Games My Friends Played

These days, I notice that those little tabs are found on top of most soft drink cans and beer cans. On plastic bottles, I see the plastic screw tops...very few tin bottle caps these days. More on that later.

When I was a 1950's, teenager living on Rosemont Avenue (Washington Park) East St. Louis, Illinois, we did not have air-conditioning.  Our bedroom windows were open at night begging for a breeze to ease the oppressive Mississippi River Valley summer heat and humidity. Many nights while waiting sleep, I'd hear the 'clanking' noise of iron striking. I knew that three doors to the east, neighbor 'Red' Miller was honing his already masterful skills of Horseshoe Pitching.

Recalling those years, I remember how most people (families) were always playing backyard games. In our neighborhood you'd find croquet, badminton, horseshoe pits and basketball goals. Many local taverns had horseshoe pits. Some of those pubs offered another long-standing St. Louis 'born' game dating back to the late 1800's...'Corkball.' Those taverns had Corkball cages to confine the batted ball.  The Corkball is a 'mini' baseball 1.6 ounces and the bat is long and narrow at 1.5 inches in diameter. The game has a pitcher, catcher and outfielder. Balls in flight caught by fielders are outs. A ball hit over the outfielder's head is a home run; all other batted balls falling safely to the ground are singles.

There was another game played by kids similar to Corkball but less expensive. The game was played in alleys. It was 'Bottle Caps Baseball.' The bat was a broom handle, which had its whisk end cut off. Kids would go to drug stores and local taverns to solicit bottle caps from beer and soda bottles. The game rules were the same as Corkball. The unique thing about 'Bottle Caps Ball' was the many different ways a pitcher could release a bottle cap causing it to dart in every imaginable direction unlike any baseball, softball or corkball pitch. I believe that learning to hit a darting-slashing bottle cap caused hitters to eye-track with intensity, wait until the cap was deep upon the hitter and then take a very short swing. Let me say this: Today's major league home run hitters with those long looping swings would certainly strike out even more often back in the alley behind Rosemont Avenue in East St. Louis.