by Digger

The lost art of Stickball. Once upon a time, stickball was one of the most popular street games ever to be played. There were various forms of this pickup game made famous dating back to the early 20th century. Many baseball players used to speak of playing stickball as kids growing up within inner city limits.

When played on city streets, the most popular version of the game was to pitch a rubber ball on a bounce. A man hole cover symbolized home plate. The batter would whack it hard as he could. Nearly everything was in play from cars to newpaper stands. Only the buildings represented foul territory. In street games, sometimes it was played by fungo instead of live pitching. Some of baseball's most famous players used to play including Willie Mays. One of the features which made stickball so great was only a couple of players were needed.

For the fast pitch game which I grew up playing, we'd find a school yard and etch a chaulk box on an exterior wall representing a strike zone. We'd then designate distance lines from the box. Anything hit past the pitcher was a single, past a 2nd line a double, 3rd line triple and into the woods on a fly was a home run.

These pickup games were great fun. There were always kids coming to play in days of old. Everyone wanted a turn. In my father's day, bounce pitch was most popular (city ball). Rivalries from neighbourhood to neighbourhood intensified each week. In the 30's and 40's, it was ethnic or racial teams squaring off (neighbourhoods weren't as diverse as now). After school in the spring or when kids were looking for something to do in the summer, the streets would be lined with kids looking to play or jeering against kids from other neighbourhoods.

It's a lost art in today's world. Neighbourhoods are so diversified and with technology ruling the day... stickball has long been forgotten or non-existent to kids in today's world. Not to diehards like myself. There's still a box etched onto the back of my old schoolyard wall. Those were some of the best games. Some even better than little league games. Power pitchers dominated and sometimes power hitters ended games early after crushing the ball too deep to retrieve from the woods. Stickball bats were plentiful to find in local toy stores or made from broom handles. Ah, those were the days.

When searching the internet, one can find stickball leagues but they're few and far between. In days of old, driving down New York City streets would often interrupt games. It's very rare to accidentally stumble onto a game in progress in today's world. Never once played a game outside of the Northeast while living in Florida or Dallas. Now that I think of it, I don't ever remember seeing a strike zone box chaulked onto school walls.

My last game played was to be a one on one game. My friend and I headed to our old stomping grounds school for a heads up match. We ran into a group of teens playing who quickly challenged us "old men". We schooled them before our arms fell off after completing 4 innings. Gasping for air, we called it quits and enjoyed our final victory.

I've been quite surprised to learn the game hasn't been popular on college campuses. It's such an easy game to organize. Perhaps it's time to revive one of America's oldest games.