Portable indoor-outdoor board game
View Patent ↗The invention comprises a game with a playing surface containing cups for receiving balls thrown by a player. In the skill portion of the game, a player scores points by accurately throwing the balls into the cups. If the player misses any of the cups, in a chance portion of the game, the playing surface is sloped to direct the ball to fall into compartments which provide additional benefits or to incur penalties. When playing the game with the baseball theme, a player may score runs by successfully throwing the ball into cups on the playing surface positioned at the first base, second base, third base, or home plate positions. Runners advancing past home plate score runs. Outs may be recorded for missing the cups. If the ball misses the cups, but falls into randomized compartments, the player may receive additional benefits or incur additional penalties.
1 . A method of playing a baseball game comprising the steps of:
Determining a number of innings to be played by a plurality of players,
Allowing a player to throw a ball toward a sloped playing surface with four cups, the cups being positioned at baseball positions first base, second base, third base, and home plate, the four cups being positioned within the playing surface, the playing surface having a front edge, and the playing surface being sloped toward the front edge,
Marking a position of a runner on first base as a single if a ball goes in the first base cup, and advancing all preceding runners on base by one base,
Marking a position of a runner on second base as a double if a ball goes in the second base cup, and advancing all preceding runners on base by two bases,
Marking a position of a runner on third base as a triple if a ball goes in the third base cup, and scoring any runners already on base,
Marking a position of a runner on first base as a base on balls if a ball goes into the home plate cup for a first time in an inning, and advancing all preceding runners by one base if forced,
Advancing a runner completely through first base, second base, third base, and home plate if a ball goes into the home plate cup for a second or subsequent time in an inning,
Scoring a run for each runner advancing past home plate,
Recording one out for each ball that misses a cup, but does not leave the playing surface,
Recording two outs for each ball that misses the playing surface or the ball bounces off the playing surface,
Ending a player's turn in an inning if the player incurs a predetermined number of outs,
For any ball which does not fall into anyone of the cups but stays on the playing surface, allowing the ball to roll off the playing surface into a dowel panel holder positioned generally perpendicular to the playing surface and below the playing surface, the dowel panel holder containing a plurality of pegs alternately arranged between a front dowel panel and the dowel panel holder and sized to permit passage of the ball through the pegs,
Allowing the ball to fall into a compartmentalized tray positioned at a bottom of the dowel panel holder containing at least one compartment, the at least one compartment containing designations selected from the group consisting of single, double, triple, home run, an out, and two outs,
Marking a position of a runner on first base as a single if a ball goes in a single compartment, and advancing all preceding runners on base by one base,
Marking a position of a runner on second base as a double if a ball goes in a double compartment, and advancing all preceding runners on base by two bases,
Marking a position of a runner on third base as a triple if a ball goes in a triple compartment, and scoring any runners already on base,
Advancing a runner completely through first base, second base, third base, and home plate if a ball goes into a home run compartment, and advancing all preceding runners past home plate,
Scoring a run for each runner advancing past home plate,
Recording an out if the ball falls into an out compartment,
Ending a player's turn in an inning if the player incurs a predetermined number of outs,
After all players have played in an inning, continuing play into another inning with all players having another opportunity to throw the ball and score runs,
Continuing play for a predetermined number of innings, and
After the predetermined number of innings have been played calculating a total number of runs obtained by each player during the predetermined number of innings, the winner being the player with a highest number of runs.
2 . The method of playing a baseball game of claim 1 whereby the predetermined number of outs is three.
3 . The method of playing a baseball game of claim 1 whereby the predetermined number of innings is nine.
4 . The method of playing a baseball game of claim 1 whereby players must throw the ball from a line at least six feet from the playing surface.
5 . The method of playing a baseball game of claim 1 further comprising playing additional innings if the total number of runs is tied after the predetermined number of innings and playing until one player has more runs than other players at the end of each inning and then stopping play at the end of such additional inning.