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The Reversible Baseball Dart Board Rules

Darts can be used to play a version of baseball.
blue and red darts image by Warren Millar from <a href='http://www.fotolia.com'>Fotolia.com</a>

Many older cork dartboards come with the option of flipping the board around to play a more-pointed version of America's pastime, baseball. As with the sport, the rules of reversible dartboard baseball are geared for two teams—although a "team" in darts can mean a single player—but unlike baseball, there is no defense.

Innings

A game is divided into nine innings. The team throwing the darts is the pitching team for one half of the inning. The team not throwing is the batting team, although it actually does nothing but watch the pitching team throw. In other words, one team pitches in the top half of an inning and the other team pitches in the bottom half.

Teams

Teams can be single players or groups. If playing in groups, players takes turn pitching entire half innings. For example, on a team of three players, one player will pitch a half-inning, the second player will pitch the next half-inning and so on, rotating throughout the game.

Outs

The pitcher is trying to keep the other team from scoring by throwing the dart into areas marked with such wording as "out," "strike" and "double play." Once he accumulates three outs, the half-inning is over.

Scoring

If a dart lands in any area with an indication of offense, the opposing team is awarded that base or score. For example, a dart striking "safe hit" means a single and four darts striking "ball" before either an out or hit is recorded would mean the offensive team gets a walk. A dart that strikes the bull's-eye is a home run.

Miscellaneous

All of the regular rules of baseball are used in dart baseball; for instance, the first two fouls are strikes, but the third is not.

A dart that does not hit any designated area is a ball.

One notable difference is that in dart baseball, a player on second cannot score on a single, as often occurs in a baseball game. Players must be forced in; for example, a player on second would need to advance to third on a single and then home on another single, or can advance from second to home on a double, triple or home run.

Winning

The game ends after nine innings, with the team with the most runs being declared winner. As with baseball, games can finish after the top half of the ninth if the team coming to bat in the bottom half already has enough runs to win, or can continue into extra innings if necessary.

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