Akers then added a way to factor in the skill of the
YOUR TURN
pitcher using ERA. As he continued to test the game, he
We’ve picked our team.
With the game realized it had potential when he found himself getting
so invested that he would become mad at the results. Choose your players and
turn the page to
Deadball you can The Mets fan got particularly upset when the mighty
1927 New York Yankees kept beating a team of Negro challenge us.
simulate America’s leagues All-Stars.
“I figured if this silly little game I made up with just
Pastime during any a handful of dice and a piece of paper could make me
angry—and make me angry in the same way baseball
season, no matter makes me angry—that I was probably on to
something,” Akers says.
where you are. Pretty soon, Deadball moved from the baby’s high
chair to Dad’s desk, where Akers began to develop more CATCHER
advanced rules. When his wife discovered him rolling JOHNNY
BY SA M PAGE dice one day in his home office, she said it was time to BENCH
Photographs by try to make money off his work. .267 BA
Taylor Ballantyne So that March, Akers—who is a writer when he’s not
working on Deadball—put the game on Kickstarter, a 1ST BASE
website on which people pledge money to support a LOU
project in return for early access. Akers set a goal of GEHRIG
$500 in 25 days. He ended up raising $7,748. .340 BA
“The thing about baseball people is that they are
Shake, Roll, and
addicted to baseball,” Akers says, explaining the
game’s popularity. “They love it so much that even
something as simple as rolling dice and scratching out
lines on a piece of paper, it triggers the thing inside
your brain that feels like you’re at the ballpark.”
Play Ball!
The finished product was a 61-page book, part rules
reference and part fictional encyclopedia. Gamers are
invited to play with made-up athletes like second
baseman Ian White, who is described in the book as
“perhaps the best power infielder in the league and a
passable ballroom dancer.” Or they can take over
one of the teams in the Southern Circuit,
such as the defending-champion
Charlottesville Flycatchers. People who
pledged enough money on Kickstarter
had players named after them (or their
children, since a baby was the game’s
I
t’s the bottom of the ninth, and the bases “I started thinking, There’s got to be a way for inspiration).
2ND BASE
are loaded. The home team is down by me to design a baseball game that I can play while Advanced Deadball players can take
JOSÉ
two, and there are two outs. The count is I’m hanging out with my kid that’s basically simple advantage of in-game tactics like shifting the ALTUVE
full. The pitcher throws. A die is rolled. enough that I can do an at bat while he’s taking a infield and pickoff attempts. There are also off-the- .316 BA
It’s a six. bite of food,” Akers says. field effects, such as injuries and generating
SHORTSTOP
If you want to know what happened in In the original version of the game, he used a pair of prospects. And they are all controlled by a roll of the MANNY
the above scenario, you’re going to need to check out 10-sided dice to generate a number between 0 and 99. He dice. On the next page, you can play a simplified MACHADO
Deadball, a baseball game played entirely with dice and a would compare that number to the first two digits of a version of the game to get a feel for how it works. .282 BA
pencil. Designed in January 2017 by W.M. Akers, Deadball player’s batting average. If the rolled number was equal to Then, if you’re ready, you can graduate to the full
is a low-tech, single-player experience that features real or or lower than the rounded-up batting average, the batter version of the game. Akers recently came out with an
fictional players. Akers conceived of the game after the got a hit. If the rolled number was higher than his expansion, Deadball: Year II. He even has plans for a
birth of his son Dash. He wanted something to help pass average, the batter was out. The result was then marked Deadball Hall of Fame. No word yet on what
the time during the dead of baseball’s offseason. on a scorecard. prospective inductees will have to roll to be enshrined.
WA LT E R I O O S S J R . (B E N C H); M A R K R U C K E R / T R A N S C E N D E N TA L G R A P H I C S / G E T T Y I M AG E S (G E H R I G);
44 / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS W I N S L O W T O W N S O N (A LT U V E); T H E A R O N W. H E N D E R S O N / G E T T Y I M AG E S (M AC H A D O) [Link] / 45
3ND BASE
JOSÉ
THE RULES DEADBALL
21 23 34 45 65 76 87 98 109 10 1211 12 HR EH E
RAMÍREZ
1 11 R
.291 BA AWAY: BEAMERS
AWAY:
HOME:
HOME:
First, you’ll need a way to generate random numbers. The easiest way is to use a
standard set of seven role-playing dice (they’re usually sold together). Or you can use NAME,
NAME, POS POSITION
& TRAITS BT, L/R BT 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 1212 HITS
HITS
one of many dice-rolling websites or apps. JOSÉ ALTUVE
Next, fill out the lineups on the scorecard on the opposite page. Next to each name, 31
2ND BASE
write the player’s position and his Batter Target—the first two digits of his batting
average. Find the pitcher’s ERA on the Pitch Dice table and write down what it says. MIKE TROUT 30
That’s the Pitch Die. (For instance, if your pitcher’s ERA is 2.50, you’ll use the number CENTERFIELD
that comes up when you roll the eight-sided die.) We’ve provided a sample team you
BABE RUTH 34
can play with or against.
