[AKboredom]

My friend and I are moving to vegas in a few months and I was curious about adult baseball leagues there. My friend played growing up so he's pretty good but I haven't played since middle school so we're looking for a league for fun. Are there many leagues around that wouldn't mind me blowing the game for them?

[aaronmhatch]

Hey, did you ever find any info on baseball leagues in LV?

[elkotronics]

Surely the city of Lost Wages has some lower-level softball leagues. But baseball in it's lower forms? Be careful of tearing your knee up during that slide in to 2nd base, man. Just kidding. Sort of. Sounds like a good way to ruin a nice afternoon of fun. But funner than playing Wii-ball, too. Do let us know what you find out in this regard.

[david eckersall]

I've tried watching baseball, but I don't understand what they'retrying to do other than hit the ball. I don't understand the scoringsystem. I saw a film once called The Natural with Robert Redford,and it showed the score board, and it was a lot of 000s and 111s,but I just could'nt figure out what they were trying to do otherthan hit the ball and run round from base to base!!!

[aaronmhatch]

I play in a wiffeball league in New Jersey. I'm considering a move to Las Vegas and hope I can get a wiffeball game going down there.

It certainly doesn't hurt like a baseball!

[elkotronics]

When I was in junior high in Washington state we used to play a game of baseball called Wing-Ball. We used a broom handle for a bat. We used a wad of paper covered with masking tape several strands around. We would pitch as hard as we wanted and swing to our hearts content. We played at the end of a street on a bluff up above Puget Sound in the town of Edmonds, which is about 20 miles north of Seattle. Great fun we had!

If a ball hit high enough in the evergreens in our "ballpark" created in the midst of the street combined with parking area, we deemed it a home run. We'd literally play for hours. Those were the days, my friends, I thought they'd never end.

We didn't sing and dance forever and a day, but we sure did play a lot of Wing-Ball!

[aaronmhatch]

That sounds awesome. My friends and I would play something similar but with a bamboo stick and a tennis ball.

[elkotronics]

Yep-it gets me hungry to find a pick-up baseball game somewhere...I'm over in Elko, NV. Wanna come up for a game of Wing-Ball?

[aaronmhatch]

Well, I'm in New Jersey right now, so that'll be tough. :P

Maybe next year, though.

[jfkIII]

Originally Posted by david eckersall

I've tried watching baseball, but I don't understand what they'retrying to do other than hit the ball. I don't understand the scoringsystem. I saw a film once called The Natural with Robert Redford,and it showed the score board, and it was a lot of 000s and 111s,but I just could'nt figure out what they were trying to do otherthan hit the ball and run round from base to base!!!

Ecky...at its very basic, you're right, baseball is about each team trying to hit the ball, and whoever hits it better, will usually win. However, there is so much more to the game. The strategy is usually referred to as "the game within the game". But like learning to play craps, you're better off just focusing on the basics before moving to the proposition bets. A game can still be enjoyed at the surface level, just as craps can be fun by simply making pass line bets (always with odds!)

Scoring is quite simple...everytime a offensive player crosses home plate, the score increases by 1. So those 0's and 1's you saw are the number of times a teams runner has crossed home plate. For example, a final score of 5-3 would mean that the winning team crossed home plate 5 times; the losing team 3 times. There are 9 innings to a complete game (tied games can go longer until a winner is declared, and weather-shortened games are considered regulation after 4.5 innings.) Each inning consists of 3 outs for the visiting team (first up) and 3 outs for the home team. So, under inning 1 on the scoreboard, if neither team scored, you'd see a 0 on top (visiting team) and a 0 on bottom (home team). All innings are added (left to right)
for each team to get the current and final score.

Hope that helped some.