A mom, needle & socks

Nobody from the old Boulder neighborhood recalls who invented the ball that consumed so much of our time and energy those first two or three summers of the 1960s. My best guess is that one of our moms conceived of the idea while trying to keep us from playing living-room hockey.

The idea was as simple as a Bob Gibson fastball. Take a wadded up pair of socks, stuff the concoction into a hard-ball cover and have one of our moms sew it up tight. The result was what we succinctly dubbed "the sock ball."

Surely other kids played with a similar invention, though I've never heard or read of others doing so. What made it so valuable was it allowed our south-Boulder gang to play in the midst of homes that included picture windows. The first time you hit the ball it felt almost as hard as a baseball. By the third or fourth time it was mushy, giving life to our own dead-ball era.

A typical summer day for the six or eight of us included four or five hours of sock ball before playing a Little League game in the afternoon or evening. It made the formal games seem as easy as a routine day at the office.

But the sock ball adventure went way beyond simple batting practice. It turned 41 st Street into magical kingdoms with names like Candlestick Park and Yankee Stadium. All of us had favorite teams from across the nation in that pre-Rockies era. We would go through our team's lineup, taking on the batting stances and other characteristics of the players on the Twins, Indians, Braves and others. My skinny 80-pound body would waddle to the plate as Harmon Killebrew, who would swing for the downs every pitch.

We also learned to be pretty good announcers, calling our "big-league games." Kyle did a memorable impression of Dizzy Dean ("He haadddd a ripple, sports fans") whenever one of us would whiff on a pitch.

In those days before the Internet and summer programs for kids, nothing much ever took us away from the sock ball ... except when somebody would knock the cover off the ball. Then we would search the neighborhood for a mom with time on her hands and a sewing kit nearby.

I would love to get our group back together for a reunion of sock-ball pioneers in a Rockies suite. I know the Denver-area folks would be there. But I also have a strong feeling that Kyle in Polson, Mont., Dan in Houston and Chuck in Albuquerque would head to our old stomping grounds to share some new memories related to that old game.

And if the Rockies would like a ceremonial "first (sock ball) pitch" thrown before the game, I know 12 guys who are armed and willing.

Gregg Piburn

3274 Nederland Drive

Loveland, CO80538

970-227-1371

leadedge2@msn.com