National Nursing Home Week

Sporting Events (Bring Back the Good Old Days)

For many, sports legends reign supreme in their thoughts. Here is a modified baseball game for those who still dream of the days of Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson. First get three dice that will represent the “at bats” and the defense. The dice should be specified as follows:

The game can be played on a table with two people moving game pieces, or it can be played with eight or more participants actually walking the bases. If played as a table game, a makeshift baseball diamond should be set up on a table and each person given something to symbolize three runners: chess pawns, cheese pieces, buttons, etc. The “diamond” can be as simple as a piece of cardboard with 1st, 2nd, 3rd bases and home plate drawn in, or it can be decorated more elaborately, if people want to do so.

A printable game board baseball diamond can be found at www.nnhw.org/resources/baseball.pdf. If people are going to be walking, rather than playing on a table, then home plate and the three bases need to be symbolized by a piece of paper, or felt, or some other flat object and laid out appropriately on the floor. If playing on the floor, rather than using small dice, an option would be to make large dice that can be thrown onto the floor in the middle of the “diamond” (use the “fuzzy dice” sold in novelty shops or Styrofoam ones, or any other creatively made ones).

Whether played on a table or the floor, the game is played in innings just like baseball, with the teams alternating hitting and defense. The team that is batting rolls the action die (number one) to start each at-bat. There are three possible outcomes:

Outcome 1: The action die lands on “hit.” In this case, the team that is batting then rolls die number 2, the “hitting” die. The hitting team is awarded a single, double, triple, or home run, depending on how the die comes up. However, before the hitting team gets to move its player to the appropriate base, the team on defense rolls die number 3, the “defense” die. If the die comes up on a blank side, then the hitting team proceeds to move a runner to the appropriate base. If it’s a double, for example, then a game piece is placed on second base if playing on a table, or, if playing on the floor, one of the team members walks to second base. If runners are on base at the time of a hit, then each runner advances the same distance as the batter (one base for a single, two for a double, etc.) as in baseball. So, if there is a runner on second, and a single is awarded, a new runner moves to first and the runner on second moves to third. If, however, the defense die comes up on “You’re Out,” then the hit is erased, the batting team is charged with an out, no runner gets on base, and no runners advance. (If the defense die comes up on “error” after a hit, then the teams proceed as if the die had come up blank). Runs are scored as in baseball – e.g. if there are two runners on base and the batting team gets a triple, then two runs score.

Outcome 2: The action die lands on “out.” In this case, the team on defense then rolls the defense die. If it comes up on “blank” or on “your’re out”, then one out is recorded. If, however, the die comes up on “error”, then there is no out. Instead, the team at bat then gets to roll the hitting die again and gets a single, double, triple or home run, and runners advance accordingly.

Outcome 3: The action die lands on “double play.” In this case, the team on defense rolls the defense die. If it comes up on “error,” the team at bat gets to roll the hitting die, as in the case above. If the defense die comes up “blank” or on “you’re out”, then there is a double play if the team at bat has any runners on base. If so, the “lead” runner is out and must leave the bases and the two outs are charged against the team at bat. If there are no runners on base, then there cannot be a double play, so only one out is charged.

The game proceeds along these lines from batter to batter, with runs scoring as in the normal rules of baseball, until there are three outs. When there are three outs, the teams switch sides. The teams can play as many innings as time allows, up to nine innings, with someone keeping track of how many runs each team scores in each inning (find a scoring sheet on our Web site). In all likelihood, one or more people involved will be familiar with the rules of baseball and, using their knowledge and these basic instructions, you will be able to guide participants on how to play correctly.