Union Tribune Article on Stickball

Stickball tournament brings a taste of N.Y. to Little Italy streets

By Jeanette Steele
STAFF WRITER

September 3, 2006

You have a ball. You whack it with a stick. Pretty easy, no?

Not so much, according to players in the Little Italy Stickball Invitational yesterday.

The fun-loving stickballers have taken over two city blocks to hold their eighth annual tournament this weekend, displaying their skills at trash talking and playing balls bounced off buildings, trees and even pedestrians.

“It's a bunch of grown men playing a little kid's game,” said Ed Marquis, 37, of Santee. The ball is rubber, about the size for racquetball. For sticks, players use just about anything found in the toolshed. Tournament director Willie Blas creates many of the league's sticks from rake handles he buys at estate sales. Bounce the ball, then try to knock it down the block with the long, narrow club. One swing per batter. The ball is still in play if it bounces off buildings, light poles or whatever.

“It's a lot harder than it looks,” said Louie Centanni, 21, a Trinity University student back home in Allied Gardens for the summer.

“Most guys are hooked right away if they are ballplayers, or else they say it's way too hard,” Marquis said.

The league is the legacy of Bob Ortiz, a native of the south Bronx who moved to San Diego in 1975 seeking a better place to raise four children. Ortiz was a fierce stickballer back in the old neighborhood, and his competitive spirit couldn't let go of the game. He taught friends the sport – Bronx rules, of course – and the West Coast Stickball League was formed. Games are held twice monthly from February to June in Little Italy and at Mission Bay High School. It's the only stickball league west of the Mississippi, as far as they know.

Yesterday's games were simultaneously lighthearted and intense. With team names like the Whompers and the Fish Sticks (a squad sponsored by Point Loma Sportfishing), nobody was taking themselves seriously. But the players ran full tilt between the chalk-marked bases, and sweat dripped from every brow. The competition was no slouch: Blas played minor-league baseball; Centanni's younger brother, Joey, brought his Division I baseball team buddies from the University of the Pacific; and one squad is made up of Horizon High School's former baseball team.

“All we play for is bragging rights,” said Blas, a 46-year-old Serra Mesa resident who said camaraderie abounds – between games. “Don't get me wrong, we want to kill each other out there,” he said.

Every Memorial Day, a couple dozen San Diego players make a pilgrimage to the Bronx for a tournament with New York's teams. That matchup is apparently as spicy as a hot pastrami sandwich on rye. “The New York guys run their mouths,” Blas said.

Louie Centanni said wistfully, “We want to try to get this bigger, like that. To get San Diego to know about it.”

Anyone looking to join the San Diego Stickball League please email SDStickball@juno.com. We welcome new teams as well as players looking to join an existing team.