Re: Catch-A-Flyer-Up--Any Brooklynites Out There???

Posted by Ward on February 01, 2004

In Reply to: Re: Catch-A-Flyer-Up--Any Brooklynites Out There??? posted by Bruce Kahl on February 01, 2004

: : : Coming of age in the late fifties in the NYC area of Brooklyn, we played a street game entitled "catch a flyer up".
: : : Riding with some coworkers this week we could not agree on what the game was exactly or how it was played.
: : : We all sorta think it was a variation of stoop ball wherein a Spalding (not one of those cheapo "pinkies" )was thrown against the sharp point of a stoop to score a single, double, triple or HR depending on the distance the ball traveled.
: : : Anybody???

: : ::In Tarrytown, NY in the 40s and 50s (up the Hudson River) we called it stoopball. The rules as I recall were -- you threw the ball against the edge of the step -- if the ball was caught on the fly, you were out -- and the other player was up. If the ball bounced -- each bounce was a base -- and a double bounce was a double, etc. We played it for hours at a time, along with 'stickball' with a tennis ball and a broomstick -- that took more players than stoopball.

: Thanks Ward.
: Still looking for the catch a flyer up game.
: In my travels I found the site linked below which you may find interesting.

:: Thanks for the site! I now know the game we played was stoopball -- (baseball rules). Looking at that site brought back memories of growing up in a city setting. The things we did to have some fun and get some exercise were really remarkable.