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MATTS-MATICS: NY Jets vs NY Rangers |
BRAVE Fan Talks REDSKINS
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SABRES, PENS, SHOTGUNS & METS |
BILL BUCKNER WAS INNOCENT |
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Spring Break Training PART I |
Spring Break Training PART II |
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TheMatts
Posts:1598
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| 07-31-2008 - SelecA - |
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NEW YAWK, NEW YAWK – As one Matt scours Central America for hidden talent, the New York based Matt feels like reminiscing. This Matt grew up in the farthest reaches of northern Manhattan; a neighborhood ideally suited for all kinds of street play with mix of private homes, apartment buildings and very moderate traffic. Sure we had playgrounds and fields but those were reserved for the more traditional games of baseball, football, basketball and roller hockey. When you really wanted to play a game, it was in the street and you needed the necessary aforementioned characteristics to make it ideal.
Street play filled a void that today is likely occupied by Xbox, Wii, Nintendo DS, IPods, IPhones and IDon’t know what else. Like these modern conveyances of entertainment, street play was compact. The rules and layouts could be limitless but you had to master the drawbacks of the physical space. Many of these games centered on a pink rubber ball, “the Rosetta Stone of Urban Childhood Fun.” The mythical Spaldeen. Success in street play was built on a combination of pluck, luck and skill. Here are some of my more memorable games:
KING-QUEEN (alternately called Ace-King-Queen)
A poor kids compact version of handball pitted 3-10 players against each other lined up, facing an apartment building wall. The sidewalk that met the wall needed to be uniformly paved with delineated boxes outlined. Chalk could otherwise draw the boxes on the sidewalk but this was not preferable. The King (or Ace) was at the head of the line. He served the ball on a bounce down the line to any on of the players who defended their box. The play continued until someone miss hit the ball. That person would go to the far end of the line (maybe the Jack or the 9 or even the 6 if you had enough kids). The common objective was to gang up on the King and send him to the end. 11 demotions and you were out. Losers were often subjected to “asses-up” where you were had a Spadleen fired at your you-know-what.
CURB BALL
This street variation of baseball called for either a T-shaped intersection or a 4-way intersection. The bases were laid out in a diamond pattern and the defensive team manned the field. The player “at bat” struck the Spaldeen against the corner on the curb where it curved and sent it out as a trajectory. He then ran out the hit.
PUNCH BALL was an alternative to Curb Ball where the player slapped or punched the ball from home rather than threw it against the curb.
STOOP BALL
Fewer players were needed for this game as lines in the street were drawn that delineated singles, doubles, triples and homers. The player would strike a building stoop with the ball and it was in play. Grounders were automatically singles unless they were caught. An alternate version had no teams and everyone in the “field” attempted to catch the balls for points.
BOXBALL
A street version of table tennis with a Spaldeen. Each player bounced the Spaldeen into the opponents box for a back and forth defending of their square.
You were not allowed to step into you box. Players with great spin excelled at this game.
BOTTLECAPS, SKELLS, SKULLY
Call it what you want (we called it bottlecaps) each neighborhood has its own set of rules, but the basic theme is to use your fingers to shoot a bottlecap through the course drawn on the street, then "kill" all the other players, leaving you the winner. The box was a huge square with a series of numbered boxes within. The players navigated each box in numerical order from 1 to 13, avoided being hit by being within the boundaries of a numbered box. Outside of the boxes you were subject to being blasted far away. The first player reach 13 became the “killer”.
Once you were the killer, your hits on other players knocked them out of the game. Your bottle cap needed to have some weight in it from wax, clay or melted crayons.
ROUND-UP
Also referred to as Ringoleavio. Team tag where one group were the hiders and another were the seekers. The idea was to “roundup” the hiding team completely. Once found and tagged, the players were placed in a designated jail. They could be freed by a tag from teammate but that put said teammate at great risk for being caught himself as someone from the hunting team always hovered near the jail.
RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT, 1-2-3
This game rewarded the fastest kid with the mildest case of ADHD. The caller of the game stood very far away and yelled out the above phrase in varying speeds. The first player to reach him won.
MOTHER MAY I?
This was street plays version of communism as the ‘Mother” subjectively assigned the steps and movement the players were permitted to reach her. The girls ruled the day here and were giving the boys their just desserts.
STICKBALL
The crème de la crème of street games. We played 3 version of it. Pitching Stick, Street Stickball with Pitching and Self-Pitching Stickball. Pitching stick was like Stoop baseball in that lines or landmarks delineated hits. A box was painted on a wall for a strike zone and this game could literally be played one on one. Street Stickball with Pitching had full squads with a pitcher throwing the Spadleen on one bounce to a batter. Baseball rules applied. The version we most frequently played was Self-Pitching. The batter would bounce the ball to himself and take his cut. There were no rules on the number of bounces and you could actually hit it without a bounce. Two swings and you’re out if you didn’t put the ball in play. There were plenty of strikeouts as each and every one us tried to Willie Mays the ball every at bat.
Ah those really were the days.
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Cookie
Posts:615
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| 07-31-2008 - SelecA - |
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Huh? There is a trade deadline approaching boys, and Manny all but asked to be traded on a homemade sign last night. Tell me you're not writing to Santa early and asking for a bit of Manny in your outfield for the pennant race?!?
Sure, Manny would bring oh so much drama to the Mutts, but would he not MORE than fill a void left by Ryan 'What is My Name and Why Am I Standing in All This Nice Grass?' Church? Not only that... he would so rally the team by virtue of his quirkiness and big mouth. Reyes would feel he's got a compadre, and Pedro would be so happy to see his ex-Suxmate.
