Boy Killed While Playing 500

Prefer 501 to 500. A more civlized game one can play with ale in hand. less dangerous, too, as long as you get out of the way when the next person is tossing.

 

Run Down was fun. We always called it pickle, but obviously the same game.

 

That game, in elementary school, was call Red Ass. The same rules applied. But if you were to throw the ball onto the school's roof, you were pegged repeatedly immediately after a backup ball was found.

And it was called Wall Ball to the adults.

 

Damn. Does anyone want to meet up and play?

 

I'll get together and play Wall Ball, or Run Down.

Especially Run Down. It's been a while since I was able to practice the hook slide.

 

Got the update from my sister. Boy was sharing glove. He was laying on grass waiting his turn and got pegged behind his ear.

What a tragedy for all concerned.

 

It's stories like this that make me wonder how tragedies like this didn't happen more often when I was a child (and that's just the 80s). We didn't have bike helmets, we played all the games mentioned here, we played tackle football occasionally. The only injury was a broken arm in a game of football.

Of course, this also reminds me when I got drilled just above my right eye by a football from 50 yards thrown by the teacher. Hey, I was in seventh grade, not the most cordinated kid. Went to the hospital for some stitches, I think. Administration told me to call my mom ... I did, but told her I was OK. Then they made me call her back to say she needed to take me to the hospital. Next day I over slept my 6:15 a.m. bus probably because of a mild concussion. Who knows, an inch over and maybe there's no BBAM at SportsJournalists.com today (sad thought for all of you, I know).

 

I have played a game with an inflatable Peggy, yes.

 

We used to play football in the tennis courts -- two-hand touch, of course. The last time I was at my elementary school, I saw all the slides were taken off the playground, same with the fireman poles and anything with chains on it, and the gravel was replaced with wood chips. It's pretty sad, I think. Kids are so limited to what they can do in those 50 minutes of recess or with their time after school. As George Carlin said, "It's pussification."

 

Outing alert BBAM is Star Jones.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8512585262769022963&q=star+jones+football&total=362&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

 

We played this game but it was called 3 flies, 6 grounders (or pops and grounders for short). A fielder had to catch 3 flies or 6 grounders (without bobbling) to be next up. The batters used to try to hit away from the guys who were close to the required numbers so they could stay at bat longer.

I guess run-down was probably what we called running bases. 2 (or sometimes 3) bases each with a fielder, everyone else was a runner. The fielders toss the ball back and forth, and the runners tried to accumulate "safes'' - going from one base to the other without being tagged out. I think a certain number of safes meant you got to become a fielder.

We also had a wall-ball game, but it involved 2 players. 1 player is "up, the other is fielder. the up player throws against the wall, trying to get maximum distance off the wall (a close line would be a single, a little further a double, then triple, homer). You tried to force runs home before the fielder caught 3 balls.

We also had a similar game using the telephone poles and wires by the street. Each pole had like 6 wires, you tried to throw over as many as possible without the fielder catching the ball.

My friend and I also had a roof-ball game. The church next to his house had a spot where two roofs connected, along with a chiminy and a second wall behind the two. We stood where we couldn't see up onto the roof. One player throws the ball up, usually around the connection or toward the wall or chimney to get a weird bounce, with some english, and the other player had to react quickly to catch it when it came back over the edge.

And this thread is making me want to play all these games again, right now.

 

Anyone ever play Smear the Queer?

In case you haven't, it's tag, football-style. One player has the football and runs frantically, trying to hold onto the ball and stay on his or her feet while being chased by everyone else. If you pussy out, you throw the ball away -- but that doesn't usually help your situation much, at least not in my neighborhood.