Off-point, maybe, query re "stickball"

[Wilson Gray]

We used to play a game with a real bat and a real baseball. The batter
tossed the ball into the air and hit it as it was coming down. The game
was called "knockout." Everybody but the batter was a fielder. Catch a
ball on the fly and you became the batter. Fielding three grounders
also made you the batter. If the batter swung and missed, it just made
him look like a dork.

There was a special bat called a "fungo bat" that was used in the same
way by coaches for fielding practice in organized baseball. We just
used any bat handy. I never understood why the pros needed a special
bat for this kind of thing.

Thanks for the info.

-Wilson Gray

On Aug 2, 2004, at 11:05 PM, Jerome Foster wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jerome Foster <funex79 at CHARTER.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Off-point, maybe, query re "stickball"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Brooklyn stickball was a little different.We too used a broomstick but
> I
> don't think most of us had ever seen a tennis ball. If we were in the
> chips
> we used a "spaldeen" and if not some similar rubber ball. We had no
> real
> left field or right field because we played in the street, or as we
> called
> it "the gutter" and the fielders lined up more or less in a row. I
> don't
> remember the rules except that if you caught the ball on a fly you got
> to
> bat. Sometimes if we were short of players we self-pitched or
> self-batted (I
> don't remember the terminology). I do remember though that we measured
>  hits
> by "sewers." I've been out of NYC for about 30 yrs so I have no idea if
> stickball is still played.
>
> Jerome Foster
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at earthlink.net>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, August 02, 2004 3:41 PM
> Subject: Off-point, maybe, query re "stickball"
>
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at EARTHLINK.NET>
>> Subject:      Off-point, maybe, query re "stickball"
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----
> -----
>>
>> In Saint Louis, there is what amounts to a local pastime called
>> "corkball." in my day, *all* guys played it, regardless of race,
>> creed,
>> etc.
>>
>> To play it, you needed a minimum of four guys: pitcher, catcher,
>> outfielder, and batter, with the max being six guys, so that there
>> were
>> three fielders. The only equipment required was a broomstick and a
>> *used* tennis ball, Geoff. But the game was so popular that
>> professionally-made corkballs, which were cork spheres looking like a
>> golf balls with  baseball covers sewn onto them, and corkball bats,
>> which looked like slightly-longer, nearly broomstick-thin baseball
>> bats, could be had at any sporting-goods store or department store. It
>> was not a team game; it was every man for himself. The batter was not
>> obliged to swing at any pitch and there was no base-running, so no
>> umpires were needed. But, if the batter did swing and he missed and
>> the
>> catcher caught the ball before it touched the ground, the batter was
>> out and had to go to left field, the left fielder to center, the
>> center
>> fielder to right, and the right fielder became the pitcher and the
>> catcher became the new batter, the pitcher the new catcher, and the
>> previous right fielder became the new pitcher. If the batter hit the
>> ball and the pitcher caught it on the fly, the pitcher became the new
>> batter, the batter became the new left fielder, the old left fielder
>> became the center fielder, the center fielder became the right fielder
>> and the old right fielder became the pitcher. If a fielder caught the
>> ball on the fly, he became the new batter and the old batter became
>> the
>> left fielder, etc. Whichever of the pitcher or the fielders first
>> fielded three ground balls became the new batter, etc., etc. Tips and
>> foul balls, if caught on the fly, were automatic outs and whoever
>> caught the ball became the new batter, with the usual shifts in
>> position among the other players. If tips and foul balls weren't
>> caught
>> on the fly, they didn't count as anything. If the batter swung and
>> both
>> he and the catcher missed the ball, it was a strike. Three strikes and
>> the batter was out, with the usual shifting around of the other
>> players.
>>
>> Is stickball anything like this?
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>