A future stickball player embraces his father’s game. Photo by Catherine Rogers
By Catherine Rogers
NEW YORK CITY—The smell of traditional Latin food, the sound of good music and the sight of friends dancing and cheering are the pleasures you can experience every Sunday from April to August on Stickball Blvd. in the Bronx.
All this centers around a street game called Stickball that culminated this past weekend as the New York Emperors Stickball League (NYESL) hosted its 26th annual Memorial Weekend Stickball Classic.
The sport began in the 1930s as a cheap alternative to baseball and many players grew up with their teammates. For many young boys of that time, it tied players to a team rather than a gang and created a more positive brand of brotherhood.
“Its part of our culture; we grew up playing stickball. We’ve been playing stickball since we were 10 years old and it was a way for us to stay out of trouble. Instead of being in gangs, we were in teams and it meant a lot for us,” said John Franco, a stickball old-timer.
The street game continues today as a family tradition being passed from generation to generation—what players and spectators alike say the sport is all about.
“It’s just great family tradition. Your whole weekend is spent here getting sun and cheering on your team and the rivalry is really great but at the end of the day we’re all family,” said Liz Torez, the wife of a Gold team player.
With 14 teams from California, Florida, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and New York, participating in several tournaments throughout the year, the game serves to connect friends and family from across the Country.
“I like the family aspect. I like that we come back every year and we go wherever they’re at and whenever we meet up it’s always like family,” said Isaiah Blas, a stickball player from San Diego.
Franco said that he keeps coming back to catch up with a lot of old friends who have moved away.
“I know I can find them here,” he said.
The game is now more purposely use for a positive effect as the community teaches their children good values and behavior by example.
“We bring kids out here to show them how to respect each other. Winning is great but also losing and taking it graciously and respecting your fellow man and after all is said and done we’re one big happy family,” said Richard Marrero, commissioner of the NYESL.
For more information about stickball in NYC, check out the New York Emperor’s Stickball League website at http://www.stickball.com/
A fun story. I had no idea stickball was so organized. It would have helped to have a paragraph or two about the game itself and how it is played. In the interviews done with the little cell phone headset mic, the sound is pretty distorted. Did you all try another mic?
By: John Carpenter on June 4, 2010
at 9:24 AM
I was going to do a paragraph about how the game is played in the beginning but another girl did not have a story idea so I let her do a story on my topic too and so she did profile on the sport and I did not want our stories to be repetitive.
I did not try another mic only because I did not have one. That’s the mic that Clayton Sizemore gave us and it worked well on all my other stories but with this one it was outside at a very loud event and so the people were yelling haha but I really want to look into fixing this problem for the future.
By: cgrogers on June 4, 2010
at 10:30 AM