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	Officer Mark Hannon with stickball commish Curtis Sliwa. Making New York's Finest proud, Mark was the Queens longball winner with a mammoth 290 ft shot See this year's schedule

Fourth Street Boys Re-claim Queens Title

Labor Day came early this year, but as the first September weekend rolled around, the schools were still not in session and the air retained that summer vacation feel. Warm and sunny, with a relaxed and nostalgic vibe, it was a perfect day for the 2003 Queens Stickball Classic.

The Classic is a celebration of old time New York. Fifty years ago, the police might have responded to a neighborhood call about a stickball game taking over a street by chasing the kids off the block. Today, the cops were part of the action. In fact officer Mark Hannon of the 106th precinct, led all players to take the longball hitting contest with a monster 290 foot blast.

After the individual hitting contest, the team competition commenced. Spectators were surprised to see only two teams registering to play; the Do Wallops, a group of family and friends who normally get together for softball games and the Fourth Street Boys a Manhattan based team who won the Queens event back in 99 (see article).

With a mixture of good defensive play and strong hitting, the Fourth Street Boys took an immediate lead and just built upon it, scoring in five of six innings for an impressive 13-2 win. However the idea of a non-Queens based team walking away with the Queens title riled some of the neighborhood residents watching the game. Cell phones sprang into action and within a few minutes a local team came together to challenge the Fourth Street Boys for the Queens title.

That was about as close as it got. The local heroes (named Hush-Hush for the way they'd come together) might have had the spirit, but they looked exactly like what they were, a pick-up group who formed minutes before the game. They had trouble coming together in the field and allowed 6 big runs in the first inning. Hush-Hush was able to settle down after their initial disarray but it too late. The Fourth Street Boys took an easy 11-3 win, reclaimed the Queens title and the right to represent the borough in the finals competition coming this fall.

There is plenty more stickball to come. If you are interested in fielding a team for the 2003 competition or if you want to help publicize the tournament, contact us.

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A special thanks to the Daily News
for its continued support of this legendary NYC street game.