Pickup games
Pickup Games
A casual game away from the league: teams or everyone for themselves, All Count or No Count, scored on the league keypad. Nothing it produces counts toward anything.
What a pickup game is#
Open full size ↗One baseball game thrown together on the night — two teams, or everyone for themselves — for people short of a league night, a warm-up, or a bit of fun after the match. Find it as Pickup on a laptop's top bar or Pickup Game in Menu on a tablet, or at /pickup. Each venue sees its own pickup games and nobody else's.
Good to know
Nothing about a pickup game reaches the league. It does not change anyone's average, and it is not in standings, stats, the print packet, all-time records or any season.
Setting one up#
Setup asks its questions one at a time, with the rule for each choice beside it. A numbered strip across the top — Game, Innings, Shooters, Format, Scoring, Averages, Players — shows where you are; tap any step already answered to change it, right up until the game starts.
- 1Open Pickup Game and start a new one.
- 2What are you playing? Baseball, for now.
- 3How many innings? Nine is the full game, 1 through 9. Five or three are called games: pick the number for each inning, or tap 🎲 Call them for me.
- 4How many are shooting? A rough count is fine.
- 5Teams, or everyone for themselves? An even number suggests teams and an odd one everyone for themselves, but either can be picked.
- 6Does every point count? (teams only) All Count, or No Count with the minimum your bar plays to.
- 7Where do the averages come from? The league, or typed in.
- 8Add the shooters — pick them from your players, or type them. Each shows where its average came from, and any average can be corrected.
- 9Teams: put each shooter on a side, set the order, and choose who throws first. Everyone for themselves: set the order. Then the handicap, and Start Game.
Tip
Averages are read from the directory and never written back. A pickup game cannot change a shooter's real average or add anyone to the directory.
The rules, as setup shows them#
| Choice | What it means |
|---|---|
| Baseball | Nine innings. In inning 1 everyone throws three darts at the 1, in inning 2 at the 2, and so on. Each dart scores 1, 2 or 3 by the ring it lands in, so an inning is 0 (a zap) to 9 (a horse). Highest total after nine wins. Level after nine? Extra innings — see below. |
| 9 innings | The full game: inning 1 at the 1 through inning 9 at the 9. |
| 5 innings | Five numbers, called before you start. The handicap is cut to five ninths. |
| 3 innings | Three numbers, called before you start: a quick one. The handicap is cut to a third. |
| Extra innings | Level after nine, the game goes on: inning 10 at the 10, and whoever scores more in it wins. Still level, inning 11, and so on. Only the extra inning decides it — no handicap in it, and it isn't added to the totals. On your own, only the shooters tied for the lead throw it. |
| Teams | Two sides. Everyone's innings add up to their team's total, and the higher team total wins. |
| Everyone for themselves | No teams. Each shooter throws their own nine innings, and the highest total wins. |
| All Count | Every point counts. This is ordinary baseball. |
| No Count | In each inning the team has to reach the minimum between them, or that inning scores nothing for the team. Reach it and the whole inning counts, not just the points over it. |
| Use league averages | Pick from your players, or start typing a name: their current average from their latest league is filled in. Nothing is written back to the league. |
| Enter them myself | Type each shooter's name and average. Nothing is looked up. |
| Handicap, teams | The weaker side is given the difference between the two team averages, added once when the game ends. Each shooter's average is rounded before the team's is added up, as in the league. |
| Handicap, everyone for themselves | Off unless it is switched on. When it is, every shooter is given the gap between their average and the best average there, added when the game ends. |
Good to know
No Count's minimum is whatever your bar plays to. 8 between two is the usual partners game (8 No Count); there is no standard number for three or more, so setup asks.
Scoring it#
One game, nine innings or the ones you called, on the same keypad as a league night. The Up next bar names whose throw it is; tap it to open the keypad. The top of the screen says Saving… while scores are on their way and All saved when they are in; a score that fails stays on screen with Try again.
Turns run the way the game is played: everyone shoots inning 1, then everyone shoots inning 2. It moves on by itself after each score.
In a called game the keypad and the Up next bar say which number the inning is shot at, At the 6, and the empty boxes show the numbers instead of 1 to 9. The handicap is cut to the game's length: three innings get a third of it.
Under No Count, each side has a row of inning totals: green counted, red and struck through fell short and scored nothing.
Any cell can be tapped to correct it; scoring then picks up at the next empty slot. When everybody has every inning in, the game finishes itself — totals with the handicap, the winner, and a recap. Fix a score on the recap goes back to the scores.
What it does not do yet#
No series (best of three or five), no captain approval, and baseball is the only game: Cork games (6-11-Cork, Cork Around the Board) are on their way. One tablet scores a game at a time: a second tablet that opens it watches the scores, and can take over.