Three people, a broomstick minus the broom, and a bisected pimple-ball were the essential elements of a halfball game in Dorchester in the middle-to-late decades of the last century. Wandering down a side street, a group of kids could set up a game between the curbs, with the pitcher’s mound on one curb, and the batter’s box along the gutter of the opposite with a two-family or three-decker home as a backdrop. A wide alley would often suffice for a game, with maybe the side of a building behind the pitcher to mark off the hits.

Now, halfball is coming back to Dorchester, one of the many city neighborhoods where it flourished in those long-ago days. The site is the former St. Mark’s parish schoolyard; play will begin at 9 a.m. on Sat., Sept. 30, and will run until noon. Veterans and newcomers alike are welcome to play in a tournament that will benefit the youth group of St. Mark’s parish.

John McCone, the organizer of the tournament, explained that a South Shore wiffleball fundraiser served as the initial inspiration for the upcoming event. One of McCone’s friends suggested that instead of wiffleball they play halfball, a game that many older Dorchester natives grew up having fun with. McCone posted the idea for the tournament on Facebook a few weeks ago. Between comments and likes, he received more than 150 responses. He then established a group of collaborators to determine what the rules of the tournament should be.

“The tournament originated more from nostalgia than anything else,” McCone said.

As a kid, McCone played baseball in Hemenway Park off Adams Street. As he grew older, however, field space became more limited. “If you didn’t get to the park by 7:30 or 8 in the morning, you’d have a hard time finding a place to play,” he said.

By the time he was a teenager, McCone had migrated from the park to the side streets, playing halfball alongside homes on the likes of Florida Street and beyond. “Just walking by, you could get drafted by a halfball team,” he said.

Up at Wainwright Park, on the other side of Dot Ave., players had a permanent home for their endless halfball (and full pimple-ball) games; a square home plate was etched into the municipal building’s west wall, giving balls and strikes a touch of credibility.

The action in halfball occurs between pitcher, catcher, and batter. The pitcher throws the ball – basically a small, upside-down rubber cup – side arm, in a stone-skipping motion – to the catcher in an attempt to get the batter out. If the batter swings and misses, it’s a strike – or a strike out if the catcher catches the ball before it hits the ground. Scoring is about how and where a batter hits the ball. Typically, a ball hit on the ground is a single. If the batter hits the ball against the first floor of a three-decker behind the pitcher, it’s a double; if it hits the second floor; it’s a triple; if it hits the roof, it’s a home run.

Some pitchers were experts in controlling the halfball, which would slide, sink, and soar depending on the hand-flip delivery and, sometimes, the wind at ground level. But a well-hit ball was impressive. For years there were scheduled games in an alley off Lonsdale Street behind a Dot Ave. business block. It was not unusual to see a crunched halfball by PeeWee Mann fly from the far end of the alley over the top of the three-story Ogar’s Drug store building across the street.

“We wouldn’t be hitting home runs out of Fenway Park, but it was the perfect game for playing out on the street,” McCone said.

McCone, who attended Saint Mark’s school, approached the parish about playing the tournament in its former schoolyard. Saint Mark’s agreed and McCone decided to establish the event as a fund-raiser for their youth group. “If you grew up in Dorchester when I did, you didn’t need to go anywhere else,” he said. “We had everything we needed here.”

McCone is hoping to have at least 30 players join in the tournament. The entry fee is $25 per person. Participants will receive t-shirts upon entry, and refreshments will be served throughout the day. By way of encouraging people of all ages to come down to Saint Mark’s that morning, McCone notes that “Someone said to me, ‘I don’t even know if I can hit the ball!’ I told her, ‘You’re in good company.’”

Halfball began to die out in Dorchester shortly after McCone and his friends stopped playing, pursuing endeavors outside of their beloved neighborhood. But on Sept. 30, they will have a chance to relive the fun they had growing up.

“We’ll do three-man teams so no one has to run for the ball that much,” he joked, “although we may need to have a Bengay concession and an in-house masseuse on hand.”

Sign-up for the event here.

Reporter editor Tom Mulvoy contributed to this report.

Bernadette Darcy can be reached at bdarcy@dotnews.com, or follow her on Twitter at @BernadetteDarcy