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Sunday, February 05, 2012

Super Simple Baseball Game

I apologize in advance for self linking here.  This is a baseball game I came up with which is super easy to play and designed to introduce very young children to the game.  My daughter is just shy of 4 years old, and playing this game with her stuffed animals is a big hit so far.

If you have kids between the ages of 3-6, give it a try.

Rally Posted: February 05, 2012 at 03:28 PM | 16 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
  Tags: general

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   1. cardsfanboy Posted: February 05, 2012 at 06:43 PM (#4053989)
You allow Jedi to play, isn't that a little unfair? :)

Just looking at the rules, it's easy to see how you can add optional rules as the players get more advanced without really adding much more than an extra die roll or two.
   2. Walt Davis Posted: February 05, 2012 at 06:53 PM (#4054001)
Dan, can we get a ZiPS on Elmo?
   3. Walt Davis Posted: February 05, 2012 at 06:53 PM (#4054002)
Also let us know how long it is before you hear from the Disney lawyers. :-)
   4. Rally Posted: February 05, 2012 at 07:10 PM (#4054011)
Jedi? We haven't had one yet. To the best of knowledge no jawa has ever been a Jedi.
   5. cardsfanboy Posted: February 05, 2012 at 07:13 PM (#4054013)
oops missread the comment, thought you wrote jawa jedi(which I thought would have been cool) lavar solo.
   6. Meramec Posted: February 05, 2012 at 07:37 PM (#4054047)
   7. Rally Posted: February 05, 2012 at 10:53 PM (#4054331)
A jawa jedi would be cool. I'm a big fan of jawas, still have over 40 of them. But skilled with the force, they are not. Maybe it's because they never seem to get along with the Yodas.

One game I played, I had 9 of my jawas play against 9 of her stuffed animals. Most of these jawas were former professional ballplayers (first in games like this, then Microleague, then APBA) but her stuffed animals won the game. Not sure if it's because of the game design where all players are equal, or because of the age difference. The jawa pitcher had retired in 1986. Yes, I'm old, and no, I never threw away any of my favorite toys.
   8. PreservedFish Posted: February 05, 2012 at 11:23 PM (#4054347)
AROM, you are adorable.
   9. villageidiom Posted: February 05, 2012 at 11:42 PM (#4054353)
The jawa pitcher had retired in 1986.
Pfft. Jamie Moyer was in MLB in 1986.
   10. billyjack Posted: February 06, 2012 at 12:24 AM (#4054378)
Nice post. Love the idea. Cool game for kids.

My kids and I sometimes play the pretty common (I think) one with playing cards...
OBP is .384, lots of scoring usually, around 18 or so runs a game, though we've actually had shutouts.

Ace is HR,
King is triple,
Queen double,
Jack single,
10 is a walk,
2 thru 9 are outs,
but 2 and 9 are double plays (lead runner and batter out, even if there's no force on that lead runner).

Deck gets shuffled after each 3 innings. Good for a while on long car rides (because no dice).
   11. Greg K Posted: February 06, 2012 at 06:15 AM (#4054406)
playing this game with her stuffed animals is a big hit so far.

My brother and I used to play baseball with our stuffed animals in our basement. We had a ping-pong ball and some kind of Mickey Mouse plastic bat and laid out all the animals in the field. A hit off the bookcase at the back of the room (which also doubled as a Borg Cube for Lego Wolf 359 re-enactments) was a HR. Fly balls were either doubles or outs depending on how close they landed to the outfielder (and how fast the outfielder was. Bunsie Hoppa III = very fast, Fatso Bigge = a tad slow. Baby Face was literally the head that had fallen off a toy baby, so he had awful range) Ditto groundballs.

We actually got names for our teams (the Toyoma Reds and the Kingston Chickadees*) and our mom helped us sew up jerseys. Focksie Loxy even got a catcher's chest guard and mask he could push up on top of his head for pop ups.

*We actually had names for each room in the house which were invented for the SAHL (Stuffed Animal Hockey League) which is in its 14th season I believe. The games are played on NHL 94 for Sega Genesis and when a player is traded he retains his number (or closest one available) on the new team. So it's a bit of a gamble getting new guys. My brother's taken it over since I moved away several years ago, so I haven't kept up with the new rounds of expansion and franchise movements, but the top teams from my recollection are the Toyoma Red Wings, Kingston Canadiens (who I believe are now the Computown Canadiens), the Davidoom Maple Leafs, and the Bateroma Bruins. The champion gets the Goug Dilmour tropy...a giant plastic Nerd (of candy fame) taped to cynlinder.

Another fun game was Diplomacy with stuffed animals. All seven nations had a ruler, but also had various princes, secretaries of state, foreign ministers, prime ministers etc. Assassination plots, attempted coups, infighting within cabinets or marxist revolutions could set off civil wars, inheritence disputes or defections to other nations.

Ah memory lane. I guess my entire parenting strategy would be to provide a ton of stuffed animals and just let them do their thing. So it's probably a good thing I won't be a parent in the forseeable future.
   12. TomH Posted: February 06, 2012 at 07:24 AM (#4054411)
avg .294
obp .333
slg .647
------altho with occasional sac fly the ##s will change just a bit

not much incentive to steal when your lineup is full of Hank Aarons all in their prime :)

looks like about an 8 r/g environment.
   13. Lassus Posted: February 06, 2012 at 09:12 AM (#4054439)
I sent/facebooked it out to everyone I know with little hairless monkeys, AROM. May the viral wonder of the internet be bestowed upon you.
   14. Slivers of Maranville descends into chaos (SdeB) Posted: February 06, 2012 at 10:11 AM (#4054477)
A hit off the bookcase at the back of the room (which also doubled as a Borg Cube for Lego Wolf 359 re-enactments) was a HR. Fly balls were either doubles or outs depending on how close they landed to the outfielder (and how fast the outfielder was. Bunsie Hoppa III = very fast, Fatso Bigge = a tad slow. Baby Face was literally the head that had fallen off a toy baby, so he had awful range) Ditto groundballs.


I think we have a script for Toy Story IV!
   15. johnseal Posted: February 06, 2012 at 01:52 PM (#4054764)
I can't believe Frog got on base. That guy sucks.
   16. Rally Posted: February 06, 2012 at 02:05 PM (#4054780)
Frogs are actually pretty good. Being amphibious, they can bat equally well lefthanded or righthanded.

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