We played forms of baseball (wiffle ball, pickle, pepper etc), football, and basketball (usually 21 or as we called it “hustle”).

 

Man, we used to play a ton of "Pickle". Got to a point where we just needed to objects on the ground to count as bases and we'd play in people's backyards. As not-the-fastest-kid, I definitely preferred to not be the one running.

 

By middle school we played a boatload of 21 and Knockout on backyard hoops.

Any variation of baseball. Sometimes riffle ball other tines aluminum band a tennis ball or a regular baseball.

Whiffle ball.

 

Same. We had every team's plastic batting helmet, we kept stats for the entire summer, played in the same kid's yard (with a fence that gave us a home run wall, plus the chance for "This Week in Baseball" highlights jumping to pull back homers). We'd play it for hours when we didn't have enough for a baseball game at the park.

Same. We had every team's plastic batting helmet, we kept stats for the entire summer, played in the same kid's yard (with a fence that gave us a home run wall, plus the chance for "This Week in Baseball" highlights jumping to pull back homers). We'd play it for hours when we didn't have enough for a baseball game at the park.

 

One summer we actually built and maintained a field in a vacant lot behind one guys house. Full scale tournaments, concessions and the whole 9 yards. Those were the days.

Pin the tail on the velociraptor.

Wiffle Ball or 1-on-1 basketball. Kept stats for both. Led the neighborhood in runs scored and 3FGM for three straight summers.

Grew up on the great lakes. We changed sports with the seasons.

 

Baseball/tennis ball in the spring and summer, football in the fall, and hockey in the winter.

 

Football was my favorite. There were 4 other neighborhoods we used to play against just about every weekend during football season.

It wasn’t a backyard sport, but we played a lot of kickball in the streets which I loved.

Led the neighborhood in runs scored and 3FGM for three straight summers.

That is the kind of flex I'm here for.

Baseball in the summer, football in the fall.

Whiffle ball or touch/tackle football.

 

We had a street that had a grassy area about the same width next to it. If you were on grass you got tackled, if on the pavement it was 2 hand touch.

 

In Whiffle Ball we kept stats, sorta...we kept track of homers. My buddy had an old coal house in his yard that was up against my yard. It was our left field "Red" monster...we would play 100 inning games that lasted for more than a day or two...man I loved whiffle ball.

That is the kind of flex I'm here for.

 

One that can in no way be verified? :lol2:

Basically once you got tackled, you'd toss the ball up in the air and whoever was brave enough to pick it up, would scoop it up and try to score. :lol2:

 

We called that "kill the man with the ball". FUN stuff. Lots of good nose bleeds, haha.

 

We called it something else, that looking back, wasn’t so politically correct.

 

Same here with the politically incorrect name. This game morphed into another version if we didn't have a football. In grade school we often used a kick ball and had teams. If you got tackled you could pitch the ball backwards to a teammate who could then run with it (similar to rugby). But the way you had to score was to put the ball on the ground and kick it into a goal. The action always kept moving.

 

Favorite backyard sport was tackle football. Choose up sides and you could play for hours.

 

Second favorite was baseball. We played down at the church yard which had a baseball diamond... the infield was overgrown and was just grass. It was not maintained. The backstop had a huge hole in it and the creek beside the ball field ate a lot of our baseballs. We'd have to stop and search in the tall weeds and water. I was left-handed and the guys made a rule if you hit the ball in the water you were out. The creek was parallel to the right field line. I protested and finally they relented on this rule that was totally unfair to left-handed batters.

 

Nothing stopped us from playing. Even if we only had three guys, we'd have a pitcher, a batter, and a fielder. You had to call your field (left, center, right) so the fielder was positioned in that field. If you didn't hit it to the field you called, you were out. If you hit a single, double, or triple there would be a ghost runner on that base and you went to the plate again. Yes, it was hard to keep score, but we managed without too much arguing. :lol2:

 

Many, many summer days were spent doing this. When we got over-heated and thirsty we would walk across the road to the Grange Hall. There was an Artesian well that ran constantly and you could cup your hand and get the coolest drink of water you ever had in your life. Before I drank, I learned to hold my hand across the mouth of the pipe so it would fill up with water. This would chase the spiders out of the end of the pipe before you drank. :wideyed: I also know the meaning of being "water-logged" after drinking my fill at that pipe. Those were the days.

I've been sitting and thinking about it, and I think as much as anything we did

"spotlight" the most. Basically kind of hide-and-go-seek at night using a flashlight.

 

As far as the daytime goes, homerun derby was probably our go-to pickup game. Played in the school parking lot over across the street. Hitting one over the fence into the neighbor's yard was a homer, and if you hit the neighbor's roof it was a grand slam.

I completely forgot about 21 until Getslow mentioned it. We would go to a local church parking lot that had a full court and lights that came on at night. We'd ride our bikes down after supper and play as late as we could get away with. Sometimes my mom or dad would drive by when it was getting too late and just point in the direction of our house...that meant game over, see you tomorrow.

Whiffle ball days and 21 at night...man those were the days.