I know I am not supposed to post twice on a Friday but I have just had two shocks. I met someone my age who had no idea what 500 Up was and, when I described the game, reported not having ever played anything like it. That was shock one.
I though 500 Up was a great universal. I thought it was primordial. Now I Google “500 Up” and only my post pops up as referencing the game. This is really weird. It is like I mentioned bread – or at least popsicles – and realizing the people I was talking to had never heard of them.
Sloan has a song called “500 Up” off of their first record. Here are the lyrics. Disturbingly, the game is only there as a passing reference, an analogy mixed with another image – a reference only one in the know would know:
Sliding downwards
You’re the batter
That’s what they say
500 up
On the ladder
Do you know the rules to 500 Up? Why is this not on the internet somewhere? That is shock number two. Now I have to know. Are there different points to catching the ball in the air and fewer points for getting it on a bounce? How many points? Did you decide how many before each time you played? I haven’t played it for 21 years. I haven’t played Kingston Nova Scotia stickball for 35. That was a hell of a game.
[Original comments…]
Alan – March 2, 2007 5:35 PM
Hey – vintage baseball! Who knew?
Alan – March 2, 2007 5:38 PM
Here is a description in a .pdf but it is just called “500”.
Classic – March 2, 2007 6:28 PM
http://classic25blog@yahoo.ca
_100 in the air, 75 – one hopper, 50 – two bounces, and 25 for a grounder. Change batters when 500 is reached; with short-lived pity turns to keep things social. We used to field a lot of 500-Up back in the lazy afternoons of No Sunday Anything.
_And we would have an extra bounce rule for if/when the softball bounced off the 2-story gym wall.
Classic – March 2, 2007 6:46 PM
http://classicquarters.blogspot.com
_AND you’d lose the same points on any dropped non-catch /grounder scoop.
_Good memories, there!
Alan – March 2, 2007 6:47 PM
Please identify yourself geographically. We need to know the extent of the Empire of 500.
Gordo – March 2, 2007 6:55 PM
http://blog.cruachan.ca
Oh, I think “Babylon on the Humber” about does it, Alan
My friends and I played many afternoons of summer 500 up, Kingston is certainly in the empire.
Chris Taylor – March 2, 2007 7:01 PM
http://taylor.typepad.com
I knew it as “500”, sans “up”, scoring as per the PDF — and no short-duration pity turns. If you couldn’t get a ball airborne to save your life then we fielded grounders until someone finally racked up 500. Or until the batter died of embarrassment, whichever happened first.
Chris Taylor – March 2, 2007 7:06 PM
http://taylor.typepad.com
^^^^^^^ Representing the ballparks of Toronto.
Alan – March 2, 2007 7:12 PM
I mean when we were kids. Plus drilling down to neighbourhood would be useful, too.
And did people actually grow up in Toronto?
Chris Taylor – March 2, 2007 7:12 PM
http://taylor.typepad.com
Oh and yes to point deductions for flubbed catches/attempts.
Chris Taylor – March 2, 2007 7:19 PM
http://taylor.typepad.com
Well I grew up in Thornhill but didn’t play 500 there at all. We had league games but not much informal stuff. Played baseball but did not know 500 existed until I moved into the city itself in my late teens. Then I played baseball or 500 practically every weekend all over the place. The Islands, Scarborough, East York, North York, and a few times in Mississauga.
doug newton – March 3, 2007 3:51 AM
Sometimes we played 300 up and sometimes we had two batters just to mix things up.
Mike C – March 3, 2007 8:02 AM
http://www.mikecampbell.net/the_campblog.htm
Yup, 500 Up at Larry O’Connell field in Halifax. Rules/scoring as Classic describes them. I still remember a one-hopper I got once.
Mike C – March 3, 2007 8:08 AM
http://www.mikecampbell.net/the_campblog.htm
Off-topic, but what about Chestnuts? Anyone used to play Chestnuts in the schoolyard (chestnut on the end of a string, you held yours out and let another player take a whack at it to try to break it, then you had a try to break your opponent’s; your chestnut’s “score” had to do with how many opponents’ chestnuts you destroyed; as well, if you destroyed a high-scoring one, that score migrated to your chestnut). Anyone? Widespread? Or limited to a certain area of early 70s chestnut-treed central/west Halifax with pseudo-masochistic children?
