''Diceball!'' is a

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

in which two players roll

dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...

to simulate a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

game, one representing the visiting team and the other the

home team In sports, home is the place and venue identified with a team sport. Most professional teams are named for, and marketed to, particular metropolitan areas; amateur teams may be drawn from a particular region, or from institutions such as sch ...

. Both players use the dice to throw the baseball from the mound to the plate and field the ball on defense. Diceball! was designed to mirror the statistical reality of baseball. A regular game of Diceball! without

extra innings Extra innings is the extension of a baseball or softball game in order to break a tie. Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine regulation innings (in softball and high school baseball games there are typically seven innings; in Little Lea ...

lasts about 45 minutes.

History

The game was designed in 1979 on a

pizza box The pizza box or pizza package is a folding packaging box made of cardboard in which hot pizzas are stored for take-out. The "pizza box" also makes home delivery and takeaway substantially easier. The pizza box has to be highly resistant, cheap ...

by a 16-year old

Daniel Girard At the 1908 Summer Olympics, a field hockey tournament was contested for the first time. Six teams entered the tournament: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany and France. England won the gold medal, Ireland the silver and Scotland and Wal ...

from Rawdon, Québec, while the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

were chasing the pennant in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

. Girard brought his game to his high school, where he organized tournaments with other students. Given the popularity of the game in his school, Girard also brought his game to university where it also became popular. The interest created by the game was noticed by entrepreneur Louis Desjardins, who launched the game with Girard.

Gameplay and rules

To start the game, the visiting team puts a pawn (as a

batter Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

and eventually runner) in the batter's box, to get the pitcher's throws. The die replaces the ball. The

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

rolls the die until either the batter is struck out, the batter is walked, or the ball is hit. If the ball is hit, the offensive team rolls a die to determine the number of dice to be used to hit the ball. The number of dice indicated are rolled and added up. Numbers from 1 to 36 show the location where the ball is

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

and the ball is placed on the

game board Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

. If the ball is hit on a circle, the ball was hit in the air and an out is recorded. If the ball is hit on a number in a cloud, it is a

ground ball In the sports of baseball and softball, a batted ball is a pitch that has been contacted by the batter's bat. Batted balls are either fair or foul, and can be characterized as a fly ball, pop-up, line drive, or ground ball. In baseball, a fou ...

and that the batter will have to try to reach a base before the defense throws to that base. If the ball is hit to a star-shaped zone, the runner starts to run around the bases while the defence recovers the ball on the star. If the stars are from 27 to 36 it is a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

and all runners score. Every batter who runs around the bases and reaches home plate before three outs scores a run. As soon as three outs are recorded, stranded runners are removed from the bases. The teams trade places: the defense becomes the offense.

Basic version

In the basic version of Diceball, pawns are used as defensive players and are also used as runners by the opponent. A white pawn is used as a ball. The offense use dice to hit the ball in different spots on the game board and the offensive players try to move the players toward home plate as the defense try to stop the offense by forwarding the ball around.

Expert version

An expert section in the rule book includes more baseball features like

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

sacrifice bunt In baseball, a sacrifice bunt (also called a sacrifice hit) is a batter's act of deliberately bunting the ball, before there are two outs, in a manner that allows a baserunner to advance to another base. The batter is almost always put out, and ...

s and

sacrifice flies In baseball, a sacrifice fly (sometimes abbreviated to sac fly) is defined by Rule 9.08(d): "Score a sacrifice fly when, before two are out, the batter hits a ball in flight handled by an outfielder or an infielder running in the outfield in fair o ...

Strategy

Strategy plays a role. The ability to decide when to run around the bases or to stop will create momentum or result in outs. Players have the power to try to steal a base, to order a bunt to try to send a runner to second to avoid a

double play In baseball and softball, a double play (denoted as DP in baseball statistics) is the act of making two outs during the same continuous play. Double plays can occur any time there is at least one baserunner and fewer than two outs. In Major Leag ...

and/or put a player in a

scoring position In the sport of baseball, a baserunner is said to be in scoring position when they are on second or third base. The distinction between being on first base and second or third base is that a runner on first can usually only score if the batter h ...

. A player can also try to advance or score on a sacrifice fly. All these extra plays are subjected to the laws of probability like the rest of the rules of Diceball.

Reception

Diceball! got positive reviews upon its launch in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Games Magazine ''GAMES World of Puzzles'' is a puzzle magazine formed from the merger of Games and World of Puzzles in October 2014. The entire magazine interior is now newsprint (as opposed to the part-glossy/part-newsprint format of the original ''Games'') an ...

named it as one of the top Games 100 in the

in 1991, 1992 and 1993.

