fun invented games as kids

[Ken Lagerquist]

Its getting that time of year again when the weather starts getting nicer out. I just thought i would start a thread about some games we invented as kids. There are a couple i can think of right off the top of my head and an ALL TIME fav of mine and Simon's, HALF BASEBALL!!!!! Also, i know we didnt invent the game, but we tweaked it per se, Wiffle Ball!!! Also had some good Dunk ball games at Sunnyside!! How i miss the good ol days!!!!

[Casey Fisher]

Good memories Ken. I didn't ever play Half Baseball with your guys, but heard about it. What were the rules again?

I didn't invent it, but one of my buddies and I played BASEketball in his backyard a few years back inspired by that funny movie... King of the Mountain was a great one as well.

I have to say that whiffle-ball and dunk ball were my faves.

[Matt Morgan]

I have fond memories of the legendary battles between the Riverside Rollers and the Mission Maniacs. I didn't play but used to watch my big brother, marky flores, clint herick, piglet, faraca's, mark gary, and the such playing some brutal games. Those certainly were the good ol' days. Every kid should get to experience those things.

Does anybody remember Jonny PotatoHead? He lived down the road from the Armstrongs. We used to terrorize him and his old mans fruit trees.

[Ken Lagerquist]

basically with half baseball we didnt have enough of us to field two full baseball teams. so we would cut off half the field and use the other half, usually 3rd base side to play on. any lefties had to hit it the opposite field, i.e. Dorgs and Lager, they hated it! but they were better hitters for it. so if we got a hit, we would run from home to second base and use tird and home after that. if the ball was hit to the right of second base, it was an out. thats the basics of the rules.

[Lauren A. Scrafford]

Despite the weather in the winter we used to come up with plenty of games at Silver King School. When we got bored with basketball, we came up with tackle football on the gym floor.. We deemed flag and 2 touch as too gentile and opted for tackle football. It could at times be a little rough, but was exciting to say the least... I was pretty light weight so it could really jar you to be driven into the bleachers by a kid 25-40 pounds your senior.. A las we all survived for another day.

Lauren Scrafford SKS 1961

[Simon Miller]

Wow. Great thread Ken. Half baseball was legendary. Let's see where do I start?

I took a coaching class at the U of I and one of our final projects was to come up with a sporting activity that had rules modified to meet the needs of the participants. I used "Half Baseball" and my teacher thought I had invented the wheel. It was sweet. BA was down at U of I at the same time and I consulted him to make sure my memory was accurate. I remember Dorgs and Little Lager not liking the orientation of the field but like Ken said, they became excellent opposite field hitters. I remember Dorgs cranking one out once in a while just to get out frustration and display his power, even if it meant being out. lol

I also remember when BA and I used to face off vs. the Twins (Matt and Mike) in whiffle ball or softball and we would modify the rules. Twins got 3 outs, we got 2. No homers for us etc. I remember playing whiff at the triangle park for hours and using the elephant slide for home base, as well as an outhouse. If anyone hit a whiffle ball or softball into Mrs. Kenyon's yard we used to play rock paper scissors to see who see who had to brave the fence and risk the wrath of Mrs. Kenyon. I later babysat your own Rocktober and had many whiffle ball excursions with Rock and Travee too.

When all of us used to play whiff, we would use our plastic MLB helmets as batting helmets. We did it uptown. I even remember moving to a bigger venue (hospital lawn) and constructing a fence out of wood stakes and string because we took our whiff seriously. I used to get a 7:30am wakeup call every day in the summer from Travee and it sounded like this:

SM: Hello
Trav: Hey THIME.... wanna play whiff?
SM: In a bit

7:45 Phone Rings
SM: ....
Trav: Thime? Are we gonna play whif?
Click

8:00am Knock at the door

At that point I would roll out of bed and the whiff would commence. Sometimes we would have to pay Matt Armstrong to play because he would rather watch the Cubs and Braves on TV. That kid had every player's stat memorized and up to date, I kid you not. Today we have the internet. Back in the day we had Matt.

Later on, when I was in HS, I worked at Pinehurst Golf Course. I remember hauling Travee out to PGC every day and we would golf it up all day/evening. It was then we both got hit by the golf bug. We would later set up nerf golf courses throughout our neighborhood, launching 7 irons across the street and ripping up divots in everyone's yards. We even set the mower to the bottom level and scalped part of my lawn and cut a hole and put a plastic cup in it. I thought my dad was gonna kill us when he got home.

