I bet you thought the center of the world “earth” was a super hot core of unknown minerals. Uh uh, it’s a “Spaldeen”. So what the hell is a “Spaldeen”? For a boy between 10 and 17, growing up in Flushing, Queens, New York City in the fifties, it was a most important little pink sphere of influence.
You could buy a spaldeen for about 75 cents at any “five and dime” store like Woolworth’s or even in your corner grocer or general store. So what was it already?
OK, it’s a small, pink rubber ball between a golf ball and baseball in size. Similar in size to a tennis ball, but without the fuzz.
It bounces real high and can be used in a myriad of games or sports, whether you’re by yourself, with one companion, or with a bunch of pals.
By yourself, all you need is your imagination, the stoop in front of your house, a cement wall used for handball, available in many parks or playgrounds, or the outside wall of your house ( if no one’s inside).
The key is that the spaldeen bounces. If you throw it at a wall or stoop, it’ll bounce back to you. It’s also very light weight, so you can throw it fast, high, or far, depending upon what game you wanna play.
Add a broomstick, used as a bat, and you have all you need for two or more kids to play stick ball against a wall or in the infamous streets of New York, with a manhole cover as your home plate.

So the six of us decided to play stick ball in the street near my apartment home. 3 on each side. You had a pitcher, a fielder and a first baseman or catcher. ( Sometimes we had the batting team provide the catcher. That presented some interesting dilemmas on plays at the manhole cover home plate).
So first base was the white ford about 90 feet from the manhole cover. Second was somebody’s coat, hat, or something that could be on the street 90 feet from first base and several feet behind the pitcher.
Third was the green buick parked on the opposite side of the street from the white ford. Play Ball !! Make up rules as needed.
(The great Willie Mays was said to be able to hit a Spaldeen over two manhole covers away. That’s about two blocks, an enormous distance for a batted Spaldeen).

If you just had two of you, like me and Allan. You found a wall in a park at an empty handball court. ( Several were in walking distance from our house in Queens). Then you drew a rectangle on the wall from chest high to knee high and as wide as your stick was long. Oh yeah, you needed a stick ( broom type) and the infamous Spaldeen.
You now can play a two man game of stick ball using your wall sketch as home plate. You made up the rest of the rules for your two man game. Remember, we had imaginations and creativity in those days. Enuf