The Pinky Ball Book & The Pinky Ball (Classic Games Series)

By Dina Anastasio

You might have called it a Spaldeen. You might have called it a pinky. Whatever its name, the pink rubber ball with the big bounce meant hours and hours of neighborhood fun. And in the fifth title that celebrates classic American games, the rubber ball is back-and bouncier than ever. Packaged with its own pinky, which begs to be played with the minute it's out of the box, "The Pinky Ball Book & The Pinky Ball" begins with the story of the little tennis ball that couldn't-pinkies were originally the naked insides of tennis balls considered not up to par and sold to city kids for 15 cents. It covers the lingo: roofer, chips, chops, Hindu, ham and eggs, skimming, and scroogie. The techniques: how to throw a fastball, slider, knuckler, and fluke; how to tape a broomstick for a simple bat without splinters; how to hit the ball with your hand, including zappers, slams, and slices. And then the games. Bouncing games: Tennessee, 1,2,3 O'Kerry, A My Name Is Alice, Act It Out. Catching games: Trigon, Hot Potato, Monkey in the Middle. Off the Wall games: Mimsy, Russian Seven, Handball, Kings. And the most classic of all, the street games: Stickball, Slapball, Hit the Penny, Spud, Flies Up, and I Declare War.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761119779
• ISBN13: 9780761119777
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.4" x 2.1" x 5.9"
• Age Range: 5 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Kindergarten to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

"Spaldeen"

Skullyplayer is absolutly correct. No self respecting Brooklynite whould ever, or ever did at least not in Greenpoint Brooklyn, where I grew up, call it a "Pinky". The guys wouldn't be caught dead using the term pinky. We called it a "Spaldeen". We played Ace, King, Queen,; Boxball; off the point, Stoop ball... etc. Those were the days. We would literally spend an entire summer afternoon playing Chinesse Handball on Bedford Ave, next to the soad fountain store. That was in the late 70's very early 80's.. I feel that was right on the tail end of the street game era. We also played Johnny on the Pony, and scelzeesc (I prob butchered the spelling of that one). Memories.

Cover Your Eyes, My Children! It's a NAKED TENNIS BALL!

Cover Your Eyes, My Children! It's a NAKED TENNIS BALL!My first Pinky Ball cost me a whole forty-nine cents at my hometown Ohio City Hardware back in the 70's. Pinkies are now priced at around ninety-nine cents. Not bad given 30 years of inflation. A lot better than a loaf of WonderBread, that's for sure!The visuals, smell and touch of a Pinky hasn't changed in my 30-some years and this Pinky comes with a cool book, to boot. It covers the Pinky lingo like roofer (not to be confused with roofies), chips, chops, ham & eggs, skimming, scroogie etc. Includes techniques on how to throw a fastball, slider, knuckler, and fluke. Even includes on how to tape up your mamma's old broomstick for a simple bat without splinters, how to play handball (we always played handball against the Ohio City Liberty's big busbarn). The various games include some familiar and some "not-so" familiar, like Tennessee, 1,2,3, O'Kerry (not to be confused with the Democratic Kerry ;>), A, My Name Is Alice, Trigon, Hot Potato, Monkey in the Middle, Mimsy, Kings, Stickball, Slapball, Hit the Penny, Spud, Flies Up, and I Declare War ( quite non-PC). <p>PC, however, is the book when read. It urges children not to play ball in the street, (what FUN is that?), and other funny (to me, anyway) comments. I guess that not being a parent, myself, I think the comments funny but parents of little children might find them a help. <p>Overall, this product will bring back childhood memories for parents and teach their children about a world before Atari, cable TV, X-Box, GameBoy and the internet!<p>Happy Playing!

The Best Moments of My Childhood

Hold this book in your hand and, if you're like me, it will evoke some pretty powerful memories of childhood. Not only is it chock-full of the games we Brooklyn girls used to play with our beloved Spaldeens (as well as the ones we were only allowed to watch the boys play) but it also comes with a real live Spaldeen (okay, so it's called a Pinky Ball). There are games I remember playing, like "A, My Name is Alice" and "Hit the Penny," games I don't remember, like "Four Square," and lots of games I knew by other names - regional variants, I guess. Anastasio has done a wonderful job of digging up a zillion games, as well as history, special Spaldeen techniques, and safety tips for the modern world, which is less inclined to make way for kids playing in the street. A comprehensive, well-written treat to read!

Spaldeen 101

It's hard to fault a book that includes a spaldeen with it. Yes, a spaldeen--that's the canonically correct term for the pink rubber ball that is supplied with and described by this book. Obviously, the publisher wanted to avoid the sticky situation of the ball's true name, a corruption of the manufacturer's name, Spalding. No self-respecting New York kid would ever call it a pinky ball.Despite the book's heavy dose of political correctness and Y2K-esque paranoia (basically, it advises kids not to do anything dangerous, which seems to extend to bouncing the ball near a street), this is a great little tome. There's lots of games described for kids to learn, and even a brief history of the ball--the spaldeen is correctly presented as the ultimate evolution of ball technology, which started with ancient Egyptians kid playing with mud they'd roll up into balls.