Brännboll , the national sport of Sweden, is a recess staple for Scandinavian kids. There's no pitcher, so batters flip a tennis ball to themselves and try to hit it. There are no field constraints and rules vary depending on who's playing, so games pretty much end up as free-for-alls. There's a pretty complex points system and positions on the field are somewhat arbitrary, but brännboll literally translates to "burning ball." That's pretty sweet.

Sounds like Calvinball.

This list needs more Jigglyball.

I used to play sandlot Pesäpallo in middle school. Our gym teacher was Finnish. After he taught us Pesäpallo we also suspected he was insane, so it's interesting to finally get confirmation that the game wasn't invented by him in a lunatic moment.

I imagine few outside of San Diego or Scotland have heard of Over the Line

There was no bat involved, but Butts Up was a great game. (seriously, stop snickering)

I lived in Finland for three months at the end of 1997 and was hoping to see some pesäpallo, but the two weeks of summer had already passed so I had to get by with the Marlins/Indians World Series on next-day tape delay on NBC Europe, hockey, and occasional cricket highlights. Saw soccer on TV too... World Cup qualifiers maybe. Seemed like a lot of [Country] vs [Country] games, but I won't even watch that when I can understand the commentary, much less when I can't.

We played brannboll in gym class in Minnesota. I'm also glad to find out it wasn't something that the school district cooked up as an indoor baseball replacement.

1. This article is awesome.

2. Oina looks awesome.

3. Asses Up was an awesome game and I wish I could find a 5-6 people to play it with

I imagine few outside of San Diego or Scotland have heard of Over the Line

When I was 12, I went and stayed with my sister and her husband while he studied at NYU. There was a "park" downstairs from their building where I got my first taste of stick ball (and craps.) The things I remember most, however, were the confused faces I got when I talked about Over the Line and how to play. I assumed, until that point, that that this was knowledge that anybody who had ever heard of baseball would have.

Brännboll is NOT the national sport of Sweden. I lived and went to school there for two years, and we played brännboll in P.E. exactly once. I never saw it on TV, nor have I ever read about it in any newspaper's sports pages. There are probably at least fifty other sports that are more popular in Sweden than brännboll. Even among stick sports, it's way down the list, after ice hockey, bandy, tennis, table tennis, golf, minigolf, and probably even baseball itself.

Brännboll is NOT the national sport of Sweden.

It is absolutely not a sport, there's no league, no one follows any official rules or anything. But, it is the default recreational activity whenever Swedes go outdoors.

Many, if not most, companies has brännboll tournaments on their outings.

It's kinda like saying frisbee is the national sport of America. Maybe it's a top-10 activity of Americans On Picnics, and maybe the #1 activity of Americans On Picnics With Dogs, but the qualifier is kinda significant.

Has anybody here tried to invent a sport? In High School, I once tried to introduce "Basockey", or baseball with a hockey stick and puck. Needless to say, it is not our national sport.

I saw a wiffle hurling league once. That seemed unbelievably awesome.

When I was 12, I went and stayed with my sister and her husband while he studied at NYU. There was a "park" downstairs from their building where I got my first taste of stick ball (and craps.) The things I remember most, however, were the confused faces I got when I talked about Over the Line and how to play. I assumed, until that point, that that this was knowledge that anybody who had ever heard of baseball would have.

This might be kind of a silly question, but do you happen to remember what building and "park", and how old are you? I ... grew up near NYU and spent plenty of time playing stickball in parks of various levels of air-quotedness, mostly in the 1987-1992 time frame.

No craps though. I saved that particular addiction for my current decade.

I always wanted a copy of this photo

I kind of like the looks of pesäpallo--speed seems important, as does directional hitting. It's basically what all those baseball commentators think they're watching when they complain about guys not making productive outs.

I'd like to see what baseball would be like without home runs. I don't know if I'd go as far as the Finns in calling a ball that's hit too far an out, but taking down the fences or at least pushing them back to 500 feet would be an interesting experiment.

We played over the line in little league all the time, in practice, no less, if the weather was crappy and only half the guys showed up. I am not from San Diego or Scotland, by the by.

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Over-the-line was what we played in Orange County (CA) when we only had a handful of kids. We'd set up the field using a couple of landmarks (usually trees) as de facto foul polls, use sweatshirts or extra gloves to demarcate the line, steal a tennis ball from the tennis center that abutted the park, and go to town. I played many hours of over-the-line with family and friends growing up. I've taught it to my kids and they've played it, but it's not nearly as popular.