LEFTFIELD RIGHTFIELD
Now we’re ready to play ball! The batter rolls a d100 (that’s two 10-sided dice, using one
HANK
HANK AARON
30
die result as the tens place and the other as the ones place). The pitcher rolls his Pitch Die,
AARON
and adds the result to what the batter rolled. (If there is a minus sign before his Pitch Die LEFTFIELD
.305 BA
number, you subtract the result of the roll.) We call that the Modified Swing Score (MSS).
LOU GEHRIG
If the MSS is equal to or less than the Batter Target, it’s a hit. If the MSS is one to five 34
1ST BASE
points higher, it’s a walk. If it’s more than five points higher, the batter is out.
If the result is an out, find the final digit of the MSS on the Out Table. That will tell you JOHNNY BENCH
how the batter was retired. If the result is a hit, roll the 20-sided die and find the result on 26
CATCHER
the Basic Hit Table. If it says “roll for DEF,” that means the defense has a chance to take
MANNY MACHADO
away the hit (or make an error). Roll a d12 and consult the Defense Table to see if the result 28
is adjusted. SHORTSTOP
Once the final result has been determined, record it on the scorecard. If the batter makes JOSÉ RAMÍREZ
an out, write the notation in parentheses from the Out Table. If he gets on base, draw the 29
3RD BASE
first leg of a diamond to show his trip to first base. Draw the second leg when he goes to
second, and the third when he goes to third. When he scores, complete the diamond and BUZZ BEAMER
31
fill it in. PITCHER
Here’s a sample plate appearance: Mike Trout is batting against Clayton Kershaw. Trout PITCH DIE: D8
CENTERFIELD
has a .305 batting average, so his Batting Target is 30. Kershaw’s ERA is 2.37, which
MIKE
makes his Pitch Die d8 (the
TROUT
eight-sided die). First, roll a NAME, POS & TRAITS BT, L/R 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 HITS
ERA PITCH DIE BASIC HIT TABLE (d20) .305 BA NAME, POSITION BT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 HITS
0–.99 d20 1–2 Single d100. Let’s say it comes up
21. Then roll the Pitch Die.
1–1.99 d12 3–7 Single, roll for DEF
Let’s say that is 7. Adding the
2–2.99 d8 8–12 Single, runners advance two rolls together gives us
3–3.49 d4 two bases
28. Since that’s less than the
3.5–4 –d4 13–15 Double, roll for DEF Batter Target, Trout gets a hit.
4–4.99 –d8 16–17 Double, runners To find out what kind, we
5–5.99 –d12 advance three bases roll the d20. Imagine it comes RIGHTFIELD
6–6.99 –d20 18 Triple, roll for DEF up 13. That means Trout hits BABE
7–7.99 –20 19–20 Home Run a double—but since the Basic RUTH
Hit Table tells us to roll for .342 BA
DEF, we have to roll one more
OUT TABLE DEFENSE (d12) die, the d12. Say it comes
0 Strikeout (K) 1–2 Error. Runners take an up 11. So the defense made
extra base. a nice play and actually held
1 Strikeout (K)
3–9 No change. Trout to a single. (But any
2 Strikeout (K)
10–11 If it’s an extra-base baserunners would still take
3 1st Base (G–3) hit, it is reduced by one base. an extra base.) We record that
4 2nd Base (4–3) A double becomes a single result next to Trout’s name on
5 3rd Base (5–3) (runners advance two bases).
the scorecard, and Babe Ruth
A triple becomes a double PITCHER
6 Shortstop (6–3) comes to the plate and we
(runners advance three bases).
start all over. BUZZ
A home run becomes a triple. A
7 Leftfield (F–7)
single remains a single. Now get out there and BEAMER
8 Centerfield (F–8)
play ball! .311 BA
12 The hit becomes an out.
9 Rightfield (F–9) 2.86 ERA
Runners hold.
46 / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS Visit [Link]/deadball for more! M I T C H E L L L AY T O N / G E T T Y I M A G E S (R A M Í R E Z ); J O H N G . Z I M M E R M A N (A A R O N); S I M O N B R U T Y ( T R O U T );
B E T T M A N N / G E T T Y I M A G E S (R U T H); I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y B I L L H I N D S (B U Z Z B E A M E R)