How to Play Finger Baseball

Use your hands to play finger baseball.

Many people play the game rock, paper, scissors, which is known as a hand game. Well there is also a baseball hand game. Finger baseball uses the index, middle and ring finger to play America's pastime. All you need is a partner who's ready to throw down some digits. Here is a look at how finger baseball is played.

Things You'll Need

• Opponent

Instructions

1. A "pitch" can be thrown using the index, middle or ring finger, or any combination of them together. That makes the possible pitch combinations the index finger, middle finger, ring finger, index and middle finger, middle finger and ring finger or index, middle and ring finger.

2. The hitting commands and combinations are the exact same as the pitching combinations, with the one exception that the hitter may do nothing. That constitutes "taking the pitch."

3. If a pitch is thrown and the hitter does not throw out any fingers, then it must be determined if a strike or ball is counted. Strikes are counted if the pitcher throws the middle finger, the middle and index finger, or all three fingers. Any other combination is counted as a ball. Also, if the pitcher and hitter do not match any fingers, then it is considered a swing and a miss and counted as a strike.

4. A hit occurs when the hitter matches what the pitcher throws exactly with his hand combinations. A one-finger match is a single, a two-finger match is a double, and a three-finger match is a home run. There are no triples in finger baseball.

5. Outs are made by partial matches. This means the pitcher and the hitter match one or two fingers, but not all fingers thrown. Example: If the pitcher throws an index finger, middle finger combination, and the hitter throws a middle finger, ring finger combination, then it is considered an out. While they matched on the middle finger, they did not match on the index finger from the pitcher and the ring finger from the hitter.

6. Finger baseball consists of three outs per team and a total of nine innings. A base runner must be forced to move in order to advance. A runner on second base would only move to third on a single. A runner on third base would only move home on a single.

Tips & Warnings

• This is a great game for long car trips.

References

• "YouTube": How to Play Finger Baseball the Finger Shooting Game