I also remember playing "Dunk Ball" at the old Sunnyside School on the little kids side for so many straight hours, I couldn't walk by the end of the day. We had some great times.

I remember Jonny PotatoHead Dorgs. Patano right?

How about Joe "Mop/Malfatano" Ganser? Do you guys remember him? He would come up for the summer? I think he invented the concept of "Wreeeeeeak Havoc" during the summer months.

Wow don't get me started... I could write pages of this stuff.

[Ken Lagerquist]

Wow. Great thread Ken. Half baseball was legendary. Let's see where do I start?

I took a coaching class at the U of I and one of our final projects was to come up with a sporting activity that had rules modified to meet the needs of the participants. I used "Half Baseball" and my teacher thought I had invented the wheel. It was sweet. BA was down at U of I at the same time and I consulted him to make sure my memory was accurate. I remember Dorgs and Little Lager not liking the orientation of the field but like Ken said, they became excellent opposite field hitters. I remember Dorgs cranking one out once in a while just to get out frustration and display his power, even if it meant being out. lol

I also remember when BA and I used to face off vs. the Twins (Matt and Mike) in whiffle ball or softball and we would modify the rules. Twins got 3 outs, we got 2. No homers for us etc. I remember playing whiff at the triangle park for hours and using the elephant slide for home base, as well as an outhouse. If anyone hit a whiffle ball or softball into Mrs. Kenyon's yard we used to play rock paper scissors to see who see who had to brave the fence and risk the wrath of Mrs. Kenyon. I later babysat your own Rocktober and had many whiffle ball excursions with Rock and Travee too.

When all of us used to play whiff, we would use our plastic MLB helmets as batting helmets. We did it uptown. I even remember moving to a bigger venue (hospital lawn) and constructing a fence out of wood stakes and string because we took our whiff seriously. I used to get a 7:30am wakeup call every day in the summer from Travee and it sounded like this:

SM: Hello
Trav: Hey THIME.... wanna play whiff?
SM: In a bit

7:45 Phone Rings
SM: ....
Trav: Thime? Are we gonna play whif?
Click

8:00am Knock at the door

At that point I would roll out of bed and the whiff would commence. Sometimes we would have to pay Matt Armstrong to play because he would rather watch the Cubs and Braves on TV. That kid had every player's stat memorized and up to date, I kid you not. Today we have the internet. Back in the day we had Matt.

Later on, when I was in HS, I worked at Pinehurst Golf Course. I remember hauling Travee out to PGC every day and we would golf it up all day/evening. It was then we both got hit by the golf bug. We would later set up nerf golf courses throughout our neighborhood, launching 7 irons across the street and ripping up divots in everyone's yards. We even set the mower to the bottom level and scalped part of my lawn and cut a hole and put a plastic cup in it. I thought my dad was gonna kill us when he got home.

I also remember playing "Dunk Ball" at the old Sunnyside School on the little kids side for so many straight hours, I couldn't walk by the end of the day. We had some great times.

I remember Jonny PotatoHead Dorgs. Patano right?

How about Joe "Mop/Malfatano" Ganser? Do you guys remember him? He would come up for the summer? I think he invented the concept of "Wreeeeeeak Havoc" during the summer months.

Wow don't get me started... I could write pages of this stuff.

Great post Simon, i remember Travee just wanting to be out there with all of playing any of those games we played.
we used to have some good times in those days getting the whole gang together and having as many as possible. It was great that all of our folks let us have the run of the town like we did, hahaha. and we didnt get in trouble.

How about the time Lager and i were over from montana and we got a game of soemthing going on, and Brad was driving the nova, and we had that car packed with all of us, even u and someone else in the trunk? and the cop pulled us over in front of my Grandpa an Grandmas and u had the trunk open, hahahaha funny stuff.

[Mike Nordin]

Do tell...didn't hear about that one...

[Ken Lagerquist]

I think what happened was we got pulled over because we had too many people in the car, and we had a couple in the trunk and it wasnt closed. the cop never knew about them in the trunk, but if he would have found out, who knows what would have happened! LOL

I think we had been playing half baseball or something. we played that game alot when we all were kids along with whif, dunk ball, etc.

