Half-Rubber

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-1910's. Half-Rubber has been played for several generations in the south, and had a large regional popularity in the 1970's. Recently, however, interest in the game has waned.

Equipment

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 instelf 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.

Rules of Play

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.

ources

Jones, Dan; Halfrubber: The Savannah Game, Paperback, (Savannah, 1980) ISBN:0960480803