Buntball

Discussion in 'Sports & Recreation' started by Ken Anderson, May 12, 2018.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    In the small town of only a couple of hundred people, spread out over a larger township, we had two Little League diamond, a Babe Ruth baseball diamond, and a baseball diamond at the county park that was often used for softball games. There was a. baseball diamond at the elementary school but, for some reason, I don't remember anyone ever using it outside of school. Maybe the school didn't allow it to be used for community ball, I don't know. We also had a full-sized baseball field across the street from our house, in a field that our neighbor no longer farmed. My older brother organized the building of this field, which even included a backstop, but no home-run fence.

    As if that wasn't enough, we had a buntball field in our side yard. Since the house was there, it wouldn't do to have foul balls going through the windows, so that field was used for a game that we called buntball. As the name suggests, you didn't swing at the ball in buntball - you bunted.

    The buntball field was much smaller than a baseball diamond. If the ball went over the fence separating the yard from the cornfield, that was an out, not a homerun. If it hit the house, it was an out, a rule put in place to discouraging hitting the house, I am sure. If it hit the fence, it was an automatic double. Otherwise, it was played like baseball, except that there were no outfielders and there was no need for a shortstop. If we had enough people, we'd add the shortstop position, but otherwise we'd do without it. In a pinch, we didn't need a second-baseman either. Oh yeah, one more thing. The ball had to be pitched or thrown underhand rather than overhand, probably also designed to discourage wild throws that might hit the house.

    Since I was never much of a baseball player, I loved buntball. It wasn't nearly as competitive, and it didn't require as much skill.
     
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  2. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    When I was in high school, we played sports against the local group of lumberjacks and oil field roust-a-bouts. We couldn't find a field large enough for us to play baseball, so we played fast-pitch softball since the ball wouldn't fly as far. We also played sand lot football against these guys. They didn't know much about sports, but they were INCREDIBLY STRONG! We got knocked around badly playing football (American style) without pads, helmets or equipment of any kind except the ball. The only serious injury we ever suffered was in softball. A line drive back to the pitcher (one of them) broke his nose and led to profuse bleeding. He had already lost one lung to some on-the-job accident, so we had to keep his head tilted forward and let the blood flow for a while as we were afraid the blood would compromise his remaining lung if aspirated. The bleeding eventually stopped and he was transported to the nearest facility to straighten his nose, as it had been flattened against his cheek by the ball.
     
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