[Simon Miller]

Do tell...didn't hear about that one...

We had been playing "Half-Baseball" at the Kellogg LL Field. We then piled in BA's Nova. The front and back seats were packed full. So I got into the trunk and used a skateboard to keep the trunk door ajar. By doing this, I could see out the back through the crack created by the skateboard... my thinking was it would appear to be closed from the outside, but I could still see and get out if I needed to. The skateboard ajar allowed me to pull the trunk door so it wouldn't close completely or bounce up and down.

Anyway, we get up to Market Ave and all seems well. All of a sudden, as I am scanning the things passing by through the crack in the trunk door, I see a Kellogg Police car behind us. Next, the lights begin to flash! Did he see me in the trunk? I immediately ask myself. As we pull to a stop I hear all the passengers in the front and I debate coming clean and opening up the trunk. But I think better of it and I stay put in the trunk. I hear the officer questioning BA and asking for driver's license and registration. He then notices that he is Brenda Armstrong's son and we all see light at the end of the tunnel (or the trunk). He tells BA that there are too many people in the car (little did he know there was more in the trunk) and tells BA to go home and unload. I sit tight and can barely contain myself as the officer gets back into his car and we drive off.

Good times!

[Ken Lagerquist]

Do tell...didn't hear about that one...

We had been playing "Half-Baseball" at the Kellogg LL Field. We then piled in BA's Nova. The front and back seats were packed full. So I got into the trunk and used a skateboard to keep the trunk door ajar. By doing this, I could see out the back through the crack created by the skateboard... my thinking was it would appear to be closed from the outside, but I could still see and get out if I needed to. The skateboard ajar allowed me to pull the trunk door so it wouldn't close completely or bounce up and down.

Anyway, we get up to Market Ave and all seems well. All of a sudden, as I am scanning the things passing by through the crack in the trunk door, I see a Kellogg Police car behind us. Next, the lights begin to flash! Did he see me in the trunk? I immediately ask myself. As we pull to a stop I hear all the passengers in the front and I debate coming clean and opening up the trunk. But I think better of it and I stay put in the trunk. I hear the officer questioning BA and asking for driver's license and registration. He then notices that he is Brenda Armstrong's son and we all see light at the end of the tunnel (or the trunk). He tells BA that there are too many people in the car (little did he know there was more in the trunk) and tells BA to go home and unload. I sit tight and can barely contain myself as the officer gets back into his car and we drive off.

Good times!

Man, i cant remember how many of us were in that car, but i know it was packed! good stuff, and great memories. it sux we had to move away, because im sure we would have had even more moments like that!

[Travis Fulton]

Wow. Great thread Ken. Half baseball was legendary. Let's see where do I start?

I took a coaching class at the U of I and one of our final projects was to come up with a sporting activity that had rules modified to meet the needs of the participants. I used "Half Baseball" and my teacher thought I had invented the wheel. It was sweet. BA was down at U of I at the same time and I consulted him to make sure my memory was accurate. I remember Dorgs and Little Lager not liking the orientation of the field but like Ken said, they became excellent opposite field hitters. I remember Dorgs cranking one out once in a while just to get out frustration and display his power, even if it meant being out. lol

I also remember when BA and I used to face off vs. the Twins (Matt and Mike) in whiffle ball or softball and we would modify the rules. Twins got 3 outs, we got 2. No homers for us etc. I remember playing whiff at the triangle park for hours and using the elephant slide for home base, as well as an outhouse. If anyone hit a whiffle ball or softball into Mrs. Kenyon's yard we used to play rock paper scissors to see who see who had to brave the fence and risk the wrath of Mrs. Kenyon. I later babysat your own Rocktober and had many whiffle ball excursions with Rock and Travee too.

