-4 meant something like you subtract four from the number on the card and then consult the baserunner’s speed (Rickey was a 19, I think, out of 20, which meant only a twenty could throw him out but my friend I used to play with ripped up all the 20s so Rickey could never be thrown out) and do some kind of calculation or something or other.

Ah, the good old days.

I play/have a catch with my 7yo all the time, but I don’t actually know which one I say.

ok, no more links – i have to get to my OWN music today! : )

But catch … yeah nothing beats a catch in the early evening fading light, just after dinner.

(I wonder if I still have my glove ….)

Dude, you better keep that arm in tip-top. Check out what’s looming in your area!

I say gloves all around, but catchers wear mitts.

if no one was around, i’d throw pop-ups to myself in the street. i grew up really near JFK, so i’d try to reach the planes as they’d roar low, overhead! i have to be careful now. i had major shoulder surgery on my left arm, so i can’t really extend my arm high to catch a ball coming in fast. and my right arm gets sore from throwing pretty easily. if it affects my drumming, i’m fucked. somewhere along the line, i got old and fragile. i think i was about 21 or 22 when that happened… ; )

for catches, we had a lot of yard at the garden apt’s in Queens. then it was on the street in long island. my long-term ex-g/f and i used to have a baseball catch quite often in the park here in atlanta. she was good and it was a ton o’ fun.

i remember here at the banter a coupla years ago, we talked about the folks that “play catch” and “have a catch”. i always have a catch. “playing” catch doesn’t sound right to me. it’s not a game. we also had a fun talk here about “glove” or “mitt”. i always call it a glove. i guess for catchers & first basemen, it would be a “mitt”…

Thanks for the link, Al.

For some reason tossing a football blows out my arm. My shoulder and bicep are shot for a good day afterward, even if I don’t try to wing it very hard. Must have done something as a kid, ’cause the football toss is killer to me. Baseball is no problem if I don’t overdue it, but football. Ouch. I remember after playing pickup ball as a kid, I’d have this deep throbbing pain in my shoulder and bicep and my arm would feel dead. Never said anything – you know how guys are – it’ll go away – but now I wonder.

Playing pickle is next best thing to playing ball. Two bases, two guys with gloves, someone trying to steal from one to the other. That’s always a blast. Another family picnic favorite, especially when it’s the kids running.

Doesn’t even have to be a baseball. We love throwing and chasing down footballs, shooting hoops, kicking around a soccer ball.

My sons aren’t big enough to throw a frisbee very far, but that’s my favorite version of catch with my old buddies.