mailbox baseball?

Bradford H Needham

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Apr 21, 1992, 2:01:59 PM4/21/92

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I've never seen anybody do it; I've heard that the son of a friend of a friend
at work got arrested for it; I keep seeing bashed mailboxes on rural roads.

So, does Mailbox Baseball really exist? What are the rules? Is it really a
federal offense?

Equine hinds want to know.
Brad Needham
br...@augsburg.pen.tek.com

Dennis Brennan

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Apr 21, 1992, 4:14:32 PM4/21/92

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In article <51...@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> br...@tekig1.PEN.TEK.COM (Bradford H Needham) writes:
>I've never seen anybody do it; I've heard that the son of a friend of a friend
>at work got arrested for it; I keep seeing bashed mailboxes on rural roads.
>
>So, does Mailbox Baseball really exist? What are the rules? Is it really a
>federal offense?

Probably been around for a long time, but I imagine the first time most
city-folk ever heard of it was in the movie _Stand_By_Me. Yes it does
exist, I once chased the bastard who did it to our house (didn't catch him
and ask him what the rules were). I doubt that it's a federal offence unless
the mailbox is damaged to the point where the lettercarrier is unable to place
your mail inside it. I think the FAQ established that the Feds just control
what goes in your mailbox: you actually own it. Vandalism is, of course,
a crime.

Speaking of mailboxes, my brother once pulled the following mischef-night
(October 30, the night before Halloween) prank: he cooked an omlette and
some bacon and placed them in someone's mailbox along with a glass of juice.
A variation of the ol' "egged mailbox" prank that's messy and cruel. I
got a kick out of it.

BdReEnNnNiAsN, who prefers his eggs and .sigs scrambled

David Hanson

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Apr 21, 1992, 7:38:29 PM4/21/92

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In article <51...@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> br...@tekig1.PEN.TEK.COM (Bradford H Needham) writes:

>I've never seen anybody do it; I've heard that the son of a friend of a friend
>at work got arrested for it; I keep seeing bashed mailboxes on rural roads.
>
>So, does Mailbox Baseball really exist? What are the rules? Is it really a
>federal offense?

It really exists, and it's pretty popular (at least in my small town).
I suppose driving around loaded and smashing mailboxes might be fun.

Terry Carroll

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Apr 21, 1992, 7:39:20 PM4/21/92

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In article <1992Apr21.2...@midway.uchicago.edu> dj...@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <51...@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> br...@tekig1.PEN.TEK.COM (Bradford H Needham) writes:
>>So, does Mailbox Baseball really exist? What are the rules? Is it really a
>>federal offense?

> .... I doubt that it's a federal offence unless

>the mailbox is damaged to the point where the lettercarrier is unable to place
>your mail inside it. I think the FAQ established that the Feds just control
>what goes in your mailbox: you actually own it.

What! Without consulting Ted Frank or me?
--
The above is my thoughts, not Amdahl's; | Terry Carroll 408/992-2152
The above is not legal advice; | Senior Computer Architect
All models over 18 years of age; | Amdahl Corporation
Contents sold by weight, not by volume; | tj...@juts.ccc.amdahl.com
Your mileage may vary. | tj...@amail.amdahl.com

JOSEPH T CHEW

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Apr 21, 1992, 7:43:32 PM4/21/92

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In the only place where I ever encountered mailbox-bashing (rural
Alabama, mid-70s), there was nothing so formalized as "Mailbox Baseball."
It was just the local dead-end kids getting high on hormones and cheap
beer and impulsively going down the road with a ball bat.

We quit losing mailboxes when my father made one out of boiler plate and
set it in a whacking big plug of concrete. The latter helped it defy the
kids who tried to uproot it with a chain tied to their back bumper. One
of the culprits decided, in fact, to approach me in school and kinda-sorta
make peace: "Heard somebody tried to smash your mailbox last night."
"Yeah, but nothin' much happened to it. Wonder how the guy's car came out."
That was the last we heard of mailbox vandalism.

