Nov
17
Beginning This past week I had the opportunity to play Dartball for the first time. A good friend of mine asked me to come out and watch and have a few cocktails. They ended up needing a player, so I gave it a go. Not knowing anything about the game or what I was really doing I picked it up quickly. You are on a team of 9 players just like baseball and you throw darts at the board to get base hits, outs, walks, strike outs, and even a double play can come into the game. Rules The board is 42″ x 42”, and you stand 25′ away from the board. You then throw your darts underhand at the board until you get a hit or an out. Just like baseball you can foul as many times as you want. If you get two fouls and a strike on your third dart it is a strikeout. You can also get 4 darts into the Ball for a Base on Balls. There are 3 outs per inning, and you have a team line-up and go through it for 9 innings. To score you must move your base runners around the bases. Once you get a base hit you place a dart on the outside of the board. Then if you get another base hit you move the darts to the outside and top of the board. You move the runners around and get your score when they cross home plate. You keep outs on the top outside of the board and runs on the bottom outside of the board. These are the rough rules and what I picked up by playing for the first time. The Night There are two teams and the night I played we played three games. The fun part on the team I played with was they played cards as well. You picked one card for a single and two cards for a triple. This was their strategy. Go for singles and triples. You teamed up with 2 others to make your poker hand. The 3 people with the best hand wins the pot. Each player threw in a couple of bucks for each game. The entire team was a blast to be around cheering and harassing each other for doing well or for not doing so well. Near the end of the night I actually threw a dart clear over the top of the bard and into the tarp that was another 10’ behind the board. Ooops. That dart was too hard and high. Missing the board is an out. Took some good nature ribbing on that one. Throwing the darts underhand at a board to hit the bases was a lot more difficult then I first thought it would be. Overall, each game I was able to get a couple of hits and ended the night getting six hits in the fifteen at bats. Doing this the guys kept telling me I am going to be on the team going forward. The End This is a league, and the team keeps stats as you would for any baseball game. They play at home and travel to other bars around the area. They have standings within the league and opened my eyes to Dartball. This was a great night out with friends, and I ended up meeting some great people on my friends’ team. Now to see if I actually get asked back and start to really dive deep into DARTBALL Junior