When all of us used to play whiff, we would use our plastic MLB helmets as batting helmets. We did it uptown. I even remember moving to a bigger venue (hospital lawn) and constructing a fence out of wood stakes and string because we took our whiff seriously. I used to get a 7:30am wakeup call every day in the summer from Travee and it sounded like this:

SM: Hello
Trav: Hey THIME.... wanna play whiff?
SM: In a bit

7:45 Phone Rings
SM: ....
Trav: Thime? Are we gonna play whif?
Click

8:00am Knock at the door

At that point I would roll out of bed and the whiff would commence. Sometimes we would have to pay Matt Armstrong to play because he would rather watch the Cubs and Braves on TV. That kid had every player's stat memorized and up to date, I kid you not. Today we have the internet. Back in the day we had Matt.

Later on, when I was in HS, I worked at Pinehurst Golf Course. I remember hauling Travee out to PGC every day and we would golf it up all day/evening. It was then we both got hit by the golf bug. We would later set up nerf golf courses throughout our neighborhood, launching 7 irons across the street and ripping up divots in everyone's yards. We even set the mower to the bottom level and scalped part of my lawn and cut a hole and put a plastic cup in it. I thought my dad was gonna kill us when he got home.

I also remember playing "Dunk Ball" at the old Sunnyside School on the little kids side for so many straight hours, I couldn't walk by the end of the day. We had some great times.

I remember Jonny PotatoHead Dorgs. Patano right?

How about Joe "Mop/Malfatano" Ganser? Do you guys remember him? He would come up for the summer? I think he invented the concept of "Wreeeeeeak Havoc" during the summer months.

Wow don't get me started... I could write pages of this stuff.

Put me in coach - those were the days. You know some say "I wish I could go back to college" -others say, "I wish I could go back to High School". That would be fun but if I had my choice, I would go back to the days this thread represents. I think about these days and stories all the time. Wiffle Ball was certainly one of my favorite things to do growing up and heck if it was part of society today I would still be playing. In fact, we had a great game when I was home last at Eddie Joes. Mike and Matt bought me a new wiffle ball bat & ball for my 30th B-day and we cracked it open at 12:30am at Eddie Joes.

Thime, I apologize for calling so early but in order for us to get 11 full 9-inning games in per day..... we needed an early start. Remember, a big part of wiff was who you were when batting, pitching, in the field, etc.

"I am Pedro Guerrero when I bat and Steve Sax when in the field. Matt provided us with the necessary stats to help us make the decision day to day.

It didn't stop there either - it was mandatory you had to be somone during every sporting event. Hey Fish, remember having Wrestle Mania in the basement with the blankets? I was Ko Ko Beware jumping off the couch onto the blanket....1/2/3. Sheesh......... we were a little weird indeed.

Thanks for the thread - it has been great reading all the great stories.

Oh...is Excite Bike still at the old Copper Keg?

[Brian Stovern]

Us Pinehurst kids had our share of games too. We played baseball or softball with the druggies at pinehurst school. Who knew the druggies were so into the game? Played a lot of dunk ball too. I can remember Rusty and I chipping the ice away so we could play early in the year. We also would adjust the basket heights to whatever we wanted. A little higher each year. Another all time favorite was Tennis Baseball. We used tennis rackets and tennis balls, but played it like baseball. We didn't always have a diamond to play on, so we'd play in the field behind my cousin Scotty's house. HR's were all that counted since it took about 10 minutes to find the ball each time in the knee high weeds.

[Lauren A. Scrafford]

Its getting that time of year again when the weather starts getting nicer out. I just thought i would start a thread about some games we invented as kids. There are a couple i can think of right off the top of my head and an ALL TIME fav of mine and Simon's, HALF BASEBALL!!!!! Also, i know we didnt invent the game, but we tweaked it per se, Wiffle Ball!!! Also had some good Dunk ball games at Sunnyside!! How i miss the good ol days!!!!

We played some variation of this in Smelterville and Kellogg in the 50's and early 60's growing up. Of course if you had enough kids you would play regular baseball, a few less workup and even fewer some variation of your half baseball. I can't remember what we called it, though... For right handers you had a pitcher, shortstop, thirdbaseman and 1 or 2 outfielders and 2-4 hitters depending if it was workup or teams and depending on how few people you had. The pitcher had to cover first base. If you hit it to the other way you were out. I think we made a rule that you could hit it the other way but you had to declare ahead of time and then the fielders would move in the opposite direction(then the pitcher covered 3rd base).. If you had a left hitter you had a first and secondbaseman plus a couple of outfielders on the right side. We didn't play it that much as most of the kids preferred workup.. I remember one time we tried to play baseball with a golf ball at SKS. It was hard to hit but I finally got ahold of one and it almost hit a car going up the road to the Zinc Plant.