--Joe "Aren't bored teenagers just a barrel of monkeys" Chew

Dave Manley

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Apr 22, 1992, 2:04:57 PM4/22/92

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In article <51...@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> br...@tekig1.PEN.TEK.COM (Bradford H Needham) writes:

>I've never seen anybody do it; I've heard that the son of a friend of a friend
>at work got arrested for it; I keep seeing bashed mailboxes on rural roads.

>So, does Mailbox Baseball really exist? What are the rules? Is it really a
>federal offense?

Related story: While I was living in Chicago in the early 80's a
car-load-of-fun- loving-boys-with-bats one night smashed hundreds of
the amber flashing lights that sit atop road construction barrier.
They were caught a few days later. I don't know if they were keeping
score - but the sure got a lot of 'hits'.

ObLemmingAlert: Those darn suicidal lemmings showed up in an article
in the Apr 22 SF Cron about the large numbers of butterflys recently
seen heading North (to their DEATH I might add).

Dave "Can I have a pet lemming in California?" Manley

Richard Joltes

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Apr 23, 1992, 4:13:31 PM4/23/92

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Joe Chew writes:

>We quit losing mailboxes when my father made one out of boiler plate and
>set it in a whacking big plug of concrete. The latter helped it defy the
>kids who tried to uproot it with a chain tied to their back bumper. One
>of the culprits decided, in fact, to approach me in school and kinda-sorta
>make peace: "Heard somebody tried to smash your mailbox last night."
>"Yeah, but nothin' much happened to it. Wonder how the guy's car came out."
>That was the last we heard of mailbox vandalism.
>
>--Joe "Aren't bored teenagers just a barrel of monkeys" Chew

My dad did something similar, except he set the armourplated mailbox in a bent
steel rod that was inserted into (get this) several sets of bearings with a
detent where the "normal" mailbox position was. So the thing looked normal,
but anyone hitting it with a bat or car would get a surprise, since the whole
affair would spin around on its bearings after being hit. One fellow whacked
the thing with his car (intentionally--it wasn't easy to hit) and it spun all
the way around, taking out his rear window as he passed by. No one messed with
our mailbox after that one...

--------
| | <-----the armoured box
--------
-------------------------\
|
|
| <----bearings here
--------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dick "take THAT!" Joltes jol...@husc.harvard.edu
Hardware & Networking Manager, Computer Services jol...@husc.bitnet
Harvard University Science Center

"Mind you, not as bad as the night Archie Pettigrew ate some
sheep's testicles for a bet...God, that bloody sheep kicked him..."

Caroline E. Bryan

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Apr 24, 1992, 12:53:03 PM4/24/92

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In article <1992Apr23.1...@husc3.harvard.edu> jol...@husc10.harvard.edu (Richard Joltes) writes:
>
> My dad ... set the armourplated mailbox in a bent steel rod that was inser-
> ted into ... several sets of bearings with a detent where the "normal" mail-
> box position was. So the thing looked normal, but ... the whole affair

> would spin around on its bearings after being hit. One fellow whacked the

> thing with his car (intentionally ...) and it spun all the way around, tak-

> ing out his rear window as he passed by. No one messed with our mailbox

> after that one....
>
> Dick "take THAT!" Joltes

Gives a whole new meaning to the name Joltes.

Carrie c...@dbrus.unify.com x6244 --------------------+
| "The brain that processes these words as you read them is NOT the one you |
| were born with." - Steven Jay Gould |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

John Simutis

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Apr 28, 1992, 1:43:18 PM4/28/92

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>
> --------
> | | <-----the armoured box
> --------
> -------------------------\
> |
> |
> | <----bearings here
> --------------------
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually, this is a very common structure in rural areas where it snows a lot;
the extension is usually over a drainage ditch, allowing the snow to be
plowed and piled at the side of the road but leaving the box near enough for
the letter-carrier to get to it. The pivot (not usually so sophisticated
as ball bearings, more likely to be pipe-into-larger-pipe) is there so when
the snow plow hits it, the box is not lost until next spring.