Alan – March 3, 2007 9:04 AM
We played it in Kingston, NS in the Annapolis Valley…or was it Mississauga before I was seven…and my grandfather in Scotland taught us a cheat – soak in vinegar and warm in oven.
Alan – March 3, 2007 9:06 AM
And now I recall we were in the car (in Hamilton?) and had to stop to pick up a whole pile of chestnuts in their green spiky casings.
You have to have chestnut trees to play. Are there chestnut trees outside of Halifax and Hamilton?
Rob MacD – March 3, 2007 10:42 AM
http://annekenstein.typepad.com
Parkdale, PEI, Canada… it was also “500” without the “Up”. Scoring as above (100, 75, 50, 25 for a rolling ball as long as it was still moving) with equal points deducted for drops/errors. Sometimes we’d allow scores in the minus numbers, sometimes we’d set the lower limit to zero. Sometimes pushing and shoving was allowed, sometimes not. Usually, the player had to get a score of 500 exactly. If they went over, they’d go back to a score of 350.
Sometimes we’d play Anti-500. The point being to be the first person to drop enough balls to get -500. In this version, style (making your drops look astounding) was important but not scored.
Alan – March 3, 2007 10:49 AM
We used to play an anti-anti-game in undergrad called “soccer without style”…but was also played bum ball. It may have been invented around 1983 in Truro during summer vacation.
In bum ball the set up was essentially in the nature of 500 Up. A group of players were at one end of the playing field with one with a soccer ball at the other. The one with the ball hoofed it as high as possible. When launched, the plays all shouted “it’s up, it’s up” over and over. When the ball came down without a player making a play on it, all shouted “it’s down”. But when a player, approaching the point at which the descending ball would bounce, successfully reversed at the last minute and trapped the ball its first rebound with only his arse then all shouted “Bum Ball!!!”
I kid you not.
Matt Fletcher – March 3, 2007 12:10 PM
http://livinginasociety.blogspot.com
Being one of the younger (I assume) members of the GenX40 nation I think it is important I comment. I played “500 Up” during recess of elementary school, which for me was 1985-1995, in Newmarket Ontario – the northern most reaches of the GTA.
However, having grown up in the early ages of the crackdown on all fun on school yard playgrounds we were not allowed to play with bats at recess. As a result, we played a much diminished version of the game in which the “batter” threw the ball to the catchers. The greatly increased control that the “batter” had over the trajectory of the ball meant that he could play favourites with the catchers. This in turn meant that the game often included the pushing and grabbing rules that RobMacD mentioned. So, ironically, because we weren’t allowed to bring bats to school our games were actually more violent than they would have been otherwise.
Mike C – March 3, 2007 12:57 PM
http://www.mikecampbell.net/the_campblog.htm
We used to do the vinegar trick, but first I’ve heard of the oven trick!
Hans – March 3, 2007 2:14 PM
We always just called it “500”.
portland – March 4, 2007 1:39 PM
just 500 too and if you drop anything you go all the way back to zero. if all agreed a no hogging rule went into effect which made for a less exciting but more friendly game that the smaller kids could get in on. it was about the most relaxed gentlemanly activity there was in my neighborhood.
later when i ran a little league, the kids came up with this: if you dropped a ball, that was called a rupert. if you, personally, dropped a lot of them, then you’d become prince rupert for the rest of the day.
Rob MacD – March 7, 2007 2:45 PM
http://annekenstein.typepad.com
1985-1995? Did it really take you 11 years to get through elementary school, Matt F?
But, yeah, that’s the way, isn’t it? The authorities will come up with ways to make “play” more safe, and kids will invariably find ways to make safe play more dangerous than the original method.
P. Franklin – March 27, 2008 1:35 PM
I am 44 years old and live just outside of Vancouver, BC. I grew up playing “500 Up” for hours in our neighbourhood and it is a very positive memory. Sometimes it was just a group of kids who played (in someone’s backyard), but often the dads joined in, which made it extra fun.
I just Googled “500 up” because I wanted to teach the game to my own children. I wanted to double check that I had the point system correct. I find it very interesting that this game is played from one end of this huge country to the other, and the rules are the same!