STLtoday.com

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:07 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:01 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 14:56 pm

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:54 am

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:51 am

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:33 am For many years cork ball was a St. Louis area game. They had leagues in Forest Park.

We created our own neighborhood league. Wiffle ball, wall ball. Any individual game.

The collective games of left field ball, Indian ball, street ball, etc were just daily games.

In my day, even hotbox Was huge.

We did the same thing. We would bat left and right as the Cardinal lineup was listed. We also played "hotbox" to see who could get out of the pickle.

When there were enough kids at the park we would play "rounder".

hotbox? seems like a sketchy game for kids

Goodness. Maybe the best game for kids not just baseball. Taught sheer determination. Constant failure and great reward when you “score.”

You're not helping your cause. "hotbox", "kids", "score" in the same sentence. you see where i was going

Ha. I just got it. Doesn’t help the game is played “ in between” two other players.

Your bad.

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:16 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:07 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:01 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 14:56 pm

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:54 am

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:51 am

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:33 am For many years cork ball was a St. Louis area game. They had leagues in Forest Park.

We created our own neighborhood league. Wiffle ball, wall ball. Any individual game.

The collective games of left field ball, Indian ball, street ball, etc were just daily games.

In my day, even hotbox Was huge.

We did the same thing. We would bat left and right as the Cardinal lineup was listed. We also played "hotbox" to see who could get out of the pickle.

When there were enough kids at the park we would play "rounder".

hotbox? seems like a sketchy game for kids

Goodness. Maybe the best game for kids not just baseball. Taught sheer determination. Constant failure and great reward when you “score.”

You're not helping your cause. "hotbox", "kids", "score" in the same sentence. you see where i was going

Ha. I just got it. Doesn’t help the game is played “ in between” two other players.

Your bad.

my bad indeed. serious question, what is hotbox? i played every type of game baseball related growing up. Maybe we called it something else

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:23 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:16 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:07 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:01 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 14:56 pm

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:54 am

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:51 am

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:33 am For many years cork ball was a St. Louis area game. They had leagues in Forest Park.

We created our own neighborhood league. Wiffle ball, wall ball. Any individual game.

The collective games of left field ball, Indian ball, street ball, etc were just daily games.

In my day, even hotbox Was huge.

We did the same thing. We would bat left and right as the Cardinal lineup was listed. We also played "hotbox" to see who could get out of the pickle.

When there were enough kids at the park we would play "rounder".

hotbox? seems like a sketchy game for kids

Goodness. Maybe the best game for kids not just baseball. Taught sheer determination. Constant failure and great reward when you “score.”

You're not helping your cause. "hotbox", "kids", "score" in the same sentence. you see where i was going

Ha. I just got it. Doesn’t help the game is played “ in between” two other players.

Your bad.

my bad indeed. serious question, what is hotbox? i played every type of game baseball related growing up. Maybe we called it something else

How about pickle.

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:29 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:23 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:16 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:07 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:01 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 14:56 pm

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:54 am

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:51 am

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:33 am For many years cork ball was a St. Louis area game. They had leagues in Forest Park.

We created our own neighborhood league. Wiffle ball, wall ball. Any individual game.

The collective games of left field ball, Indian ball, street ball, etc were just daily games.

In my day, even hotbox Was huge.

We did the same thing. We would bat left and right as the Cardinal lineup was listed. We also played "hotbox" to see who could get out of the pickle.

When there were enough kids at the park we would play "rounder".

hotbox? seems like a sketchy game for kids

Goodness. Maybe the best game for kids not just baseball. Taught sheer determination. Constant failure and great reward when you “score.”

You're not helping your cause. "hotbox", "kids", "score" in the same sentence. you see where i was going

Ha. I just got it. Doesn’t help the game is played “ in between” two other players.

Your bad.

my bad indeed. serious question, what is hotbox? i played every type of game baseball related growing up. Maybe we called it something else

How about pickle.

yep, pickle we called it. i guess "pickle" isn't really better than "hotbox"

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:32 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:29 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:23 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:16 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:07 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 15:01 pm

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 14:56 pm

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:54 am

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:51 am

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:33 am For many years cork ball was a St. Louis area game. They had leagues in Forest Park.

We created our own neighborhood league. Wiffle ball, wall ball. Any individual game.

The collective games of left field ball, Indian ball, street ball, etc were just daily games.

In my day, even hotbox Was huge.

We did the same thing. We would bat left and right as the Cardinal lineup was listed. We also played "hotbox" to see who could get out of the pickle.

When there were enough kids at the park we would play "rounder".

hotbox? seems like a sketchy game for kids

Goodness. Maybe the best game for kids not just baseball. Taught sheer determination. Constant failure and great reward when you “score.”

You're not helping your cause. "hotbox", "kids", "score" in the same sentence. you see where i was going

Ha. I just got it. Doesn’t help the game is played “ in between” two other players.

Your bad.

my bad indeed. serious question, what is hotbox? i played every type of game baseball related growing up. Maybe we called it something else

How about pickle.

yep, pickle we called it. i guess "pickle" isn't really better than "hotbox"

Haaaa. Now that’s funny. No. I started playing hotbox around 6, then playing with some real hot box around 16. Still after it. An elusive creature.

