Punchball

Glossary of Games

Curated by Larry McCray and Jeffrey Kittel
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Game	Punchball
Game Family	Kickball Kickball
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Description	This is a variation of baseball in which a rubber ball is punched, and not hit with a bat, to start a play. One set of modern rules is at http://www.spaldeen.com/punchball.html. Johnson (1910) lists Punch Ball under “Baseball games.” An urban form of this game is recalled by Gregory Christiano.
Sources	G. E. Johnson, What to Do at Recess (Ginn, Boston, 1910), page 32. http://www.myrecollection.com/christianog/games.html A brief 4/30/1989 letter to the New York Times argued that stickball was a "sissyfied" sport in comparison to punchball. We played with six or seven players, nickel a player; We had one-sewer homers and two-sewer homers. The game was so popular in Brooklyn that a daily newspaper, The Graphic, sponsored a punchball tournament, pitting one street against another."  The players used a spaldeen, and chalked in foul lines and first and third bases.
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