When I was a young and strapping athlete, I sharpened my batting eye by playing stickball
against " Big John," a neighborhood friend and an avid baseball lover of the ( then ) NY Giants.
At the local elementary school, we chalked a strike zone on a brick wall and played for hours. Sometimes, local twosomes would wander by and challenge us. We never lost to anyone, in my memory. Home or away.
I , of course, was a Yankee fan. But, as a young kid, I didn't have the composure to represent the Yankees in a stick ball game and ( possibly ) lose. This quality...or lack thereof ...continues with me today.
The point of this tale is mostly to say; I selected the Tigers as my team for stickball. If " Big John" beat me, I would not collapse emotionally. I could hold my Detroit Tiger composure and get ready for the next game.
My favorite players, of course, were : Yale Lary, Al Kaline and Harvey Keune ( I can't spell this one). The latter two were all stars in their early 20's and great at everything. Yale Lary, of course, was a "Yankee killer" in real life, but, on my team he was just a great inspiration.
The point of this tale is mostly to say; I selected the Tigers as my team for stickball. If " Big John" beat me, I would not collapse emotionally. I could hold my Detroit Tiger composure and get ready for the next game.
My favorite players, of course, were : Yale Lary, Al Kaline and Harvey Keune ( I can't spell this one). The latter two were all stars in their early 20's and great at everything. Yale Lary, of course, was a "Yankee killer" in real life, but, on my team he was just a great inspiration.
In the end, I think "Big John" and I broke even, after about 1000 games. He was a better pitcher and could hit the "spaldine" ( those pink things ) a country mile....but I was a better fielder and clutch hitter. I think I got lucky a few times, as well.
Whoever won, we would retreat to the local deli for orange Nehi and Twinkies. A great remedy for hurt feelings.
Sorry to hear of Al's passing, but he'll be an all star wherever he winds up.
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15 comments:
Yale Larry?
Yes, admittedly if he had done that it would`ve been an experience that would`ve even out-ranked winning The World Series in terms of legendary magnificence and unmitigated perfection ! ! !, as it were.
Frank Lary, I think he means. As opposed to Frankie Yale, the old mobster.
Considering how many times Lary beat the Yankees, I often consider them morally equivalent.
But I completely understand that, Alphonso.
I never wanted to stand in for Yankees, either.
Mickey Mantle? I wasn't fit to bear his name, even in a fantasy game.
The sacred must be kept sacred.
Please permit me another memory: When I was young, one indulgence I was allowed was to buy a board game -- Challenge The Yankees. I don't remember reading anything about this game here on IIH.
Shortly after I obtained it, one of my cousins was hit with a debilitating kidney disease, Nephritis. He was just a few weeks older. It hit him hard. He retained water and (a skinny guy, really) - he blew up like a balloon. He was house-bound.
So: That summer, I went to his house (six Brooklyn blocks away, which is nothing) with my board game. We played and played and played. He was the bad guys, I was the Yankees.
The things I remember about the game:
a. Mickey Mantle's player card was incredible. If you rolled a 7 on the dice, he hit a single. No one else had that (no Yankees, no opponents).
b. We played until going back to school. The "record" finished at something like 93-93. That's right, we played 186 games.
c. I was an idiot (still am) and threw the thing out at some point. It almost certainly would now be a collector's item.
[my cousin recovered, by the way]
I found a description online:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7654/challenge-yankees
AND: Yes, I also played throw-against-the-school stickball, as no doubt everyone here did (with colored chalk for the strike zone, so there would be fewer arguments about where the last pitch was). And slapball. And "triangle" ball -- you played in the street, 3 bases, at a fire hydrant (first base was at one parked car, 3B at the other).
I was a lot better at that board game . . . altho my record did not reflect how good the early-Sixties Yankees actually were.
Yale Lary did play for Detroit, but it was for the Lions not the Tigers.
I always fantasized about representing the Yankees as a kid. On just about every Little League team in NJ (and everywhere in the tri-state area, I suspect ), kids would fist fight over who got # 7. It was usually doled out to coach's son or if he didn't have one of age, he gave it to favorite player.
In my neighborhood we played stickball with a chalk box on the schoolyard wall but we didn't use spauldeens (except when playing "off the wall" which was played on the side of our apartment building. It was another baseball themed game. Did anybody else play this?)
For stickball we used tennis balls and baseball bats. Mine was a Yogi Berra bat day bat from when they used to give out actual bats. We didn't play as any existing teams though. Just as ourselves.
Doug K.
Yale Larry was Frank Larry? Cool. Thanks for refreshing my deteriorating memory.
Hi All,
I'm a long-time lurker, first-time poster. I felt moved to respond to Joe Formerly of Brooklyn. (Weirdly, my actual name is Joe, and I am formerly of Brooklyn, too -- Bed-Stuy, to be exact. Now living in Jax, FL.)
Joe, I remember all those street games. We played off-the-wall as off-the-point (threw the Spaldeen at a point below the gate of a house). We also played stickball fungo-style and if you could hit it two sewers you were pretty good, three sewers made you an immortal. Where did the bats come from? Somebody (not me!) would steal a mop from a fire escape and ... well, you probably know the rest.
Triangle and slapball were other favorites. Do you remember the penalty for "pitching" a "fluke"? Also called a "spinner"? And, of course, punchball was king if you could find enough players.
You probably also played one-wall handball. When I went to school in the Midwest, I was amazed to find out that handball was played in a room with a ceiling and four walls! What was that all about?
Thanks for bringing back the memories, Joe.
welcome ajax
Doug K.
Thanks, Doug. Did you have a “lightning” rule in off-the-wall? When we played it on a handball court, that rule went into effect on the third out: the team in the field could throw the ball against the wall before the other team took the field. I’m sure this built up our alertness-related skill sets ...
No. But if the ball was fielded cleanly on a hop and there was guy on first you could get a double play by quickly throwing and hitting the "Standpipe Riser Control" sign. (I think that's what it said)
Doug K.
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