I don't think I saw any armor plate boxes though - they all seemed pretty
banged up.

John "well, this is a.f.URBAN, right?" Simutis
--
--------
< standard disclaimer >
John Simutis, simutis @ingres.com Alms! Alms for the vi-impaired!

01ks...@bsu-ucs.uucp

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Apr 28, 1992, 5:16:54 PM4/28/92

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Well, mailbox baseball does exist, but the police frown upon it more
than skateboarding (it IS a federal offense.) Won't tell you how I found this
out, either.
I did find out that even though a person buys them, it is considered
the property of the US postmaster general as well as their own. And this is
where the police have problems with mailbox baseball.

|Kyle S. Davis |
| // Hot VWs |
| // Only Amiga makes it possible, \/ Take 2 home- |
| \\// All others make it plausible. \/\/ They're small. |
|______________________________________________________________________________|

jere...@yang.earlham.edu

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Apr 28, 1992, 8:55:25 PM4/28/92

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In article <22...@dog.ee.lbl.gov>, jtc...@csa3.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) writes:
> We quit losing mailboxes when my father made one out of boiler plate and
> set it in a whacking big plug of concrete. The latter helped it defy the
> kids who tried to uproot it with a chain tied to their back bumper.

I hard of someone who made a reinforced concrete post and filled the
mailbox w/ concrete. Big surprise for the bat-wielding teenagers.
--
Jeremiah Wilton | jere...@yang.earlham.edu | JERE...@EARLHAM.BITNET

Doug Landauer

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Apr 29, 1992, 9:16:33 PM4/29/92

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> So, does Mailbox Baseball really exist? What are the rules?
> Is it really a federal offense?

In some places, it's a capital offense. I read a newspaper report
(or heard on the radio) that someone shot & killed a mailbox-baseball-
player. Sorry, I ain't got no stinking references ...

ObUL: Did you know that some of us actually have a kill file for
alt.folklore.urban that contains "/^Re: /j" ?? Great time-saver.
--
Doug Landauer -- land...@eng.sun.com _
Sun Microsystems, Inc. -- STE, SunPro, Languages La no ka 'oi.

Rob Harrington

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Apr 30, 1992, 2:27:00 PM4/30/92

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In article <51...@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM>, br...@tekig1.PEN.TEK.COM (Bradford H Needham) writes:
> I've never seen anybody do it; I've heard that the son of a friend of a friend
> at work got arrested for it; I keep seeing bashed mailboxes on rural roads.
>
> So, does Mailbox Baseball really exist? What are the rules? Is it really a
> federal offense?

Yes it does... heh heh heh...

what you do it drive and have someone hang out the passenger window and swing
the bat at passing mailboxes... watch "Stand by Me" for details...

As for being a federal offense... aren't mailboxes technically USPO Property?

obob...@gmail.com

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Aug 16, 2019, 4:47:47 AM8/16/19

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To answer you question which it seems none of these morons understood is you need at least 3 people to play. The driver of course keeps score and watch. The other two play. You start as any normal baseball game 3 strikes your out. By strikes I mean mail in the box. Empty mail boxes are the goal buy you must knock them completely off onto the ground. If it still remains it a foul ball. Same rules apply as in baseball. The winner will be the most knocked off boxes with no mail inside. Hope that helped and PLAY Ball. ;)

Drew Lawson

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Aug 16, 2019, 9:23:42 AM8/16/19

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In article <924116d2-557d-48ee...@googlegroups.com>

obob...@gmail.com writes:
>To answer you question which it seems none of these morons understood

We've had lots of time to gain understanding in the 27 years since
the question was posted.

Drew "Gained wrinkles and gray hairs as well" Lawson
--
|Drew Lawson | If you're not part of the solution |
| | you're part of the precipitate. |