Whose Stick Reigns Supreme?
The finals of the World Series of Stickball take place today
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Could this young player in the Dominican Republic be the next stickball champ?
The Marlins most likely won't bring the World Series to Miami this season, but in the streets of North Miami, there's another kind of championship going on.
This is the fourth year for the World Series of Stickball, but the first time it is being played on what is now deemed Stickball Boulevard - Northeast 8th Avenue for those who want to pull up a lawn chair and take in the action today.
The Labor Day weekend series ends today with the eight best teams competing round robin style beginning at 10 a.m. Thirteen teams from all over, from California to Puerto Rico, to play in the series, for which the winner will take home a trophy and prizes - gold-plated broom handle, perhaps?
One can't play stickball, after all, without a broom handle or stick. As long as you've got that a rubber ball, some friends and a street, you're ready to play. The South Florida teams - the Heat, the Hurricanes and the Stallions -- were started by a group of New York transplants, as it was in the streets of the Big Apple where the game originated - and also where the Stickball Hall of Fame resides.
"I broke plenty of windows in my days," Eppie "Little Cherokee" Ruiz, who used to play stickball in the Bronx as a kid, told the Miami Herald. "There is nothing that beats stickball. It just says New York."
Now, though, with the hosting of their first World Series of Stickball, Miami is starting their own traditions.
Says Miami Stickball League founder Bobby Medina, who also organized the tournament said: "Everybody is playing to win."
Posted Monday, Sep 7, 2009 - 9:02 AM EST
