Half-rubber is a bat-and-ball game similar to stick ball or baseball. The game was developed in the American South at some time around the beginning of the 20th Century. The cities of Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC both claim to be the birthplace of the game. Records of the game being played date back to the mid-1910s. Half-Rubber has been played for several generations in the south, and had a large regional popularity in the 1970s. Recently, however, interest in the game has waned.
Contents |
A traditional half-rubber bat is either a broom-handle, or a slim bat made specifically for half-rubber or stickball. The ball is either a hollow rubber ball that has been folded into itself to resemble half of a ball or a ball made specifically for half-rubber, which resembles a solid rubber ball that has been cut in half.
At any time there will be a pitcher, a catcher, and a batter. The goal for the batter is to hit the pitched ball at least a bat's length in front of himself. When he does this, he has one man on base. He does not run to a base as in baseball, but as in baseball, when he gets four bases loaded, the fourth base forces home a run. The batter continues to try to hit pitched balls until he swings at a pitch and misses the ball and the catcher successfully catches the ball. When that happens, the catcher becomes the batter, the hitter becomes the pitcher, and the pitcher becomes the catcher. In this scenario for the game, each of the three individuals is playing against the others and the score is kept for all three. In team play, two teams usually composed of one pitcher and one catcher per team play a similarly composed team. Each team has two "at bats". Again a batter is out when he swings at a pitched ball that is successfully caught by the catcher.
The advantage to the team competition is that the pitcher and catcher are usually well matched. In individual play too often a good pitcher is frustrated by a poor catcher and the batter scores because the catcher cannot catch not because of the skill of the batter.
A good game ensues when pitchers can develop the correct combination of speed on the ball, accuracy over the "strike" (even though there are no strikes), and manipulation of the up and down flight of the sailing ball making it difficult for the batter to hit but still making a pitch in such fashion as to be hittable.
1) Pitching, catching and hitting, in that order, are the most important skills. Good pitchers can make the ball curve right and left and go up or down and any combination of all these movements. Playing with a backstop is a good idea.
2) It takes a long time to become a good pitcher, only slightly less for a catcher. Hitting is not easy either, but is the easiest of the three skills to learn.
3) In team play the players rotate to hit first when their side is 'up to bat'.
4) If the batter tips the ball and the catcher catches it then the remaining players on that team are out in addition to the batter.
5) A fly ball caught by the pitcher also results in the batter being out.
6) The game goes faster if you have someone to retrieve the batted balls.
7) Playing on grass leads to less ball bounce than playing on concrete.
8) Some players have a 'home' rule that says four consecutive pitches that the batter does not swing at and the catcher does not catch is the same as a hit for the batter. That rule makes the pitcher attempt to throw pitches that the hitter can reach.
Jones, Dan; Halfrubber: The Savannah Game, Paperback, (Savannah, 1980) ISBN 0960480803 http://www.knowitall.org/sandlapper/summer2003/summer-pdfs/29-31-Half-What.pdf