After some hotshot won all of our marbles we decided to bring ball bearings to school and play marbles. This got out of hand when this heavy duty game of marbles graduated to 8 lb bearings or shots.
I think we were told to take them home and not to bring them back.. The teachers had no sense of humor..

Lauren Scrafford

[Casey Fisher]

First of all, awesome initial post Golf Coach. Great, great stuff!!! The whiffle ball games were the best. I remember you guys creating the outfield fence in the old hospital lawn. LOL. And the Elephant Slide comment just made me laugh out-loud for a good 15 seconds!!!

Trav, the WrestleMania stuff was awesome in the basement... I also remember when you would play baseball on Atari. You were multi-talented as you could play a full game against yourself. With a joystick in each hand...

[Mike Biotti '68]

A game we played when a kid in Smelterville was homerun derby with rocks. There was a pond just to the north of the old little league field at the end of town in Smelterville. You had to throw up a rock and hit it over the pond. If you whiffed or didn't get it over the pond it was an out. Some players that I remember were Chuck Padula, Ron and Ray Waldvogel, Duane Sipila, Gary English, Larry McGillivray, Bobby Stack, and Rudy Reiken to name a few. Spent hours and hours beating those rocks!

[Ken Lagerquist]

Great stuff guys, Keep them coming. sure brings back memories! And like Trav said earlier i believe, i would go back to the childhood in a heartbeat!!

I remember going to school at Sunnyside and Mom would pick us up at school in the truck during the winter and we would ride in the back and throw snowballs at anythign and everything on the way home. The things u could get away with back in the day. But of course everyone would throw snowballs at us while we were riding home too, LOL

[Travis Fulton]

First of all, awesome initial post Golf Coach. Great, great stuff!!! The whiffle ball games were the best. I remember you guys creating the outfield fence in the old hospital lawn. LOL. And the Elephant Slide comment just made me laugh out-loud for a good 15 seconds!!!

Trav, the WrestleMania stuff was awesome in the basement... I also remember when you would play baseball on Atari. You were multi-talented as you could play a full game against yourself. With a joystick in each hand...

WOW....Atari. A Joystick and a red button - so funny....I do remember that and I also remember playing Baseball Stars with Fish and we would keep the stats on paper for ALL the players. Little did we know that the game actually kept the same stats for us. What we were going to do with the stats I am not sure.

The Elephant slide is a staple in Kellogg. It was home plate, a slide and a urinal all at the same time. In addition, it was located next to the famous hill that you would ride your bikes up and others there cars.........remember that hill by Poutto's house?

I have been so pumped up about all these old games we use to play, I went bought a roll of duct tape and am taping up a wiffle bat right now. I will call you tomorrow morning Thime - 7:30am Eastern

[Lauren A. Scrafford]

A game we played when a kid in Smelterville was homerun derby with rocks. There was a pond just to the north of the old little league field at the end of town in Smelterville. You had to throw up a rock and hit it over the pond. If you whiffed or didn't get it over the pond it was an out. Some players that I remember were Chuck Padula, Ron and Ray Waldvogel, Duane Sipila, Gary English, Larry McGillivray, Bobby Stack, and Rudy Reiken to name a few. Spent hours and hours beating those rocks!

Mike:

Was that Siler's mill pond?? Also was that Gary England? His mother taught 6th grade at SKS and was tougher than nails.

Lauren

[Laurie Roberts]

Okay, I guess I'll get in on this craziness. My brothers (mostly Paul and David) created a whiffle ball golf course around our house on Emerald. This is when we were in college, mind you. You were allowed one club and a limited amount of athletic tape on the ball. It was a 36-hole course with a variety of hazards (the sidewalk was a lateral water hazard; the road was OB). Some of the holes had two-corner dog-legs that could be eliminated if you could hit over the house or a large tree. I spent a couple of summer scoffing at the amount of time they spent playing, and then, one day, the bug bit me. I was obsessed. I was playing all day long, going for the course record, establishing my handicap. Finally, one day Paul said, "if you can do this, we're taking you to Pinehurst to play the real thing." And thus began my golfing career.