"life" section of The Record on Saturday
If any of you happened to check the lifestyles section of "The Record" looking for anything on our tourney, you would have instead found a picture of my
my father playing "tippy"
A game unique to Waterloo County is about to take its place in the halls of history. Yes, the story of Tippy is going to become part of the archives of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.
It's an opportunity for the people of this area to stand tall and take their place among the innovators of modern sport.
Canada may be the home to hockey, but only Waterloo Region can claim Tippy. And, just what is Tippy?
Last month, I sent out a call for readers to share memories of childhood games of summer.
You ransacked your mental attics and sent in stories about kick the can, screen ball, Red Rover and many other games, including the card game Solo (and since there were so many responses about Solo, I'll write about it next week).
The most intriguing was the game of Tippy, a variant of baseball, that appears only to have been played within the confines of what was once Waterloo County.
I wrote about Tippy in that first article after talking to Waterloo resident John McVicar, who wanted to know if anyone else remembered a game played during the 1950s by the kids living near Bricker Avenue in Waterloo.
The result was a lot of e-mail, calls and letters about a game that some called Tippy and others called Tibby.
Briefly, the game goes like this:
There are two teams, each of two players: one team of batters and one of pitchers/catchers. The batters face each other about 30 feet apart, with an opposing player standing behind them, at about catcher distance, and pitching to the batter opposite.
In the batter's box is a marked area (a pothole, a hole or indentation, a chalked square) into which a bat is placed and held until a pitch is thrown.
The pitcher throws, the batter picks up his bat and swings. If it's a hit, both batters run with their bats and score a run each time they exchange places. If it's a miss, the catcher becomes the pitcher for the next throw. The batters run until a pitcher/catcher can tag a runner. A batter is safe if he is back in the batter's box with his bat back in position. First team to 21 runs wins.
Equipment costs were low. Two sticks could serve as bats and players didn't need gloves. We could call it an "accessible" game. Certainly, the memories about Tippy were accessible.
Ralph Scheffel of Kitchener wrote that he had played Tippy in the Silver Heights area of Hespeler. "We usually used light baseball bats and a tennis ball, but I remember being told that the original game required broom handles."
John Wagner of Baden remembered playing Tippy in Grade 5 or 6 at the Pine Grove School in the former Waterloo Township in the mid-1950s.
Beverly Dalzilio of Guelph remembered the kids in the Borden and Courtland streets in Kitchener spent "many a summer's day and night" playing Tippy.
David Weicker recalls playing Tippy on Borden Street North in the early 1950s. "Other than delays due to car traffic, it was great fun." About 25 years ago, he and his brother and their sons played Tippy while on a camping trip and "it was delightful."
Peter Fitzgerald wrote about the Batavia Place variations in Waterloo. "Games were played to 21 and on the last run you had to touch bats in the middle or you were out."
Mike Delion of Waterloo recalls playing Tippy, and other baseball-related games, in the Lourdes Street area.
As the responses kept coming, it seemed that most referred to Tippy as being a game from the 1950s or 1960s. But a few pushed back the origins of Tippy.
Bob Bartels of Arthur recalled playing Tippy in the Rooshill area of Hespeler in the late 1940s. The big variation in equipment was that players used two broom handles, with a short section of handle being used as a peg, instead of a ball, to throw.
Bartels said "there was no adult supervision. Rules were passed along by older boys who you respected." Bartels thought the game had been taught to the kids by a Second World War veteran.
Former Record sports editor Mickey Mowbray remembers playing the game, which he knew as Tibby, in Galt. He also used bats cut from broom handles, or hockey sticks, and a wooden peg.
Harold Mahaffey of Cambridge also played Tibby "every summer day in St. Andrew's Park in Galt" in the early 1930s. Mahaffey's version also used a peg instead of a ball. Baseball gloves were not used because "we could not afford them." Mahaffey wrote that, "I never saw any written rules, so there could be many different versions."
Harold's wife, Janet, wrote that the late CBC broadcaster Peter Gzowski wrote about Tibby in one of his books and in a magazine column, although one reference was to Tibby ("Do boys still play tibby in the spring? Yes, I think, forever.") and another to Tippy.
