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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

We called it running bases in our neighborhood. We used the four sewer grates at the intersection in our neighborhood as the bases and then people's yards and the streets as the outfield. Over certain driveways was a home run. Only one guy ever hit it over one of the houses. It was a guys cousin and he only was in town a few times during the summer. He was like a fucking legend.

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Is Fast Pitch the same game as Home Run? In Evanston we called Fast Pitch "Strikeout".

Also, isn't RR talking about pinners?

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Don't take it personally.

which you pronounced VY-dock

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Dat's right.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

We called that ball a "rubber-coated league". We never used it for Fast Pitch. It didn't really bounce back.

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Fastpitch is also an acceptable answer. And strikeout. Off the wall is different.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

We played "La-Z Man softball", which was essentially 16" softball with no bases. We played against a school building that had a pitched roof, so anything onto the roof was a HR, hitting the building on a fly was a triple, hitting the building on a roll was a double, and a bobbled ball by the fielders was a single. As we got older, we were able to get the ball to roll over the roof (automatic grand slam), and then clear the roof on a fly (automatic 5 runs). We would play for hours, with most scores being in the 70s and 80s. It was great fun, and I miss those days.

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Off the Wall is "pinners", right?

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We called it 500 but that may be different

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

This.

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We played 500 with a batter hitting fungoes.

Pinners has no bat. The "batter" throws the ball off the garage or wall.

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We played 500 with a football.

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A game that should be required for all young boys to play.

In PA here the boys play 500 with a football and somehow award values to the catch and call it Jackpot.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

We played 500 with anything. Football, either tossed or punted, frisbee, baseball (Either thrown or batted) tennis balls whatever. Even would play with a thrower that would launch it up onto a roof that had a lot of weird angles and you'd catch it coming down. Those games got progressively rougher the older we got. It was hard to get any pickup games of more than 5 or 6 guys by the time I was 12 though. We lived in a pretty small town and there were not many kids my age. I think my birthday was peak baby bust time. The place we went to had a whole bunch of kids 5-10 years older than I was an a whole bunch 8-12 younger but it was slim pickings when it came to boys born in the 70's, especially after 74.

That's what we did as a kid. You shove the kid going up for the ball in the back if you knew him catching it means he'd win. Then you'd tackle each other and fight for a couple of minutes and move on.

That's how you build the man.

Dat's Right.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

We played FastPitch with the rubber balls (oh what a great sound they made when you made flush contact), and then I recall playing a game called "Pinners" where you threw it or bounced it off the school wall (no bats).

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(Edit) Missed JORR's reference to Pinners...

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We also used to play "3 outs". That was two kids and you double bounced a rubber ball off the bungalow front steps. The second kid stood back away and had to catch it or not.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

That's how we did it too. And, to fuck with them mentally, right when a guy's about to win, you call out "one million!" before you throw and then have everyone gang up on him to make sure he can't get it, thus negating all his work to that point.

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Haters.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

We played pick up baseball a lot in the summer as kids. My friend had a public park just past his back yard.

It was awesome. Because we set up the plate the perfect distance for kids 12, 13 and 14 to hit it over the bushes in right field. It wasn't easy. You had to hit it well. I was a righty so I had to go opposite field to hit home runs. There were no bushes in left field.

Those games were some good memories. Same with flag football games.

I enjoyed these games more then the organized sports that I played.

Not in my part of Evanston. It was either "fastpitch" or wallball." Used interchangeably.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

You must be a North sider. It was mostly the brothers who called it "Strikeout".

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BINGO! Home field was Lincolnwood Elementary School.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

I'm from the slums of Ridgeville. We used to play at Oakton School. Are you a Haven guy?

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Haven it was. You must have been Chute?

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Skiles. My sister went to Chute.

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