The "Who's Up First?" Story

It was an ordinary day. Just got back from a trip in town and on the way home saw the really neat statue depicting two boys with gloves, bat and ball trying to see who would be up first. Called "playing thumbs" or "getting the upper hand." Naturally had to take a few photos of it. Made me think back to when I did the same thing almost every day after school as well as all summer long. The story goes .......just got home from school, have to change my clothes, grab my bat and rubber ball and head out back to play ball with Dave G. Weather is starting to get nice and all the snow has melted off of the parking lot out back on the paved lot where we play. Ought to be able to get at least an hour or more of ball in before the sun casts dark shadows across the home plate we have painted on the parking lot. We live in the last house on North Queen Street in the north end of the city. Actually, the city's northern boundary is right up the street from us and that puts our semi-detatched home in Manheim Township. Right next to our house is Science Press. Big printing company that takes up about half of the block. Directly behind us is another press building that I have no idea who runs that. Between the two is a small alleyway that we walk through to get to the parking lot that belongs to the plant behind us. Room for maybe 30 cars, so it is big enough for our homeplate and a painted rectangle where the pitcher stands. Workers leave work at 3:00 PM, so our games can start when they have cleared the lot. On the wall, directly behind homeplate, we have white tape to mark the strike zone; same size zone for everyone. Our infield and outfield are paved, but have a narrow street called North Christian Street running between them. Have to be careful when pitching and trying to run after a pop-up that you slow for the cars that travel on the street. As you stand at home and look out over the field, to the left is Armstrong Distributors which is a beer and beverage dealership. At times the Armstrong sisters, girls about our age who live in the city and at times visit their dad's store, will lean against their wall and watch us play ball. Pretty neat! If we try hard enough, we can sometimes hit the ball into their garage and they will run in to retrieve it for us. Sometimes they even offer us something to drink, if the weather is really hot. Today's game features only two players, Dave and me. "Who's up first?" I yell when Dave shows up. Sometimes we thumb wrestle to see who gets to bat first, but never when Dave is there. He is older than the rest of us in the neighborhood and could whoop us easily in thumb wrestling. I grab the bat and toss it to him. He catches it near the fat end and I put my hand on top of his, towards the small end of the bat. He places his hand next to mine and this goes on, hand over hand, until the knob at the small end of the bat is reached. The last hand on the bat that can place his thumb on the tip of the knob wins the contest and gets to bat first, unless ........ the loser can then grasp the knob of the bat, and holding it with only a thumb and one finger, twist it over his head three times before it goes flying. Usually we don't do this, since the many windows in the buildings at times get broken and we usually get blamed and a swinging bat may cause that to happen. OK, Dave's hands are larger and he wins and I start pitching. In our game you only get 1 out. Ball hit in fair territory that doesn't make it across the street is a single. In the lot across the street we have sight lines for a double and a triple. A ball that goes in the girl's garage is foul. And ...... any ball that hits a moving car (remember we use a rubber ball about the size of a tennis ball) is a homer. At times when this happens and the car slams on the brakes, our game quickly ends and we take off for home. Three strikes is an out. No walks allowed. Back and forth we go until dark and then head our separate ways back home. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and Kenny and my younger brother said they can play tomorrow, so we'll have 2 on each side and have to do the "playing thumbs" again to see who bats first. Oh the memories!! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary day.