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No-tech games offer summer amusement

posted by Pretty Tough | Girls Who Are Fun Fierce & Feminine
Sunday, August 30, 2009 at 1:25pm CDT

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Wanna be ballers may be interested in this summer’s reignited passion for neighborhood sports that may make you reminiscence for an era before cellphones:

Handball: Nothing screams ‘New York City in the summer’ more than a game of handball. Although the game was actually imported by the Irish during the California Gold Rush, NYC tends to get the most cred for handball, what with having more than 2,000 courts and all. Perhaps it’s a combination of this summer’s more temperate climates and a lack of funds to buy new video games or get out of the city, but whatever it is, enthusiasm for the gearless sport seems to have grown like never before. And unlike the city’s mobbed public tennis courts, you neither have to purchase a permit nor wait your turn under the scorching sun to jump into a game.

Stickball: A reminder of simpler times. Basically a street version of baseball, all you need to play is a rubber ball and a stick (a broom handle is perfect). If your neighborhood park is more a patch of dirt than it is a grassy oasis, fear not, because the city streets are the backdrop of this sport: Manholes can be used as bases and nearby buildings can be foul lines. While Xbox 360 has already recognized the significance of the sport in its MLB Stickball title, the passion for stickball runs through multiple generations (especially among those of Irish, Italian, Jewish, and Puerto Rican heritage), and thus, many young devotees are takin’ it to the streets simply to keep this urban tradition alive.

Boules: (Jeu de Boules): A term for an outdoor game involving metal balls that are strategically thrown across a measured court. The boules are aimed at a smaller target within the court, with the common goal of getting one’s boule closer to the target than that of an opponent. No longer reserved for older beret-wearing Europeans, games from the boules family, such as bocce and petangue, are finding new life among a younger set. Increasingly found in bars, the games offer a more sophisticated means of amusement for those who moved out of the frat house longer ago than they’d like to admit. (Plus, it’s a helluva lot easier than beer pong.)

(thanks to TrendCentral)