Off-point, maybe, query re "stickball"

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:09 AM -0400 8/3/04, James A. Landau wrote:
>In a message dated  Mon, 2 Aug 2004 23:46:44 -0400,
>   Wilson Gray <hwgray at EARTHLINK.NET> writes:
>
>>   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.
>
>We called it "playing Peggy" (or maybe "playing peggy", "peg" being a term in
>baseball for a type of throw from a fielder).  There was no catcher, but one
>of the fielders pitched.  A fielder (there were no specified positions except
>pitcher) became a batter if he caught one fly ball, two first bounces, or five
>grounders.
>
Don't know that term, but sounds like "Flies up" or "Catch a fly
you're up".  The batter tosses it up as above ("fungo" style),
everyone else is a fielder.  If a fielder catches it on the fly, he's
up [I'll use the masculine because virtually all us players were
male].  If not, the fielder throws/rolls the ball toward the bat,
which the batter has placed horizontally on the ground in front of
him.  If it hits the bat, the fielder is up, unless it bounces up and
the batter catches it before it hits the ground, in which case he's
still up.  I think there was also a three-strikes-you're-out
component, but I can't recall if it referred to missed fungo swings
or foul balls or what.  I know we didn't have the last fillip Jim
Landau mentions; it was more like Wilson's game.

Larry