Step by Step Guide to Playing Drinking Baseball
Drinking Baseball is a pong baseball drinking game consisting of two teams of four or more players competing against each other in a baseball-like format of Drinking Pong. Players try to score the most runs by throwing ping pong balls into plastic cups to score a single, double, triple, or home run. Players can also steal bases by flipping their cups in a similar fashion to Flip Cup. A game of Drinking Baseball can last anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes depending on the amount of innings played to complete the game.
Players: 8+ players
Required Supplies: 1-3 x Ping Pong Balls, 1 x Pong Table, 14 x Red Solo Cups
Setup:
To start a game of Drinking Baseball, line up the plastic cups on your Pong Table as shown in the diagram below. The defending team starts by positioning themselves as shown in the diagram. In this instance, the black team will be “leading off” the inning and the white team will be defending. Both teams should agree to how many innings will be played to complete the game. Drinks should be placed in each cup on the table (approximately three fingers worth per cup).
Rules:
Innings:
As with real baseball, the game of Drinking Baseball lasts a certain amount of “innings”. Each inning consists of a “top of the inning” and a “bottom of the inning”. During the top of the inning one team will be batting and the other defending. In the bottom of the inning the teams switch places. A typical game consists of either 6 innings or 9 innings.
Batting:
The first team up to bat starts the game by throwing ping pong balls at the four cups that are lined up on the opposite side of the table. The cup closest to the batter is a “single”, second is a “double”, third is a “triple”, and fourth is a “home run”. When the batter sinks his ping pong ball into a cup they will move to the allotted base. For example, if you hit a double, you will go stand in the second base area. After a batter sinks their ping pong ball in a cup, the other team is responsible for drinking the cup.
If the batter misses their throw and the ball lands on the table or on the ground, the batter receives a strike. Three strikes and your out! When an out is made the batter will leave the shooting area and will be replaced by the next team member. Three outs and the half of an inning is over. Another way to create an out is if the batter throws the ping pong ball and it bounces off the rim of a cup and is caught by the other team’s “catcher” before the ball hits the ground or the table. The final way to create an out is by missing the table completely on the throw, this is an automatic out.
If a player is on base they must be forced-in to score a run. For example, if a player is on second base and the next batter hits a double, the first player who was on second base moves up to third base. It would then take another double, triple, or home run to score the lead runner.
Stealing Bases:
Once you are on-base you have the ability to steal a base to advance closer to scoring a run. To do so, you can spontaneously drink the cup in front of your base and try to flip it 180 degrees off the edge of the table and have it land upside down (similar to Flip Cup). This can be done anytime during a teammates at-bat. Stealing bases don’t count if there are three outs.
The defender opposite of the base stealer has a chance to “throw out” the base stealer by drinking his cup and flipping it upside down faster than the base stealer. If the defender completes the flip first, the base runner is out and must head to the back of his team’s batting line. If the base stealer completes the flip first he can advance to the next base. Once arriving at this new base the runner may decide to stop or continue “running” by drinking and flipping the cup at the new base. The new defender can try to “throw out” the stealer but cannot start drinking or flipping his cup until the defender from the previous bag completes his flip.
As you can see, base stealers often have the opportunity to steal all the way home to score a run. The defenders must stay alert if they want to stop a base runner. Defenders typically rotate positions each inning.
Optional Rules:
- As this is the game of baseball, if a batter hits a home run they should circle the table and may smack the asses of the opposing team while they round the table.
- Cups can be filled more or less according to the difficulty of hitting them. The single cup can be filled ¼ full, double cup ½ full, triple cup ¾ full, home run cup – full. Similarly, the cups at first base filled ¼ full, second base ½ full, third base ¾ full.
- If a player hits a cup, the opposing team drinks that cup and every cup before it. For example, if the black team hits a triple, the white team drinks the triple cup, double cup, and single cup.
Exploring the depths of a full mug of the good stuff and the vast possibilities of a new drinking game. The Pioneer is one of the original founders of the Drinking and Stuff website.