So, is Tippy (or Tibby) a Waterloo County original? Well, the people at the Elliot Avedon Museum and Archive of Games in Waterloo don't have anything on Tippy, and Liz Hardin, registrar/researcher at Doon Heritage Crossroads in Kitchener, canvassed her staff to no avail.
Jim Gates, librarian/historian at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, was interested. "We checked around with our curatorial research staff . . . and we're never heard of this game.
"We at the museum are very excited about acquiring this information for our historical archives."
So, it would appear that Tippy is an authentic Waterloo County summer game.
Certainly, the enthusiasm that John McVicar has for the game is authentic. Standing in the back lot at The Record in Kitchener, swinging the bat and limbering up with a few practice throws, you know that he's ready for an afternoon of Tippy.
All he needs are enough like-minded players to spark a Tippy revival. That and a couple of bats, a ball and a place to play.
Oh, and a sponsor for the T-shirts would be great, McVicar says.
Tippy, anyone?
Bill Bean welcomes your comments about games and other diversions. E-mail him at bbean@therecord.com or call him at 894-2250, ext. 2618.
If Tippy isn't your cup of tea, how about screen ball, Red Rover or . . .
Do you remember screen ball, kick the can and Red Rover? Here are some games of summer recalled by Grand River Life readers.
Kick-back: Peter Fitzgerald and his friends played this football variant on the road, with the streetlights defining the sidelines. Mark two goal lines, about 150 feet apart. The game begins at your goal line or 10 steps out. One player kicks the football to the other team. If the ball is caught, the catching player gets to take three steps before kicking it back. A ball not caught is kicked from where it stops. A ball kicked into the opposing end zone scores a point.
Screen ball: Mike Delion used the backstop screen at the Empire Public School. The batter stood at second base, tossed a ball into the air and hit it toward the screen. Hitting the lower portion was a single; the mid portion, a double; the upper portion, a triple; and over the top, a home run. Two fielders stood before the screen and one behind it, hoping to catch a ball and put the batter out.
my father playing "tippy"A game unique to Waterloo County is about to take its place in the halls of history. Yes, the story of Tippy is going to become part of the archives of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.
It's an opportunity for the people of this area to stand tall and take their place among the innovators of modern sport.
Canada may be the home to hockey, but only Waterloo Region can claim Tippy. And, just what is Tippy?
Last month, I sent out a call for readers to share memories of childhood games of summer.
You ransacked your mental attics and sent in stories about kick the can, screen ball, Red Rover and many other games, including the card game Solo (and since there were so many responses about Solo, I'll write about it next week).
The most intriguing was the game of Tippy, a variant of baseball, that appears only to have been played within the confines of what was once Waterloo County.
I wrote about Tippy in that first article after talking to Waterloo resident John McVicar, who wanted to know if anyone else remembered a game played during the 1950s by the kids living near Bricker Avenue in Waterloo.
The result was a lot of e-mail, calls and letters about a game that some called Tippy and others called Tibby.
Briefly, the game goes like this:
There are two teams, each of two players: one team of batters and one of pitchers/catchers. The batters face each other about 30 feet apart, with an opposing player standing behind them, at about catcher distance, and pitching to the batter opposite.
In the batter's box is a marked area (a pothole, a hole or indentation, a chalked square) into which a bat is placed and held until a pitch is thrown.
The pitcher throws, the batter picks up his bat and swings. If it's a hit, both batters run with their bats and score a run each time they exchange places. If it's a miss, the catcher becomes the pitcher for the next throw. The batters run until a pitcher/catcher can tag a runner. A batter is safe if he is back in the batter's box with his bat back in position. First team to 21 runs wins.
Equipment costs were low. Two sticks could serve as bats and players didn't need gloves. We could call it an "accessible" game. Certainly, the memories about Tippy were accessible.
Ralph Scheffel of Kitchener wrote that he had played Tippy in the Silver Heights area of Hespeler. "We usually used light baseball bats and a tennis ball, but I remember being told that the original game required broom handles."
