From my list of random things I decided I should provide an introduction to the world of dartball for my readers. My dartball career started at about the age of 10 playing as a substitute on the St. John's Berne Team as part of the Thumb Lutheran Dartball League (not sure if that was actually what it was). I played my entire career for that ball club. I primarily only filled in when there was a home game and Berne lacked the required number of players, but later in my career (when I was allowed to stay up later) I would travel to away games as well and played more regularly. I wasn't a super star, just a role player...but I always gave my best and rarely missed the board. Its been many years since I got to play nine innings of dartball, but those early years provided valuable later on when cricket (the dart game) became a popular game to play amongst my friends. I actually had never heard of cricket until my roommate Matt got a dartboard for the house...turns out the skills learned in dartball make cricket quite easy to play (the board is much smaller but you throw the dart from like a quarter of the distance).
Well besides reliving my glory days as a dartballer, I need to give a brief overview of how the game is to be played...in case anyone is anxious to go out and give it a try. First you'll need to get darts and a board similar to the one shown below. This is obviously not the traditional style of dartboard. Besides having a different design it is also much larger, which means you throw the darts from much farther back (why cricket seemed so easy to me). With that you simply play by the rules of baseball with two teams and the dart thrower being the "batter". Three strikes the batters out, each team gets three outs per inning, and nine innings per game (if memory services me correctly we use to play best of three games each night). The only special rules involve how the base runners move...which basically if someone is on second and you get a single than the guy on second moves one base (i.e. he moves to the third base). Different boards have different special squares so the rules would have to be checked for that, but the basics are shown below.
Well besides reliving my glory days as a dartballer, I need to give a brief overview of how the game is to be played...in case anyone is anxious to go out and give it a try. First you'll need to get darts and a board similar to the one shown below. This is obviously not the traditional style of dartboard. Besides having a different design it is also much larger, which means you throw the darts from much farther back (why cricket seemed so easy to me). With that you simply play by the rules of baseball with two teams and the dart thrower being the "batter". Three strikes the batters out, each team gets three outs per inning, and nine innings per game (if memory services me correctly we use to play best of three games each night). The only special rules involve how the base runners move...which basically if someone is on second and you get a single than the guy on second moves one base (i.e. he moves to the third base). Different boards have different special squares so the rules would have to be checked for that, but the basics are shown below.
white = hit (1 = single, 2 = double, 3 = triple, HR = homerun)orange = out
green = foul
blue = ball
grey = strike
red (DP) = double play
red (SH) = sacrifice hit
And now you are ready to go out and give dartball a try.
5 comments:
I would totally play this. If only when I played baseball I was as likely to get a triple as a single.
Mike - actually it isn't as likely you get a triple as a single. Some boards are more obvious than the one I posted, but the third base square is smaller than the first base. Perhaps one day fate will put you, me, and the items needed to play dartball in the same locations...it is super fun.
This reads like a sports blog.
Yeah it reads like a sports blog...dartball is a sport.
Great blog Brian!! It almost bought a tear to my eye.
Post a Comment