Burt Hochberg Burt Hochberg (1933 – May 13, 2006) was an expert on chess and other games and puzzles. He authored and edited many books on chess, and served as editor of both ''Chess Life'' (from December 1966 until October 1979 inclusive), and ''GAMES'' m ...

, a senior

Games magazine ''GAMES World of Puzzles'' is a puzzle magazine formed from the merger of Games and World of Puzzles in October 2014. The entire magazine interior is now newsprint (as opposed to the part-glossy/part-newsprint format of the original ''Games'') an ...

editor said in an interview he gave to the

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

: In January 1994, Diceball was presented in the

American International Toy Fair The North American International Toy Fair (formerly the American International Toy Fair and also known as Toy Fair New York) is an annual toy industry trade show held in mid-February in New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and at t ...

in New York and Girard, the Diceball inventor, said in an interview to the

: The Unistar Radio Networks of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

(lately

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) described it as the best baseball game on the market: The

Canadian Toy Testing Council The Canadian Toy Testing Council was a volunteer-operated not-for-profit organization established in 1952 to test toys for playability and safety. The organization ceased operations in June 2015. History Each year, the organization solicited fam ...

, a non-profit agency, that publishes a toy report yearly included Diceball in its 1994 report. The game received a three-star rating, the highest score. According to the Montreal Gazette, the game was shipped off to 300 test families in the Ottawa-Hull area for evaluation. Response was excellent across the board, especially from players who liked baseball. Diceball has won the council's highest accolade, a three-star rating. The game was also reviewed in

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

and received press coverage in Canada's national newspaper,

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

and

The Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The newsp ...

. It was also featured in Quebec in La Presse and

Le Journal de Montréal ''Le Journal de Montréal'' is a daily French-language tabloid newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Quebec and is also the largest French-language daily newspaper in North America. ...

. In Canada, Diceball! garnered television coverage on

CTV Television Network The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a divis ...

and

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

Social and tournament play

Before and while it was launched, Diceball! was the center of many tournaments, in schools, colleges and workplaces. Former Expos pitcher

Denis Boucher Denis Boucher (born March 7, 1968) is a Canadian former professional baseball starting pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians, and Montreal Expos. He represented Canada at the 1987 Pan Amer ...

won a Diceball! tournament involving sports reporters in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. After the tournament, Boucher said, "you will find in Diceball! all the things that happen in real baseball." He added that playing the game is a great way to spend time with friends. By winning the Diceball! tournament, Boucher was given a $250 cheque that he gave to the Sun Youth Organization.

Statistical accuracy

Diceball! got positive press reviews partly because of its statistical similarities to the game of baseball. In Diceball! the batter puts the ball in play 66% of the time compared to 76% in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. The

is struck out 23% of the time, against 15% in baseball. 11% of the

at-bats In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

end up in walks compared to 9% in baseball. The ball is hit a few less times in Diceball! However, the game is balanced out by the greater probability of getting a

base hit In baseball statistics, a hit (denoted by H), also called a base hit, is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches or passes first base after hitting the ball into fair territory with neither the benefit of an error nor a fielder's ch ...

when the ball is hit (.339 vs. .304). Taking into accounts

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

, the offensive average in Diceball! is almost the same as baseball. .251 versus .254. Since there are more walks and errors in Diceball! than in real baseball, the players

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

is .349 compared to .340 in real baseball. Even the odds of getting an out are realistic. 33.6% of ground balls in Diceball! (34.8% in baseball) 11.7% are flyballs or liners to the

infield Infield is a sports term whose definition depends on the sport in whose context it is used. Baseball In baseball, the diamond, as well as the area immediately beyond it, has both grass and dirt, in contrast to the more distant, usually grass-c ...

(14.7% in baseball) and 20.8% are fly balls in the

outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In cricket, baseball and ...

(20.1% in baseball). On average one more runner gets on base from each team in a Diceball! game than in a Major League Baseball game. The more dice rolled on a hit ball, the greater the probability of getting a base hit. With one die, the average is .167; with 2 it is .278; with 3, .287; with 4 dice, it is .356; with 5 dice .351; with 6 dice, the average climbs to .472. The overall average when the ball is hit in play is .319, not counting infield hits. Adding infield hits, the overall average when the ball is hit is .339.MLB statistics used in the text were taken from:

Use in schools

Praised for its statistical accuracy, Diceball! was used in schools in the US to teach youngsters the virtues of understanding statistics.

References

{{reflist

External links

Diceball! Inventor's official Twitter page

Diceball on Boardgamegeek
Sports board games Board games introduced in 1991 Tabletop games Board games Baseball culture Baseball board games