on a (too early) saturday morning, we met outside of 21 MERCER. myself, OSCAR, DEE & RICKY, JESSIE BOYKINS III, CHAD GITTENS, SNEAKER JOHN, SCOTT WILLIAMS aka YOUNG SCOOZLE, SWINTON, (just to name a few) and more were about to embark into the BOOGIE DOWN BRONX for some training.
STICK BALL training.
not sure if you all are familiar with this sport, that finds it’s origins in NEW YORK CITY from about the 1920’s/1930’s, where poor young men would steal mop handles off fire escapes and shorten them using manhole covers to play a game similar to that of baseball.
*TRAILER FOR “BRAGGING RIGHTS” (stickball doc)
++++++++++
it’s much harder than it looks folks.
*my mini speakers makes any trip fun!
*OSCAR and SCOTT WILLIAMS aka YOUNG SCOOZLE
*boys
*this is straight heaven. even though that rag that covers the ice is suspect.
*shortening FUTURA made sticks!
*filing down our broken sticks
*STICKBALL BLVD/STEVE MERCADO BLVD (STEVE was one of the people that held the game alive. he was a dedicated father, husband and firefighter who perished at the WTC. he’s featured in the doc, it’s an amazing story!)
*practice makes perfect
***you can’t play STICKBALL with non stick-playing dudes…it was “PAUSE/NO HOMO” CITY. “can you grab my stick – pause”. oy vey.
