For many people, the newness of the game is part of the appeal. It’s a bit more exotic than basketball or touch football. As in baseball, you get to take whacks at a ball with a large stick. In contrast to baseball, you’ll hit the ball most of the time and you won’t need more than 60 seconds to go over (or make up) the rules.

Having four people helps, but you don’t need more than that. You don’t need a goalie. It also helps to have something with enough height to approximate a goal. A cardboard box — one for each end — will do the trick. Lacking that, you can put a few sweatshirts or gloves on the ground, each acting as a goal post. Just be prepared for arguments over what’s a goal and what’s not.

Regardless, the joy does not come from the equipment. It comes from the quick changes of direction, the serendipity of nearby objects (goals scored off parked cars should count) and the speed with which people can learn the basics. You may well score on a one-timer in your first game.

When my friends and I started playing regularly, in suburban New York in the early 1980s, we had two new Mylec street hockey goals, with their shiny red posts and white netting. Within a few years, the netting was browning and one of the goals had collapsed to the point of being more two-dimensional than three-dimensional. It didn’t matter. We played into the dark and, best of all, in the snow, when the slick street let us pretend we were playing the more famous version of the game.

Thirty years later, we still talk about one game with a score that stretched into the 30s. Street hockey isn’t meant to be a 1-0 game. If you find some time to play Sunday, there’s a good chance you’ll score more points than the Jets or the Giants do.

DAVID LEONHARDT, managing editor, The Upshot