Indian Ball.

Summer in St. Louis usually brings warm weather, humidity, and baseball. There are other sports played in the city, but no team has a bigger following than the St. Louis Cardinals. Walk through the city, suburbs, malls, or anywhere else, and you will find red shirts and jerseys on men, women and children.

The Cardinals have been in St. Louis since 1882, although they were originally known as the “Brown Stockings” back then. They also would not join the National League until 10 years later. It was in 1900 when they officially became the St. Louis Cardinals. What always amazes me about the Cardinals is their following around the region. Not just in Missouri, but in many states far away. How did they establish this following? When I was a kid, we would listen to KMOX radio---the official station of the St. Louis Cardinals. Long before TV, and before FM radio, KMOX had one of the most powerful signals in the Midwest. They had a 50,000 watt clear channel on AM radio.

On hot summer nights families would sit around their radios listening to Cardinal broadcasts; the devoted fans would follow the likes of Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial and others who wore the red cap back then. (They now wear blue caps during certain games.)

Today’s blog is not really about the Cardinals, it’s about the love of baseball. In our household, we loved baseball---and during the summer, my brother and neighborhood friends would play what we called, “Indian Ball.” I am not sure if this was a made up name, but we played it almost every day. It involved only 4 people to play, and as I think about it, it’s amazing we didn’t get hurt every time we played.

The game is played on the street; preferably a long narrow one. One person on your team pitches the ball to you underhand, and you hit it with all of your might either past the first line of defense who is about 20 yards away or over the head of the person who is likely 100 yards down the street. You can either strike out, get a hit by getting it past the first person on the street or place it in between the two players. Hit it over the head of the player way down the street and it's a homer. My brother was the "King" of the homer.

To make sure we didn’t go through a ball a game, we would use rubber-coated baseballs. These baseballs not only held up for more than one game, but they spun in wild directions when they hit the street. You can be sure these balls caused a few injuries during the summer “Indian Ball” baseball season on Heather Ridge Drive; they also were not very forgiving when they hit a roof, window, or car. (Luckily we didn’t hit many cars or windows, but we did hit a lot of roofs.)

The photo above is of “Indian Ball Stadium” on Heather Ridge Drive we knew so affectionately; long and narrow, the field was actually the street. If you hit the ball onto a yard, it was foul, 3 fouls and you were out. It’s been so many years since I played Indian Ball, but the memories from the days when we would play double and triple-headers, will live on and on. I know you might be thinking this is a completely made up game; but if you don’t believe me, please contact chris@chrisoleary.com. He is the President and CEO of the AIBAA. (AKA American Indian Ball Association of America---naturally he is located in St. Louis.)

Thanks for stopping by.