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Author Topic: 16 inch softball  ( 3,079 )

CBStew

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16 inch softball
« on: March 02, 2015, 11:45:18 PM »
I posted this on Facebook but I thought that I would share it here:

I grew up with 16 inch softball.   We had about a dozen kids on our street and only one of us  (not me) could afford a ball.    We played with that thing for three or four seasons and eventually it was so mushy we couldn't hit that thing more than about 50 yards.  But that was good because the empty lot that we played in was just about that big.  With only 12 kids and all of us right handed we played right field was out and no first baseman.   Shortstop covered second.   "Pitcher's hands" was out.  The batting team had to provide its own catcher and if there was a play at the plate the runner was out on any close play  (so much for the honor system.)  By necessity we had so many rules that we made up to adapt to what we had the game had little resemblance to real baseball, but we loved it and played it for hours every day from April to the end of October after school and on weekends.  As soon as it snowed we switched to tackle football on that lot.  We drove by where that lot used to be.  It isn't there anymore.  It was in Albany Park, now Mayfair, on Lawrence between Keystone and Pulaski (it was named Crawford when I lived there.)



If I had known that I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself.   (Plagerized from numerous other folks)

Tonker

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2015, 01:44:18 AM »
Your toilet's broken, Dave, but I fixed it.

World's #1 Astros Fan

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2015, 07:58:33 AM »
Stew-- did you ever play "Pinner" also?
Just a sloppy, undisciplined team.  Garbage.

--SKO, on the 2018 Chicago Cubs

Chuck to Chuck

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2015, 08:14:15 AM »
Quote from: PANK! on March 03, 2015, 07:58:33 AM
Stew-- did you ever play "Pinner" also?

We called it Pinners. And I taught the Murtons to play.

World's #1 Astros Fan

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2015, 09:35:04 AM »
Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on March 03, 2015, 08:14:15 AM
Quote from: PANK! on March 03, 2015, 07:58:33 AM
Stew-- did you ever play "Pinner" also?

We called it Pinners. And I taught the Murtons to play.

I never learned it; just know my dad played it growing up in Lakeview around the same time Stew was living just a little west of him.
Just a sloppy, undisciplined team.  Garbage.

--SKO, on the 2018 Chicago Cubs

World's #1 Astros Fan

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2015, 09:36:08 AM »
And I know this'll engender a whole host of "Huey is not a meatball"s but I don't care--16" softball fucking rules and I miss not playing it anymore.
Just a sloppy, undisciplined team.  Garbage.

--SKO, on the 2018 Chicago Cubs

SKO

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2015, 09:57:10 AM »
Quote from: PANK! on March 03, 2015, 09:36:08 AM
And I know this'll engender a whole host of "Huey is not a meatball"s but I don't care--16" softball fucking rules and I miss not playing it anymore.

So if it rules, why are you missing when you weren't playing it? #pank'd.
I will vow, for the sake of peace, not to complain about David Ross between now and his first start next year- 10/26/2015

World's #1 Astros Fan

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2015, 10:08:04 AM »
Quote from: SKO on March 03, 2015, 09:57:10 AM
Quote from: PANK! on March 03, 2015, 09:36:08 AM
And I know this'll engender a whole host of "Huey is not a meatball"s but I don't care--16" softball fucking rules and I miss not playing it anymore.

So if it rules, why are you missing when you weren't playing it? #pank'd.

Indeed.
Just a sloppy, undisciplined team.  Garbage.

--SKO, on the 2018 Chicago Cubs

CBStew

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #8 on: March 03, 2015, 10:28:31 AM »
Pinners...Hell yes.  When there were only two of us around we would get a hard rubber ball around the size of a tennis ball and play complete nine inning baseball games using the lineups of the Cubs and the Cards or Cincinnati (never the White Sox or any American League team)  and play for hours bouncing it off the tip lower step coming out of my house.  Tennis balls travelled too far for the amount of space that we had.  We would also play off the ledge at the front of our synagogue, waiting for classes to start at our Hebrew School.  The rabbis tolerated it knowing that if they banned it they might suffer a drop off of students.
If I had known that I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself.   (Plagerized from numerous other folks)

Oleg

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2015, 11:27:35 AM »

Quality Start Machine

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2015, 11:48:37 AM »
I miss playing fast pitch at Oscar Mayer and Sullivan HS. Some of those old guys could throw some ongodly breaking shit.
TIME TO POST!

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InternetApex

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The 39th Tenet of Pexism: True in the game as long as blood is blue in my vein.

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Re: 16 inch softball
« Reply #12 on: October 09, 2015, 09:52:24 PM »
Quote from: PANK! on March 03, 2015, 09:36:08 AM
And I know this'll engender a whole host of "Huey is not a meatball"s but I don't care--16" softball fucking rules and I miss not playing it anymore.

Just a sloppy, undisciplined team.  Garbage.

--SKO, on the 2018 Chicago Cubs