I can't believe the spammers are still wasting their time with this site, but at least these morons will occasionally resurrect an interesting dead thread.

but at least these morons will occasionally resurrect an interesting dead thread.

I think they're the only ones who know how.

LOL, I didn't even realize this was an old thread. That's what I get for perusing BTF first thing in the morning. I didn't even notice the old dates.

Fast-pitch stickball was our game of choice--it was EVERYWHERE on Long Island in the 80s-90s. Entire leagues were built around random brick walls, duct tape, and sawed-off rake handles (of course, once we had the money, it was a trip to Modell's to get a proper bat or three). The highlight of every game? Well, popping the tab on the fresh can of tennis balls (always Penn #1), hearing the hiss and breathing deep of that burnt-rubber smell. Now it's on!

Everybody had their "home field," everybody knew where to pick up a game on a Saturday afternoon, and everybody knew who was willing to to put a little scratch on the outcome. Thirty years later, and I can recall home runs (hit and surrendered)!

Fast-pitch stickball was our game of choice--it was EVERYWHERE on Long Island in the 80s-90s. Entire leagues were built around random brick walls, duct tape, and sawed-off rake handles (of course, once we had the money, it was a trip to Modell's to get a proper bat or three). The highlight of every game? Well, popping the tab on the fresh can of tennis balls (always Penn #1), hearing the hiss and breathing deep of that burnt-rubber smell. Now it's on!

In my Westchester village, we had a strike zone painted into the wall of my elementary school gymnasium for stickball. It was there my entire childhood, and I know because we played into our college days.

Hey, it's a Sweden topic! I can now confirm the arguments made 14 years ago that Brännboll is definitely not our 'national sport.'

I walk my dog through a park that borders the athletic field of a high school. I have seen a few kids playing brännboll a few times, so it does exist. But it's like 0.0001 of the amount of fotboll that gets played there. When it comes to park games, I've never seen any stick/ball games at all. Mostly people play Kubb (otherwise known as 'that game where you throw stuff at wooden blocks') and some thing where you gather around a mini trampoline and bounce a ball at each other.

In my Westchester village, we had a strike zone painted into the wall of my elementary school gymnasium for stickball. It was there my entire childhood, and I know because we played into our college days.

We had a chalked one-size-fits-all strike zone on the elementary school wall to play “Strikeout”, using regular bats & usually a tennis ball or rubber ball, since an expensive baseball wouldn’t last long on playground asphalt. A ball that was caught in the air or bounced before the pitcher was an out, past the pitcher was a single, hitting the playground fence on one bounce was a double, hitting the fence on the fly was a triple, and over the fence was a home run, but the batter had to retrieve the ball. No bases or runners, and it was usually played one-on-one, or two-on-two.

That elementary school was eventually converted to apartments, and tress & bushes were planted to prevent use of the former playground, but more than 50 years later you can still see the faded outline of the strike zone on the brick wall.

Has anybody here tried to invent a sport?

I'm not sure the term invented is appropriate, but when I was 12 or so, my best friend had a trampoline(rectangle style) and a dad who was a carpenter, so he made two goals and Troccer was born... trampoline soccer. It was one on one. There were rules about how to play, and score keep. Basically we threw up the ball into the middle of the tramp, the rule was you had to let it bounce after you controlled the ball before you can shoot... there were a few other rules, but it was more or less shoot soccer with a bouncing ball. (of course those good with physics could mess the other players shot by bouncing the tramp correctly)

Test

Thanks for the new handle, Jim!

-CoB

@25 & @27: I know for a fact that the (slightly askew) strike zone I painted on an elementary school wall 30+ years ago is still there (though I can't vouch as to whether or not it gets any use these days).

The popularity of stickball was really something--in fact, there was a "Major League" on Long Island--the USSBA or something like that. Five-man teams. Aluminum bats and gloves were allowed (totally lame; everyone knows its meant to be played bare-handed, with wood bats). Some guys would use oversized soccer-goalie gloves, with velcro stitched in. The absolute nadir of this debasement of the glorious game was the "torching of the balls" (yes, that's what we called it): You'd use a propane torch to singe all the fuzz off a new tennis ball, turning the ball mud-brown (and shrinking it in the process). As a pitcher, you loved it--you could make the ball dance like a whiffle ball. But as a hitter it was absurd folly.

We fielded a team one season, but all of this nonsense really took the fun out of the game for us. It was back to pick-up games and tournaments the next year.

Wow--Sports Illustrated actually did a piece on the stickball league. The USSBBL! This might be of interest:

They're getting in on the Stick