Ball Games I Played During the 1940s and 1950s.

Basketball, volleyball, punchball, stickball, dodgeball, box ball, box baseball, baseball, softball, stoop ball, touch football, handball, kickball, wall ball. Ping-pong. Hit the penny. Never played tennis or tackle football. Never even heard of soccer.

What have I forgotten?

Comments

[Don Z. Block]

We called it slapball or square. The field was located on the Avenue H-East Ninth Street intersection. Each corner of the 4-way intersection was a base. Home plate was the sewer near the front entrance to Fred and Rudy's candy store. A pitcher would throw the ball in on one bounce. The batter would have to hit grounders through the infield. Line drives or any types of pop-ups past the infield were automatic outs. In one memorable incident, the late Monte Spellman nearly slid down the sewer to avoid a tag and score. He played tackle football for Midwood, and it was generally understood that tackle football players were crazier than the rest of us.

[Fred Foy]

Thought of another one. At times when we couldn't get a quorum for a decent stick- or punch-ball game, we'd play Running Bases. All you needed were two bases, two basemen, one ball, and one or more base-ruunners. The basemen were obliged to throw the ball back and forth while the runners got into, and reied to get out of, rundowns. (A rundown was also known as a "pickle.") When you had two or more runners in a pickle at the same time, chaos was sure to follow.

[Jackie Kelk]

Happy birthday! I thought of another ball game we played often - called "I declare war." Each player represented a country. The player who was It threw the spaldeen up in the air and said, "I declare war on [let's say] Sweden!" Everyone who was not Sweden started running and hiding. As soon as "Sweden" caught the ball, he or she would say "Steop!" and all the runners/hiders would have to freeze. Sweden would then fire the ball at one of them. If Sweden hit the target, then that target-country would be It for the next round, and the world wars would contuinue until the Good Humor man arrived.

[House Jameson]

Good list. On 71st Street we played a lot of poison-ball (a form of dodgeball).