Page 707 - WhyAsInY

various GaMes
racket and either a Spaldeen or a tennis ball, but there was only one wall, the one that handball players used. In my neighborhood, even the poor man’s version of squash racquets, squash, was considered fairly “hoity-toity.”
stiCkBall was a pitching and hitting game that was played with a Spal- deen and a cylindrical stick, usually a broom handle. A single, double, triple, or home run would be a function of how far the ball traveled, assuming, of course, that it did not go foul or get caught on a fly. I forget how ground balls were handled. If stickball was played in the street, the manhole covers would serve as distance markers, and a truly great hitter would be known as a “two sewer man.” When I would kiddingly boast about my batting prowess, I would claim that the City would let me bat and then place its manhole covers in accordance with my results. Younger boys would play one-bounce stickball and employ “flooking” (see page 685) to fool the batter. Older boys played stickball where the pitching was done on a fly. When either form of stickball was played in a schoolyard or playground, a rectangle of appropriate size would be chalked on a wall in front of which the batter would stand. That rect- angle, conceived of by children well in advance of the invention of the computer-generated targets that are now superimposed on TV screens during baseball telecasts, served not just as a target for the throwing of strikes but also as a silent and unchallengeable home-plate umpire. Ultimately, someone started manufacturing stickball bats, which I pre- sume were bought by the richer kids.
stoopBall was a game that could be played by two competitors, or alone by one boy who was seeking to polish his catching skills. As the name implies, stoopball was played by throwing the Spaldeen against the brick front steps of a house. You were usually guaranteed a winning point by throwing a killer, a ball that hit the corner of a step forcefully and at a downward angle. The result would be a ball speeding in a sud- den trajectory over the head of the opponent. Because Ocean Avenue had tons of cars, however, killers were not a great idea to throw at 1771,
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