Stickball, Death of a Street Culture

Keeping the game alive on Stickball Boulevard

Willie Mays playing stickball on the streets of Harlem in the 1950s. A familiar urban scene for much of the 20th century, stickball by the 1980s gave way to shifting cultural patterns and more recreational options.

Like a modern Bruegel painting depicting kids in playful outdoor scenes, stickball was a familiar picture in America’s urban landscape during…