Actually, the more I think about this, I think it’s become less and less common for baseball to be played as an unorganized schoolyard game. There’s a number of reasons. There’s the gear required, the lack of places to play (lots of parks ban that sort of thing as did my elementary schools), and that there’s easier options. Touch football, soccer, basketball, even kickball. And of course games that used the ball for something else, say 500 or HORSE. There was even a game we called squash (no idea why, no relation to the actual game) that used either a kickball or a soccer ball and a baseball backstop where the goal was a one on one game of bouncing the ball off the backstop, with the first person to miss being out and the next player coming in. (There was also a rule that managing to kick it over the top of the backstop automatically removed the other player). The point was, things that took almost no equipment, other than the right ball, and could be more easily picked up and put down in 15-30 minutes without someone feeling like they didn’t get to play.
I won’t say pickup baseball or stickball is dead, but it was definitely dying in the 90s in my area and I wouldn’t be surprised if the only baseball most kids play these days is organized.
To clarify a couple of points in this extensive post, a “travel league” is a youth sports league that’s a bit more serious than the local leagues: They’re so called because they’ll travel further to play against their opponents. Theoretically, the players have greater ability, but there’s an odd correlation between “player ability” and how rich the parents are.
And a number followed by a u is an age category. Like, “13u” means all of the players must be age 13 or under (in practice, this means they’re almost all exactly 13, but an exceptionally skilled kid could be playing in a category above their actual age).
You can play with a small number of helmets, because a helmet is generally only worn while actually batting, so the kids can trade them out (the risk they’re mitigating is a wild pitch that accidentally hits the batter’s head). But in the games I’ve seen, all of the kids seemed to have their own anyway.
IIRC baseball bats are usually made from ash, though slugger Barry Bonds used maple. Sometimes they break.
At least one player was almost killed when a piece pierced his neck.
Back to the point of mailbox baseball: in some cases, assuming they’re using wooden bats, the bat may break. I saw a video somewhere that compared bats from a single mfr—at difference price points. You can probably find a $20 bat, but they also make a $40, $60, and $100 (for pros). Cheap bats break more easily?
I have hit a ball in such a way that you feel like your arms are being stung by dozens of bees. Really, the “sweet spot” of dense wood is toward the center of the bat. Make contact too far from that it doesn’t work. My WAG: make contact too close to the hands, not enough mass/momentum, shorter lever. Too close to the other end and the wood gets spongier, absorbing more energy.
As kids, we didn’t have a lot of money to spend on bats and if they broke, then what? So we’d pony up more money and get an aluminum bat. Major League Baseball doesn’t allow them, but even in college ball you see them. Obviously these never break when making contact with a mailbox.
Baseball rubbing mud sounds so interesting, particularly when I think of cricket, where rubbing the ball against anything not your pants is considered ball tampering and very unsportsmanlike. Of course it has to be a particular mud from a precise and secret spot. Very nice indeed.
Until about 20 years ago, ash was pretty much the default material for baseball bats for decades (and, hickory before that, apparently). Then, a lot of players started opting for maple bats – maple is felt to be a stronger wood, and can hit the ball further. Bonds was one of the early adopters of maple, and a lot of hitters followed his lead. (In addition, the emerald ash borer, an invasive species of insect, has been leading to a decline in the ash species in the U.S.)
But, maple also appears to break more often, and when it does, rather than just snapping off as an ash bat would do, maple will often break into several sharp shards, which can do more damage to a bystander if they get hit by one.
Maple? Ash? The Ashes? Is that the origin of the term, as in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy? Or did they burn something? I should have included a section on cricket bats in my OP. And wickets. The wicked wickets always cheer me up.
Apparently not. This Wikipedia article says that “The Ashes” is the name for a recurring test cricket series between England and Australia. The name came from a satirical obituary for English cricket, published after Australia beat England for the first time on English soil in 1882 – the obituary stated, “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.”
Just to be clear, the mud is only applied pre-game by the umpire or his “staff”. A VERY small amount is put on the palm of the hand and then rubbed onto the ball. All they’re doing is taking the shine and slickness off. The pitcher and catcher are not provided with their own mud to apply mid-game.
Just to add my own anecdote, as a kid I had my own bat (an aluminum one) and a glove. I’m not even sure where the bat came from; I think I found it abandoned somewhere. It didn’t even have a proper grip on it; I made my own with masking tape.
Nobody would look at a kid with a bat and glove oddly since it was a normal thing for an American kid to have. I’d carry them openly around the neighborhood. Now, my short samurai sword (a wakizashi) not so much, but then again I didn’t use that for baseball. (Honestly I just screwed around with it, and somehow managed to never seriously hurt myself.)
I would say that people don’t feel menaced by them. Weighing about 32 oz or 900g, in close quarters it’s hard to rear back and use it before you’re stopped. And if you miss, that’s the end of that. In close quarters, it’s like you’re bringing a rifle to a pistol fight. Police carry batons that are much shorter.
DOH! Too many tabs open, sorry!
I meant to say also that aluminum bats (I have heard) are designed to have a bigger sweet spot.
OP, you may be interested to know that sometimes players “cork” their wooden bats. It’s illegal, but they drill from the top and replace it with cork. I suppose they’re trying to make the bat lighter in weight, allowing them to swing faster. As the clip shows, it can compromise the bat and spill its secret.
Seems to me that yes, you’re swinging it faster, but the mass is lower. So is momentum basically the same? I’ve heard that some replace the wood with superballs instead of cork.
I never played stickball. OP, when you don’t have a bat and ball, you could try using a broomstick and rubber ball or something like that.
Generally the game was called workup when there were three or four players on the batting team and everyone else in the field, with four bases in use. When one of the batters makes an out he or she joins the fielding team, the pitcher joins the hitting team, and everyone moves up a position. An exception to this takes place when a fly ball is caught. In this case the fielder and the batter swap or exchange positions and the player who caught the fly ball becomes the next batter.
I think that the point of corking a bat is to increase its elasticity. But I don’t know the details.
As I understand it, the requirements on a Major League bat are that it be turned from a single piece of wood, not be hollow, and have some specified maximum diameter. Everything beyond that, such as the exact details of the shape and the species of wood, is fair game.
There is an urn (File:Ashes Urn.jpg - Wikipedia) which many believe to contain the burned bails from the first Australia/England test match. This is not true and in any case, the urn stays at Lords.
(Honestly I just screwed around with it, and somehow managed to never seriously hurt myself.)
