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The strike zone is a box on the wall
There are several kinds of stickball. Stickball with fast pitching (sometimes
called wallball), requires a good wall and a field at least the size of a
handball court. Hits are determined by the distance of the shot. Balls not
caught that go through the infield are singles; over a predetermined point, a
double; another point, a triple; over the fence, roof, or whatever boundary of
the field, a home run.
The most distinguishing feature of the field is the box drawn on the wall
which defines the strike zone. On a really popular field it might be painted.
Usually, it's drawn with chalk before playing. Unlike baseball where the
strike zone is relative to the batter's height, the stickball strike zone is
fixed. Since bigger kids have more influence in making rules, they usually
make the zones to fit their size. Younger kids either get used to swinging at
neck-high pitches, or to getting striked-out.
One of the coolest things about stickball is that everyone has a chance to
pitch. Unlike baseball (even in a pickup game with fewer than 9 per side), if
you're a lousy pitcher, you rarely get much of a chance to pitch. There's no
just way your pals will stand around and let you single handedly lose the game
for them. However, in fast-pitch stickball, there might be 3 or fewer guys
per team and you often get a chance to pitch. In fact, many games are just
one-on-one, which means you must pitch. If no one is around, pitching
pratice is easy: throwing the ball against the wall--the catcher, umpire, and
backstop are built-in!
Pitching with a rubber ball is great. You need not worry too much about
hitting the batter, because no one can really get hurt--feel free to rear back
and do your best Bob Gibson imitation. Even better is the fact that with a
little work, you can put all kinds of spins and curves on the ball. Lots of
at-bats per player, lots of chances to pitch, to whack the ball over the
roof... what a blast! Pint size players, major league fun.
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