Stickball is astreet game similar tobaseball, usually formed as apick-up game played in large cities in theNortheastern United States, especiallyNew York City,Philadelphia, andBoston.[1][2][3] The equipment consists of abroom handle and a rubber ball, typically aspaldeen,[4] pensy pinky, high bouncer ortennis ball.[1][2] The rules come from baseball and are modified to fit the situation. For example, amanhole cover may be used as a base, or buildings for foul lines.[1][2] The game is a variation ofstick and ball games dating back to at least the 1750s. This game was widely popular among youths during the 20th century until the 1980s.
In fungo, the batter tosses the ball into the air and hits it on the way down or after one or more bounces.[5] Another variant isVitilla, a popular variation of stickball played primarily in the Dominican Republic and areas in the United States with large Dominican populations.
New York City was the hotbed of stickball interest. Devised in the 1920s, for many years the game was calledOne-Bounce. A pitcher would bounce aspaldeen - the little pink rubber ball that cost a nickel - to the plate. When it was hit with the sawed-off broomstick handle that served as a bat without being caught, the batter advanced to impromptu bases (sewers, for instance). [...] Stickball's popularity peaked in the 1950s. By the 60s, with the increasing number of cars that clogged city streets and the mass exodus to the suburbs, the game fell into decline.
What's more quintessential New York than stickball, right? Uh, no, not right. Stickball doesn't live here anymore. At least not in the way it does in the mind's eye, how it did when a young, vibrant Willie Mays swung a broom handle in the street outside his old home in Harlem in the 1950s or when Joe Pepitone did as a stylish Yankee in Brooklyn in the '60s.
Stickball was once an integral part of the urban youth experience. Images of ragtag groups of children playing in the street became iconic depictions of New York City and helped shape the world's perception of New Yorkers as the street-smart, rough-and-tumble class of America. Slowly, like so much of Americana, it has faded from the streets, cars and buses rendering the roadways perilous, Xboxes and iPhones commandeering kids' attention.
