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Posted By: Keith O'Leary

Yep, we played as kids. I lived in a housing development where baseball fields were at a premium.

We used the outside wall of a neighborhood shed. An old white wooden wall with a masking tape "strike box" full of dirty marks from previous meetings. We used broom stick handles for bats and when one of them broke and another wasn't available, one of the kids parents had a pile of tobacco lathe we'd take from. Used the tennis balls till they were hit around so hard they punctured. The wall was just firm enough to cushion the impact of the ball (we threw as hard as we could of course) that they just about trickled back to the pitcher. If he was accurate enough, he barely had to take 3 steps to field the catcher's throw back .....(the pitcher was also responsible for calling balls and strikes). Flies had to be caught in the air (where they landed determined how many bases were achieved) and grounders had to be gloved or bare handed before they stopped for an out (we never had enough gloves).

 

Fun times .