Little Professor Baseball: Simple Game

Little Professor Baseball
We do the arithmetic, so you can play baseball.

The Simple Game

Equipment: Little Professor Baseball is free! Just follow these links to find the player cards, dice and scoresheets.

Little Professor Basic Player Cards
Little Professor Dice, including links to print and build your own dice
Printable Scoresheets, from the folks at Baseball Almanac's

Step 0: Rules The basic game is played according to the Official Rules of Baseball. The professor is pro-choice; whether or not to use a designated hitter is up to the discretion of the players.

Step 1: Choose Teams Choose teams however you'd like. Popular methods are playing favorite teams, recreating the world series, having a draft, or recreating the all-star game.

Step 2: Lineup Create a lineup. Be sure to fill every position. You should only use players at positions listed on their cards. You can substitute players just as in regular baseball.

Step 3: At Bat Each at-bat is resolved by both players rolling three ten-sided dice to generate a number between 000 and 999. Whichever player rolls higher looks on his card to determine the result. If there is a tie, the players roll again. The player rolling higher chooses the best result whose number does not go over his roll. The professor says this is the result across from the largest number less than or equal to the roll of the higher roller.

Step 4: Base Running Running is played by two simple rules:

Runners advance one base on all hit outs.
Scoring Note: If a runner scores from third on an out, it is scored a SF.
Runners advance one base on a single and two bases on a double.

Step 5: Keep Score Keep score just like in regular baseball. You'll need to keep track of the rotation and who's batting and how many outs there are and which bases are occupied. For information on how to score a baseball game, consult Official Baseball Scoring. Of course, the basic game does not generate fielding plays, so those will be unknown.

Example: Here's a batting and pitching card from 1970:

Johnny Bench   Catcher,OF,1B    CIN (NL)              Jim Palmer   Pitcher    BAL (AL)                1970
AB:605 K:102 W:54 SF:11 H:177 2B:35 3B:4              IP:305.0 H:263 HR:21 W:100 K:199 Avg: .223 OBP: .284
Avg: .292 HR:45 SLG: .586 OBP: .344   
     000  Strike Out                                  000  Home Run
     391  Hit Out                                     093  Triple
     791  Walk                                        114  Double
     834  Single                                      207  Single
     901  Double                                      429  Walk
     938  Triple                                      497  Hit Out
     940  Home Run                                    915  Strike Out

It's the first inning, with Pete Rose on third base and Johnny Bench batting against Jim Palmer. Johnny rolls an 892 and Jim rolls a 109. Johnny rolls higher, so you look on his card for the result. An 892 is a single on Johnny's card; he would've needed a roll of 901 or better to get a double. Pete scores easily from third for the run and Johnny gets another RBI. In the third inning, they meet again with Bernie Carbo on second base. Johnny rolls a 412, but Jiim bests him with a 519; that's a hit out on Jim's card. Bernie advances to third on the play.

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