Omar is sealing his doom by standing by like a bridesmaid on this one. Then again, i think he really doesn't care. The fact that the Wilpons aren't pushing this is ridiculous. As Dude (?) said in a previous post.... the Mets team this year was built with hopes of the post. The outfield is a key slot that is lacking, and Manny is your perfect piece. Sure it'd be weird.. but sometimes weird is good.
The Mets are going to watch him go to the Marlins and we're all going to hope that not one, but TWO Flori-duh teams don't make it to the AL- and NLCS.
If Manny goes Marlins... he'll be a big fish in a small pond. He'll elevate them... and the Mets will be left with the stink. |
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Cookie
Posts:615
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| 07-31-2008 - SelecA - |
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Oh.. sorry... I also was a BIG fan of curb ball. In my 'hood (Washington Heights), we stake out claim on an empty parking spot for home plate rights.
My brother was big into Skellys, so i played by default. He got really into it.. melting Mom's candles to fill the caps to a perfect wax level to make the perfect skelly. Those were the days.
I bet WCC is like 'What are these people talking about?!??' (Or are you an East Coast transplant Craig? Beg your pardon that I don't remember.) |
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AZ Crazy
Posts:57
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| 07-31-2008 - SelecA - |
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| MATTS: Too bad you didn't have to deal with the ball going into a patch of cactus. That was the ultimate rally killer. A tennis ball graveyard. |
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Bayside
Posts:252
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| 07-31-2008 - SelecA - |
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| Holy moly, did you guys ever churn up some buried memories. I grew up in the northern part of Flushing were we also had some ideal blocks for games. Punch ball was a biggie, stick ball of course and we also played a game we called "errors'. I've heard it called Off the Wall too. A good building wall, couple of guys and a spaldeen. Each guy has a number say 1-4. The thrower calls out a number (not his own of course) and that player has to catch the ball that's been bounced off the wall. The errors built up and yes the loser was subjected to a harsh round of asses-up. |
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Ed Nelson
Posts:195
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| 07-31-2008 - SelecA - |
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| Matts - did you play Sewer Hockey? That´s when you flatten soda cans and play a mix of soccer (only feet used) and hockey (checking allowed) and try to score against the other team´s goalie at the diagnol sewer. It has to be a 4 corner intersection, which makes it more interesting with the cars zipping by... Cookie, I don´t want Manny here. He´s an idiot. |
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ActiveForums 3.6
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How Philly Won |
One Of Our First
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ROY HOBBS ON STEROIDS??? |
MEAGHAN & JAKE: COOLEST FANS |
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Nobody Remembers The Loser |
Giant/Super Tuesday |
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MATTS-MATICS: Hockey Nuts Go At It |
See us on: "Law & Order" |
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MATT FACTS:
Chad Pennington is NOT a Brett Favre fan... Hillary Clinton and Don Nelson have never been seen in the same place... Jerry Manuel is not related to Charlie ManuelJerry Manuel is not related to Charlie Manuel... Somebody namd Michel coaches the Pittsburgh Penguins... Tiki Barber quit the Giants. The Giants then won the Super Bowl... The New England Patriots only lost ONE game out of 19!!! Aaron Heilman was actually funny in re to Eli and Plaxico Burress helping the Mets as a pitcher and outfielder, respectively. Repeat, Heilman was funny... Jessica Simpson would rather date Tom Brady - trust us... Eli Manning is better than Archie - now... Alyssa Milano is a Met fan. RRRRR... Rickey Henderson speaks in the 3rd Person... Shawn Green has big ears... Howard Johnson likes to stay at the Holiday Inn, ironically... Sandy Alomar, Sr. is the youngest of 9 kids. That's why he was quick around the dish. Jiminy Cricket was the Philly Phanatic in a previous life…Fred Wilpon is pals with Sandy Koufax... Mike Ditka is a really tough guy.. Buffalo has a Triple A baseball team. They are NOT called The Snowballs... Chan Ho Park has people thinking of naming a ballfield after him - it would be called Chan Ho Park Park... John Maine has never been, oddly enough, to Maine... Curt Gowdy, Jr. has never been to Yellow Knife, Canada... Kevin Mitchell played 6 positions for the Mets in '86 and, according to Doc Gooden's book, didn't like cats... John Olerud & Wayne Gretzky have never been seen in the same place... Kevin McReynolds now makes his living doing laugh tracks for sit-coms... Tony Gwynn is nearing 300 lbs... Carlos Beltran has Mercedes Benz dealerships named for him in Barcelona, Spain... Willie Montanez was called Guillermo by Lenny Randle... Rusty Staub beat Jeff Kent in a race – TODAY... Jay Horwitz is a dynamite Cricket players – somebody said... Jeff Wilpon was a decent minor league catcher... Ziggy Palfy lives in Slovakia and is a big Met fan... Superman Returns, yet still can’t hit Billy Wagner... David Wright will win the Triple Crown – on a horse... Omar Minaya is Tobey McGuire’s stunt-double in Spider Man 3... Hilary Clinton has Mr. Met pajamas – we think... Albert Einstein was a HUGE Met fan... The Metropolitan Opera House was named for the Mets after their 2nd season in ’63... Wally Backman, ’86 sparkplug, considered changing his name to Wally Back-Matt... Neil Allen and Mike Stanton, former Mets, have Allen & Stanton Streets on Lower East Side named for them.
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