John Wagner of Baden remembered playing Tippy in Grade 5 or 6 at the Pine Grove School in the former Waterloo Township in the mid-1950s.
Beverly Dalzilio of Guelph remembered the kids in the Borden and Courtland streets in Kitchener spent "many a summer's day and night" playing Tippy.
David Weicker recalls playing Tippy on Borden Street North in the early 1950s. "Other than delays due to car traffic, it was great fun." About 25 years ago, he and his brother and their sons played Tippy while on a camping trip and "it was delightful."
Peter Fitzgerald wrote about the Batavia Place variations in Waterloo. "Games were played to 21 and on the last run you had to touch bats in the middle or you were out."
Mike Delion of Waterloo recalls playing Tippy, and other baseball-related games, in the Lourdes Street area.
As the responses kept coming, it seemed that most referred to Tippy as being a game from the 1950s or 1960s. But a few pushed back the origins of Tippy.
Bob Bartels of Arthur recalled playing Tippy in the Rooshill area of Hespeler in the late 1940s. The big variation in equipment was that players used two broom handles, with a short section of handle being used as a peg, instead of a ball, to throw.
Bartels said "there was no adult supervision. Rules were passed along by older boys who you respected." Bartels thought the game had been taught to the kids by a Second World War veteran.
Former Record sports editor Mickey Mowbray remembers playing the game, which he knew as Tibby, in Galt. He also used bats cut from broom handles, or hockey sticks, and a wooden peg.
Harold Mahaffey of Cambridge also played Tibby "every summer day in St. Andrew's Park in Galt" in the early 1930s. Mahaffey's version also used a peg instead of a ball. Baseball gloves were not used because "we could not afford them." Mahaffey wrote that, "I never saw any written rules, so there could be many different versions."
Harold's wife, Janet, wrote that the late CBC broadcaster Peter Gzowski wrote about Tibby in one of his books and in a magazine column, although one reference was to Tibby ("Do boys still play tibby in the spring? Yes, I think, forever.") and another to Tippy.
So, is Tippy (or Tibby) a Waterloo County original? Well, the people at the Elliot Avedon Museum and Archive of Games in Waterloo don't have anything on Tippy, and Liz Hardin, registrar/researcher at Doon Heritage Crossroads in Kitchener, canvassed her staff to no avail.
Jim Gates, librarian/historian at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, was interested. "We checked around with our curatorial research staff . . . and we're never heard of this game.
"We at the museum are very excited about acquiring this information for our historical archives."
So, it would appear that Tippy is an authentic Waterloo County summer game.
Certainly, the enthusiasm that John McVicar has for the game is authentic. Standing in the back lot at The Record in Kitchener, swinging the bat and limbering up with a few practice throws, you know that he's ready for an afternoon of Tippy.
All he needs are enough like-minded players to spark a Tippy revival. That and a couple of bats, a ball and a place to play.
Oh, and a sponsor for the T-shirts would be great, McVicar says.
Tippy, anyone?
Bill Bean welcomes your comments about games and other diversions. E-mail him at bbean@therecord.com or call him at 894-2250, ext. 2618.
If Tippy isn't your cup of tea, how about screen ball, Red Rover or . . .
Do you remember screen ball, kick the can and Red Rover? Here are some games of summer recalled by Grand River Life readers.
Kick-back: Peter Fitzgerald and his friends played this football variant on the road, with the streetlights defining the sidelines. Mark two goal lines, about 150 feet apart. The game begins at your goal line or 10 steps out. One player kicks the football to the other team. If the ball is caught, the catching player gets to take three steps before kicking it back. A ball not caught is kicked from where it stops. A ball kicked into the opposing end zone scores a point.
Screen ball: Mike Delion used the backstop screen at the Empire Public School. The batter stood at second base, tossed a ball into the air and hit it toward the screen. Hitting the lower portion was a single; the mid portion, a double; the upper portion, a triple; and over the top, a home run. Two fielders stood before the screen and one behind it, hoping to catch a ball and put the batter out.
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