in the Bronx in the '30s, the game of baseball was known to us as the sport played by professional ball players with names like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig or Mel Ott. The game was played in places like Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds or Ebbitts Field. We did not play baseball. None of us owned gloves, bats or hardballs. On one occasion, my junior high school class went to Yankee Stadium as a class outing.
Once when I was in high school, I walked from my apartment in the East Bronx on Fox Street and Longwood Avenue, to the Yankee Stadium in the West Bronx at 161 Street past Jerome Avenue, a distance of close to four miles, to save five cents carfare. I followed the route of the 161 Street trolley. I took some fruit and left plenty of time to get to the Stadium before the game started. Yankee Stadium was an awesome structure. As a New Yorker, I took crowds in stride, but it was always exciting to get caught up in the thousands of fans converging on the stadium before game time. I waited on line to buy a bleacher ticket, filed in and took my seat in the bleachers behind center field. My most vivid memory of the game was of Joe Dimaggio's rear end.
The game we played that was our equivalent of baseball was stickball. The number of players on each side was determined by the number of kids we could round up. If there were eight kids on the street, there would be four on each side. All that was required was a pink rubber ball that was bought at the candy store for five cents, and a broom stick handle. I never knew why the ball was called a "spaldeen", until years later when I learned that it was manufactured by the Spaulding Company. Some guys had their own bat which they had cut down. There were subtle differences in various mop and broom handles--some longer, some thicker.
Stick ball could be played like baseball with a pitcher, or it could be played with the batter throwing up the ball and hitting it. I believe in baseball this is called hitting fungoes. When it is played with a pitcher, the ball is thrown as in baseball, overhand, but balls and strikes are not called.
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “Stickball,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed May 3, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/105.