GARAGE-WALL BALL part II

GARAGE-WALL BALL part II

My recent post “GARAGE-WALL BALL” http://joeh-crankyoldman.blogspot.com/2012/04/garage-wall-ball.html elicited several interesting comments. 

 JohnD from down-under http://toktokplace.blogspot.com/ commented:

We played street cricket - two garbage bins for wickets a fence paling for a bat and a tennis ball. A hit over (any) fence was an automatic out - each batsmen faced 12 balls (2 overs) and whoever could score the most runs won the match. If a vehicle came down the street the 'keeper had to grab the batsman's wicket (bin) and the bowler the other bin at his/her end.

I'm sure there were more rools but they were the basics - we were flexible with rools and made them up to suit the circumstances - like we had one kid in leg braces so he didn't have to run between wickets.

As you can imagine, with the passage of time, the bins became very dented so my brother and I were always careful not to choose the bin from our home. LOL!

I have no idea about cricket, but I love how everyone is included when kids make the rules.  If one kid is a cripple, then he doesn’t have to run.  When adults run youth leagues these simple adjustments to a game take months to pass.

Then there was this from Katrina at http://www.theyallcallmemom.com/

Anyone lucky enough to get comments from Katrina knows her comments are sometimes longer than a typical post:

Fun post!
I love how kids make up their own versions of team sports. When I was a kid, we lived on a cul-de-sac street in southern CA. Our cul-de-sac wasn't all that large and so a game of baseball could not be played (without a parked car's window getting smashed) so instead we played Kick Ball. I loved kick ball!! I was good at it, too. I think they should have Kick Ball as a professional sport. It has all the good stuff that baseball has - running bases, a pitcher, players on first, second, third and in the outfield. Catch a fly ball and it's an out. Tag the runner with the ball and it's an out. Three out's and the other team is "UP" to kick. Why don't we have a professional Kick Ball League? I'd buy a ticket to be there. I'd watch it on ESPN. I'd even wear a team kick ball hat.

I remember kickball when I was a kid in San Marino California and I responded to Katrina:

That must be a So. Cal thing. I lived in San Marino from 5-8 and we played kick-ball all the time. Never played it when we moved back east. Did you get to call your pitch? My favorite was

"Fast with baby-bounces."

Cranky

I loved Katrina’s response.  I suggested she use it for a post or I would steal it.  She gave me permission to post it here:

Yes, we got to call our pitch! Mine was "Fast, no bounces." But it's very hard to pitch fast without a little bit of bouncing happening, and you needed just a little bounce to give the ball some lift so your toe could get under it, so I bet my pitch was probably the same as yours!! Because there was always a little bit of bouncing going on.

The faster the pitch, the farther the ball would go. We used to play this during recess at school, too. I remember that whenever someone with a lame kick was up, everyone from the infield and outfield would come in, up close...and it was always such an insulting thing to do. But we all did it, because kids don't care. And then when the next kicker was up, and if he or she was good, they'd all say, "Get BACK!!!! Get BACKKK!!!" and everyone would go out in the outfield farther, anticipating a big kick.

 Well, in the first and second grades, I used to be one of the lame kickers. My pitch back then was "slow, no bouncing." The pitcher would do one of those grandma-blowing pitches at me. I was always last picked for a team back then. Ugh.

Then I played soccer that summer before third grade.

 When school started up again in the fall and we went out for recess and started a game of kick ball, they all came IN when I was UP. The pitcher didn't even let me call my pitch. He just pitched one very slow. I scooped it up in my hands, threw it back and said, "Fast, no bouncing" and the pitcher gave me a look like "Oh...really?" and then everyone yelled, "Get BACKK!!! Get BACKKK!" but before they could, he pitched the ball (John McGowan, I still remember who pitched it to me) and I kicked it waaaay over the center outfielder's head. A home run. I can STILL remember how good that day felt. I have that down as one of my top ten BEST DAYS EVER. LOL

I love that story!

Anyone else have any youth baseball/kickball/garage-wall ball/cricket memories to share?

THE FOX SQUIRREL part II

THE FOX SQUIRREL part II

Last week I posted the story of my sighting of a mythical beast while fly- fishing on the upper Potomac River with old College friends and fraternity brothers Frog and Catfish.  Catfish assured me that the creature I spotted from the West Virginia side of the river to the Maryland side, over 200 yards was simply a Fox Squirrel.

The Fox Squirrel is a large (2-3 pounds) squirrel common to the area.  The creature I saw was well over 30 pounds and fierce looking.  I have been chided by Frog and Catfish ever since, the country rube getting excited about spotting a “fierce” squirrel.

