Red rubber ball: baseball prequel.

Nostalgia is often what makes people take up a hobby or collection. But in addition to that, in my case this too perhaps has something to do with it:Ths pink, rubber, fuzzless ball defined much of my childhood play growing up in New York City. But my cousins who lived on Long Island also incorporated these very successfully in their courts and cul de sacs. No one called it a Spalding ball or a rubber ball or a Hi Bounce ball. We called it a spaldeen. They cost a quarter and you bought them in candy stores. Just as baseball cards had an aroma because of the bubble gum, spaldeens had a rubber ball aroma. Now of course we recognize that baseball cards and spaldeens smelled like childhood. In a pickup stickball game both girls and boys could, at just the right angle and bounce, hit these things approximately one mile. And of course there was stoopball, ah stoopball.

You could put a spaldeen in your pocket. You could devise ways to retrieve one from the drains under corner curbs. No matter how hard they were thrown or bounced, spaldeens didn't hurt your hands. Toss in air and punch. You felt sad when they tore in half. If you went to Rose's candy store and she just got a box in, you could pick one out by squeezing them like fruit so you didn't get one with too much give. Did you play with spaldeens?

We offer up the Cyrkle with a few caveats. First, they look like modern day baseball players, don't they? Second, the set decoration is downright chilling. Third, the drummer is clearly insane. And fourth, why DO singers look at each other with loving knowing smiles in the middle of a song? What the? And is anyone actually playing an instrument?

Truism of the day: "One hit wonder" can apply to singers and they can still be considered something of a success. This is not true of baseball players.