Butt Ball

It looks like I was not the only one who sucked at butt ball.

 Baseball was huge in my elementary school and  popularity was tied to how good at baseball you were. I wasn't, either.

We could not play baseball during recess so we played its psychopathic cousin 'Butt Ball'. The rules of 'Butt Ball' are complex, but the object is to get nerdy kids to play so that you can drill them in the butt with a tennis ball. The game is played by everyone getting in line and a kid "breaks the ice" by throwing the ball against the dugout. Once it is in the air everyone tries to catch it and throw it against the wall before the thrower can touch the wall. If he touches the wall, he is safe, but if the ball hits the wall first he gets one 'out'. If someone is able to catch the ball before it touches the ground then the thrower gets an automatic 'out'. 

After three outs, or basically instantly for me, you have to stand against the wall and let someone 'peg' you with the ball as hard as they could. They were supposed to throw it from a line twenty feet from the wall, but if the victim was a nerdy kid no one cared much if you scooched up 10 or so feet and let rip. It hurt exactly as you would imagine a tennis ball thrown at your back would hurt. If you flinched then they would call out a 'firing squad' where everyone got to throw the ball at you once. The judgement on what constituted a flinch was also influenced by social standing.

I don't know why I ever played this game. I couldn't throw, I couldn't catch and I hate, hate, hate, getting hit hard in the head with projectiles.