Keep in mind that I was fishing with tri-focal lenses and I have a cataract in my right eye which makes everything a bit cloudy.  I don’t believe that a three pound squirrel from over two-hundred yards across the river would have caught my attention.  Nevertheless Frog and Catfish insist it had to be a Fox Squirrel.  Frog is an avid outdoorsman; Catfish was a big shot with the Delaware Fish and Game Department.  I never even stuck it out with the cub scouts.  Who am I to argue?

Since my post, the blog community has sought to identify the mysterious creature that I saw on the Maryland side of the river:

Irene from Irene’s world Travels http://irenesworldtravels.blogspot.com/ insists the creature sounds like the mythical Bulgarian “Wolperdinger.” I did some research on this and it seems unlikely a Wolperdinger would find its way from Europe to the woods of Western Maryland.

"The Broad" from A Broad with a View http://www.abroadwithaview.com/  suggests the animal was a “Wild Easter Bunny.”  I think The Broad is siding with Frog and Catfish in making fun of me.

Lou from Sunny Side http://www.loubradt.com/  Suspects that I saw the elusive Chupacabra or the Mexican goat sucker.  Lou is still a little Google-eyed over her recent marriage and as a UK transplant has trouble finding her way from the freeway to the airport.  I really cannot give her much credibility.  Besides everyone knows the Chupacabra are not found north of Texas.

JohnD, the Aussie outdoorsman from Tok Tok place http://toktokplace.blogspot.com/  Says it sounds like the Australian tourist killer the “Drop Bear.”  Research shows that apparently the most poisonous snakes, spiders and toads in the world along with killer stingrays, crocodiles and great white sharks are not enough to scare the bejesus out of tourists; the Aussies have invented the killer “Drop Bear.”  Nice try John, I’m not buying it.

Finally, my old College friend and fraternity brother, Fast Freddy the Dentist, alerted me to the possibility the creature is a Fisher Cat. 

The Fisher Cat is a fierce 30 pound cat-like weasel which once roamed the north eastern United States until it was almost trapped into extinction for its pelt.  The Fisher Cat is so fierce it is the only animal which is able to kill and eat a porcupine.  The Fisher Cat is making an ecological comeback.

Now I ask you, whom should I believe?

The retired bigwig with the Delaware Fish and Game Department:

Fox Squirrel

                                      OR                                              

                                             A Rhode Island Dentist:

Fisher Cat 

  I’m going with the Dentist!    

GARAGE-WALL BALL

GARAGE-WALL BALL

It is the start of baseball season and as usual my thoughts go back to my youth.  Baseball is a great game, but playing it takes lots of space.  It also takes lots of players.

Children find ways to conquer this problem by inventing different forms of the game.  In the city, kids played stoop ball.  The “batter” would throw a tennis ball against the step of their stoop and the fielders, usually only an infielder (before the street) and an outfielder (in the street), would have to catch the ball as it bounced back off the step.

If the infielder fielded it cleanly it was an out.  If the outfielder caught it on the fly it was an out.  If the batter caught the point of the step just right, the ball had a chance to sail over the street for a home run.

Another form of city baseball was punch ball.  In this game the batter punched a spaldeen, an orange rubber ball which was pretty much the insides of a tennis ball, with his fist.  The ball could be punched pretty far by a good batter, but the game did not take up nearly the field size of a game of stickball.  Stickball was played with a spaldeen and an old broom stick.  We never did play stickball in my suburban Long Island neighborhood.

The game we did invent BWB (before whiffle ball) was one that was totally unique.  I have never met anyone who played even a variation of “Garage-Wall Ball.’

We played in Danny Tully’s back yard.  The Tully’s had a garage made of brick.  In the backyard, a concrete walk ran five feet in front of the rear garage wall.  The pitcher bounced a spaldeen onto the walk, off the garage wall and back towards the batter who was facing the wall, his back to the pitcher.  The batter then hit the ball against the garage wall to ricochet back towards the field.  If the ball went past the pitcher on the ground it was a hit.  If it reached the swing set it was a triple; over the swing set was a homerun.  There were no doubles; we only had first, third, and home bases.  With the garage wall absorbing most of the batter’s power we were able to play on a field no more than sixty feet deep and still be able to take a full swing.

We played “Garage-Wall Ball” for maybe ½ a summer; then we discovered Whiffle Ball.   Whiffle ball was the end of a great game.  A great and unique invention was made extinct before the world ever discovered it.  “Garage-Wall Ball” was an early victim of technology.