Anybody played bottlecap ball? Had touse caps with cork liners or they would not float. Used broomstick handles or corkball bats. Same rules as wiffleball. Run out of caps, open more beers. How could you lose?

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:25 am Did anyone ever play sock ball? We played with a pitcher and hitter, different distances for doubles, triples and home runs. It was actually a sock tied in knots and turned inside out and used a broom stick for a bat. Like cork ball a swing and a miss was an out.

I played with a baseball wrapped in tape and a bat with nails in it to hold it together. Never a sock ball.

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:29 am

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:25 am Did anyone ever play sock ball? We played with a pitcher and hitter, different distances for doubles, triples and home runs. It was actually a sock tied in knots and turned inside out and used a broom stick for a bat. Like cork ball a swing and a miss was an out.

Your cold.

We hit anything you could throw. Try rocks with a yellow wiffle ball bat. The best use of wadded socks was indoor basketball.

Yep we would roll up some plastic...saran wrap etc into a ball....then coat in really well with shoe goo to form it into a well rounded ball... let harden and beat the heck out of that for awhile.....but anything we could hit we would hit...we would each pick 5 guys we liked.. say bo Jackson...Barry bonds so on and so on...then we would bat for each guy in our line up until the inning was over...keep stats for each guy in the book....and then decide who was the mvp based on stats after our mini season was over...lol.....we made up all kinds of stuff

Anybody try to steal a base with a slip in slide..lol..get 4 guys.....pitcher on one end...catcher on the other....runner is next to the catcher and takes off when the pitcher starts his motion....see if you can get to the base that's next to the pitcher before the catcher guns you down....lots of bang bang plays... so always fighting with your buddy who was the ump and the 4th guy....then we would rotate....the good ol days

Bushiro wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 22:17 pm Anybody try to steal a base with a slip in slide..lol..get 4 guys.....pitcher on one end...catcher on the other....runner is next to the catcher and takes off when the pitcher starts his motion....see if you can get to the base that's next to the pitcher before the catcher guns you down....lots of bang bang plays... so always fighting with your buddy who was the ump and the 4th guy....then we would rotate....the good ol days

That sounds fun. Although wet gloves. Sliding on wet grass comes to mind.

Most (but not all) of the "sandlot" baseball and football in our multi-age group was played in a friend's side yard. Home on the west end...first at the TV antenna tower by the house...second by the sidewalk...third the yard border hedge across from first. "Pitcher's hand out". "Magic men" going from station to station. The outfield was a street with the obligatory timeouts for oncoming traffic.

Football was "touch", either one or two hands generally below the waist. I recall our high school freshman (and eventually varsity) football coach telling us in no uncertain terms that we'd better not get hurt playing in sandlot (his term) games during the season.

There were a couple of broken windows through the years.

My son and his buddies played ball and roller hockey in the street in our subdivision. We had the nicked up mailbox post to prove it. Do kids even do that these days?

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:29 am We hit anything you could throw. Try rocks with a yellow wiffle ball bat. The best use of wadded socks was indoor basketball.

+1 on the rocks with a yellow wiffle bat. Got some good swings back in the day, at least until the guy a few houses down objected to my opposite field shots.

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:30 am this could be the reason why younger people don't post in the forum.......but, no i did not. We played baseball, chicago ball, whiffle ball obviously with electrical tape or duct tape around the bat

I’m in my early 40s and me and my brothers played indoor sock ball, using our hand as a bat and the furniture in the room as bases.

I don’t post on the forum much because you have the same people that obsess over the same thing everyday, searching for and posting their confirmation biases.

NorthernBird wrote: ↑04 Dec 2025 05:33 am

Adam2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:30 am this could be the reason why younger people don't post in the forum.......but, no i did not. We played baseball, chicago ball, whiffle ball obviously with electrical tape or duct tape around the bat

I’m in my early 40s and me and my brothers played indoor sock ball, using our hand as a bat and the furniture in the room as bases.

I don’t post on the forum much because you have the same people that obsess over the same thing everyday, searching for and posting their confirmation biases.

Don’t let that stop you. You have valuable data to communicate. Let your free will loose. As for others, it’s the nature of the beast. Let ‘em have their say.

Absolut wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 14:21 pm

sikeston bulldog2 wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:51 am

OldRed wrote: ↑02 Dec 2025 10:33 am For many years cork ball was a St. Louis area game. They had leagues in Forest Park.

We created our own neighborhood league. Wiffle ball, wall ball. Any individual game.

The collective games of left field ball, Indian guardians ball, street ball, etc were just daily games.

In my day, even hotbox Was huge.

Fixed

It’s my understanding that Indian ball came from the Indian culture. Like others, they had their game of baseball complete with rules. I don’t know that the Indians baseball team had anything to do with it.

Nice thread, brings back a lot of great memories. Played a number of games mentioned in here and we'd often use whatever we could rig up for a ball and bat.