June 14, 2005

:-( I'm sorry, please don't drag me off and shoot me! I've only just started reading your fine blog and haven't managed to get through all the archives yet!

dispensation for newcomers? :-/

How intriguing! It's must have taken a bit of "homemade wine" to think this up.

Do you start with a hollow or a solid rubber ball? (like the old "Super Balls" - remember those?)

I think we will have a new pastime at our "Bullhead Bash" (a 4 day boozefest complete with a live band and plenty o' BBQ) in our little getaway Vance,Texas for the The 4th.

Like the no running part. Anything like baseball that 3 people can play is classic in my book.

That's me throwing the half rubber, the day we played, I was so hung over, I could not walk, much lass play, but I gave it a try. I think the game half-rubber started in Savannah Georgia, my oldest brother played it in Washington Square, also called the Old Fort, when he was a child, Thomas is 76 years old now. Just get you a solid rubber, hard, ball about three inches across the ball, cut it in half and then you have two balls. Use a broomstick made out of wood and there you go, enjoy, Cat

I like the beer drinking part............

When I was growing up in North Carolina we played half-rubber with a tennis ball that had been cut in half. For a bat we used a broomstick with the broom part cut off. There was certainly a knack for pitching the thing, but it could be mastered. Ted Williams couldn't have mastered the hitting part. It was not hard to make contact but now way of knowing where it would go. If the thing was oriented vertically when it got over the "plate," you could knock the hell out of it and it would just make a loud fart sound and sputter to the ground. If you happened to catch one coming in vertically like a frisbee and you caught it just right you could send it three yards over. Brings back great memories.

I'd like to see you try to drag me off and shoot me mr.

And here was me thinking it was called half-rubber because you played so drunk half your body felt like rubber. :-) I'll have to give this a shot sometime.

Livey, you starting to fight again?

Half-rubber sounds like the Southrin version of stickball.

You'd play stickball in the city, with a broomstick for a bat and a hollow pink rubber "Spaldeen" ball (actually the core of a tennis ball). For bases, you'd use anything that happened to be in the street - like Mr. Schwartz's DeSoto's front bumper. Good players could hit a "three-sewer" shot for a home run.

But in Savannah, half-rubber makes more sense: less running, more beer drinkin'.

Oh that Catfish is one sexy mofo

Yeah, to another catfish. Just kidding cat

But that catfish is one fine gentleman, let me tell ya! *Rob aint so bad either, but don't tell him I said so*

I believe he struck me out on that pitch. Eric finally caught one of my many whiffs. No flies on Eric. Catching that bastard is HARD!

I watched that game (as well as the half rubber game in Helen, Ga. in October). I watched it, because I know there is no way I would be able to hit that "ball" while it does its aeordynamic tricks.

I've played lots of stickball, but this is much tougher. I'll continue to stick to spectating, heckling and beer drinking during the next half rubber game.

Damn... this is a sport made for me.

Went from 9 to 37 striking out just 6 times through my all star years in little league, babe ruth league and umpteen years of competitive softball.

I can't run worth a damn and when I try, I usually break something.

Remind me to be reincarnated in Georgia.

I can see if you were half-drunk, this might be half-interesting.

Sounds totally ridiculous...and I'd have to be not just half drunk, but totally GASSED to find anything amusing about this "sport"

Can you play in the nude? The visuals are too much!

That's stickball as Elisson pointed out. We played in south Philly. The pitcher would stand in the middle of the street and pitch the 1/2 a pinkie. Across the street was a 7 story building and the higher up you sent the pinkie, the more points you got. Some guys could actually clear that damn building. Thick of that trajectory. The batter got 3 strikes and kept batting until he struck out. Tics weren't strikes. That was in the early 60's and we could play for hours.