Spaldeen

A Spalding Hi-Bounce Ball, often called a Spaldeen, is a rubber ball, the size of a tennis ball without the felt. It was the more expensive and more popular version of the Pensie Pinkie (made by the Penn tennis ball company). These balls are commonly used in street games developed in the mid-20th century, such as Chinese handball (a variation on American handball), stoop ball, hit-the-penny (involving trying to make a penny flip on a sidewalk), butts up, box ball, punchball, half-rubber, and stickball (a variation of baseball).

The term arose from a New York City-accented pronunciation of Spalding, the sporting goods company that produced the balls. The name has become so common that Spalding now uses it in marketing, and it is now a registered trademark.

Across the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey, the ball was referred to as a "high bouncer."

Spaldeens were popular with children from the 1930s through to the 1970s. In urban areas sparse in grass, Spaldeens became integral to many street games due to their bounciness and light weight. Citing the declining popularity of stickball, Spalding took the ball off the market in 1979, but it returned in 1999 to much fanfare. The retail price in the mid-1960s in Jersey City was 29 cents.

In the documentary New York Street Games, celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg discuss their memories of games they played as children growing up in New York City. Many of these games involved Spaldeens.

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