The Rules of Backyard Baseball
To start:
Hand-Over-Hand – To get the game started, have the captains face off. One throws the bat to the other and he or she must catch it with one hand. Then each captain takes turns placing their hand around the bat until they reach the top. The captain who places his thumb flat on the top of the bat gets to be the first to choose a team player. Captains are not allowed to put anything but their palms to the bat – "no eagle claws", "scissors" or "pinky extends" to change the outcome.
Game variations:
Here are some ideas to modify the game of baseball for few players:
Pitcher’s Hand – If you want to play with fewer players on bases, you can eliminate a first baseman and make pitcher’s hand out. When the batter hits the ball, the fielders send the ball to the pitcher. If he or she catches it before the player makes it to first, the player it out.
Automatic Out Zones - If you do have enough players to cover the whole field, you can make sections of the field such as right field or center field out of bounds zones. If a right hand batter hits to those areas, they are automatically out or the hit is considered a strike in the three strike rule. Remember to switch for lefty batters to keep it fair.
Two Base Baseball – With only 6-10 kids, you can play with only two bases, removing second base from play. The bases are set in a triangle from home plate, first and third but are moved in closer to make the field of play smaller. The batting team must catch for their own players so the fielding team has only a pitcher and fielders. The game is played like a normal baseball game. If there are very few players, you can enlist an adult to be "all time" pitcher and just field between the two teams.
Running Bases (Aka: Pickle or Stolen Bases) – As many kids as you want can play this game. Put two bases about 30 feet from each other. We make the bases bigger if we have more than 8 players. Two taggers stand inside the bases and toss a tennis ball back and forth. The goal is to tag out the runners as they run back and forth between the bases. Whenever a runner can, he tries to make it to the other base and counts each run. Each time a runner is tagged, he or she is out. The taggers work to get all the runners out. The last runner to get tagged out gets to choose who will be taggers for the next game.
500 Baseball – Players spread out on the field and one person bats. The goal of the game is to catch the ball for points and add your points to 500 first. If the ball it caught in the air, the player gets 100 points. A one-bounce catch is worth 50 points and grounders are 25 points. The game can be played with or without deductions. To play with deductions, take half the points for what the hit would have been worth off the players score if they miss the catch. The player who scores 500 first, gets to be the next batter.
