Back in the Pink
Now is the time for all good parents to come to the aid of their
children.
The Spaldeen is back. Great googamooga! What a pity that our children
missed out on it for 20 years. Boy, do we need it now! It is the
responsibility, duty and obligation of those of us who remember to teach
the joys of the Spaldeen. Turn off the TV and the numbing electronic
games and teach the games that belong in the time capsule of the free
mind. Neither a scheduled time nor a Hittleman's Bakery shirt is
necessary.
Teach them punchball, stickball, triangle, boxball, stoopball, king,
I declare war, and the others you and I will get to later - and more
only you recall.
If you grew up here, which includes city and suburbia, you need no
identification for the ball or the games. In case you just moved from
Mars or Kansas City, the Spaldeen was a hollow rubber ball the color of
bubble gum. It was called Spal-DEEN because the manufacturer stamped it
Spalding, and that's how we said it.
The Spaldeen had limitless limitations. If you had the ball in your
pocket, you could make up a game to play with your sister or little
brother while you were out with your parents. You could even create a
game with half a broken Spaldeen. Spalding sold millions of them -
mostly in the Northeast - from the early '50s until 1978, and there's
a memory for each. Most games included climbing a fence or probing a
sewer to get the ball back.
Originally, it came from rejects and leftovers from the making of
tennis balls - before they put the fur on. You know, like chicken
wings used to get thrown away until the Anchor Bar in Buffalo created a
desirable snack food.
Stores would get Spaldeens by the box, and the slick ones of us could
reach in and pick out the firm ones from among the soft ones like
finding good peaches. When Spalding stopped making them, they were 25
cents each. They had a special aroma, remembered like the bouquet of the
bubble gum that used to be packed with baseball cards.
Some people recall the Spaldeen as the second implement of stickball:
Rule 1. Steal one broom, and snap off the stick. Hit the ball and run
the bases - first is at the right curb, second is the manhole cover in
the middle of the street, and so on. But that wasn't the game we played.
Our Long Island stickball was played against a chalked box on a brick
wall, and we used a tennis ball because it had some heft and could be
made to act somewhat like a baseball. A Spaldeen was too flighty. Nobody
could throw it straight.
Sometimes we did use it for stickball in the street, and the beauty
part was that we could smack it off a car and it didn't leave a mark.
Pitching was on one bounce, and if you dug in your fingers, as on a
knuckleball, and flicked them on release, the pitch would take an
erratic bounce. We called it a "fluke." A pop fly might spin wildly and
take the odd shape of an "eggball." It was hard as the dickens to catch.
If the batted ball was hindered by a wire or a garbage can or
redirected into the bushes by a moving car, it was a "hindu." We learned
the art of compromising disputes with do-overs.
Anyhow, Spalding stopped having leftovers when it moved the
tennis-ball operation to Taiwan, but Chris Waldeck of Spalding said the
company would get calls and e-mail every week asking what happened to
the ball. Some of the letters might have been tear-stained. And now the
Spaldeen is back.
Suburban streets with dead ends and hoity-toity cul de sacs are ideal
for the Spaldeen. So are driveways and sidewalks with boxes. So are
brick walls or areas without windows on houses. So are stoops. Play
until dark and hope the Good Humor man rides by. Sigh.
And the beach. Ah, summer is coming.
The Spaldeen is good for any age. It doesn't hurt the hands. Start by
playing hit-the-penny. All you need is a hard surface. If you have
sidewalk boxes, you can play boxball, which is like tennis, or
boxbaseball with pitching flukes.
If you have a stoop, you can play stoopball: One bounce is five
points, a fly is 10 points and a pointer is 100. Play stoopbaseball:
Catch a fly for an out - one bounce is a single, and so on. If you
don't have a stoop, play it off the curb - if you can find a curb.
If you have four players, you can spread out. In I declare war, each
player takes the name of a country and the one who is It throws the ball
high off somebody's house or straight in the air and yells, "I declare
war on . . . Labrador," or something. Everybody scatters while Labrador
tries to retrieve the ball. Then he tries to wing it at some other
country.
Two or three on a side, you can play triangle - home at one curb
and first base and third on the far curb. The batter slaps - no fist
- the Spaldeen, and it must bounce before it passes the far curb. The
rest was like baseball.
A few more fielders and you can play punchball. The batter bounces
the ball and punches it into the field. In the most ambitious games, the
batter tosses the ball in the air and punches it like a tennis serve.
Carl Brier and Tom DeLuca were the best overhand hitters I ever saw. A
throw from the outfield to the plate on a windy day is a real art.
Long Island finds a special asset in the Spaldeen. Take it to the
beach and play catch or tagging-up or triangle or punchball. Inevitably,
the ball goes in the water. A wet tennis ball is heavy, sprays water and
sand and is useless. Ah, but a Spaldeen, the water just shakes off.
The man from Spalding asked, "Do you need some product?" Product?
There must be some in the drainpipe. Besides, I have memories. Two
bucks. Cheap.
The Spaldeen File
If you grew up on Long Island or in New York City in the '50s, '60s or
'70s,
you probably played many games with the Spalding High-Bounce ball. The
pink rubber ball, discontinued 20 years ago, has recently gone back into
production.
Proper Name: Spalding High-Bounce ball
Proper Pronunciation: Spal-DEEN
Distinguishing Characteristics: pink color, rough texture, rubbery smell
First Year Issued: 1949
Last Year Produced: 1979
Games Played With It: stickball; hit the penny, box baseball, stoopball
Price in 1959: 25 cents
Price in 1999: $2.00
