The #RallyBird #Baseball #BoardGame in COVID Times

The RallyBird Baseball Board Game is selling! At the moment it’s available on Amazon and on Ebay. I’ve ordered more from the USA manufacturer. People are finding it good to play when quarantined at home, and to give as gifts. Thanks to all of you!

I’m still supporting the Add On Kit: Big League Teams & Coach Rules. I’ll be selling these via other merchants in coming months.

Due to the tough times, and my thirst for the good of normality, I’m so pleased that MLB is offering any season at all right now. It’s a strange season for sure, short, with empty stadiums and artificial crowd noise. How do you feel about it?

I’m grateful and, seeing how people are suffering, not prepared to be negative about its compromises. How will it fit in with the tradition of assessment? When the season is over, I’ll add its suspect, asterisk-worthy 2020 season data to RallyBird’s Add On Kit.

To make the 2020 season possible, MLB has applied some special rules. How might this impact the Add On Kit‘s big league team approach? Most of the MLB changes don’t really fit into RallyBird Board Game’s scale. However, a couple of the rules easily do.

This includes 1) no spitting on the board game; 2) no high fives, and most importantly 3) 2020 season teams must begin extra innings with a runner on second base.

I was quite curious to see how I’d feel about the extra innings treatment in MLB this year, and I decide that given the situation, I like it. I recommend it for experimentation for RallyBird Baseball Board Game players, not just for COVID but also when you are pressed for time. I will try it, if my opponent agrees.

I’m not ready in general to give up the tradition of the pre-COVID, standard extra inning rules for normal times. But I like it as an option when we need it. If MLB some day adopts it as a regular rule to promote the long term interest of the sport, I’ll roll with it. Still, baseball’s tradition is part of the panorama of the game.

Finally, please note that the RallyBird Baseball Board Game is also going by the spelling RallyByrd Baseball. It’s the same game.

Peace and health to all! Play Ball! On your table!

#RallyBird #Baseball #BoardGame Add-On Kit updated with 2019 Season Teams Data

Hooray! The RallyBird Baseball Add-On Kit comes with 2019 season team data! I didn’t make any adjustments for the alleged Astros pitch stealing. The 2018 season is still available to customers as a free download.

It seems like an act of hubris to compress the plentiful cosmos of numbers that reflect a baseball season’s team performance to the simple RallyBird parameters. But that’s what I’m here for. It makes me confront the vast swirlies of purple nebulae and with an act of will, turn the sublime into a 1 3/16 inch steel bolt. It brings me face to face with the strangeness of our baseball universe. Clearly, as the numbers show, it wasn’t the best overall performing team that won such an exciting World Series. This is to the credit of the team and the sport, and, perhaps, to their fans like me. It shows itself in defiance of the laws of physics, in defiance of math and logic. The flawed team beat their numerical betters. What does this mean? Where does this liberation from robotic destiny come from?

“Now listen to me! This game of baseball is only one half skill! The other half is something else…

I have Crunched the Numbers #MLB 2019

Update! This is a report! Yes, things are quiet, too quiet, in baseball land. Here at RallyBird HQ, I have converted the MLB 2019 season team performance into the exquisitely simple terms that RallyBird Baseball Board Game requires.

The crunched data looks like lists with notations! Not ready to step out and see the world, quite!

I need to make it pretty in a document, still. When ready, this is the version that will ship as printed paper with the Add-On Kit. Customers who buy this will be able to download the 2018 season (and the 2019 season again) as PDFs from the merchant website.

It’s interesting to skinny dip in the pond of data and see how the range of baseball behavior has changed over the two seasons.

Here’s the unboxing video for the Add-On Kit which includes some long, emotional, lingering glances at the 2018 data and rules.

#Unboxing the Add-On Kit for the #RallyBird #Baseball Board Game

This kit is an add-on to the RallyBird Baseball board game. You cannot play with out the base game, which provides a baseball contest between teams of equal potential. This kit provides way to match up teams of different ability–different mixes of strengths and weakness. It does so in two ways. Here’s what it includes:

The Easy Advanced Game… Coach Defense Cards that change the array of Glove values of the standard RallyBird Baseball Board Game. For comparison, the standard game gives both players the same starting Glove values. This advanced game gives each player a different set of values–all with the same sum. I think this implies different strengths and weakness, different risks and benefits, and different strategies–all for you to discover. This does not add more than a minute to game play time. The rules fit on 1 page!
Big League Teams… tiles and data. This includes 30 team tiles in red (Visitor) and blue (Home). It also includes data for the 2018 season. I intend to provide the 2019 season as well as a free download for owners of the kit. Unlike the Easy Advance Game, with which this does not mix, it offers variation of offense and defense for individual teams–in simple RallyBird Baseball game terms. The rules are on 1 page, with an example of play on a second page, and team data on 2 more pages.
24 new Glove tiles, 12 for each side. In support of the two add-ons above, this supports both the variable defenses of the Easy Advanced Game and the Big League Teams rules. The regular RallyBird Board Game does not include enough tiles to support either set of rules, so you need these to play.

These materials fit inside the regular RallyBird Baseball game box. You don’t have to pay for an extra box, nor grant it more shelf space.

Store: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/rallybird-baseball-add-on:-big-league-teams-coach-cards

As you can see I tried to make the video interesting and on point. When I finish cogitating the 2019 season data I’ll probably replace this video with a revised version.

Thank you!

Update: The Add-On Kit now comes with the 2019 team data. The 2018 season is available as a free PDF after you purchase the game. Thank you!

The Latest News from #RallyBirdBaseball Central

Hello RallyBirders!

I am recovering from an unwelcome bug. So I fight back with practical news mixed with an impractical mirthful spirit.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you’d like to contact me, please feel free to email me at: RBBB email.png

I’ve already received a few player emails and I welcome them!

RULES UPDATE (MINOR)

I paid a service to review my rules and received some suggestions about small clarifications. Therefore, voilà, here’s a link to the October 2019 version of the rules. Truth is beauty, beauty Truth.

BIG LEAGUE GRAPHICS

Here’s an update on the RallyBird Baseball Board Game Add-On Kit: Big League & Coach Card Easy Advanced Game. There is no change to the rules or to the Coach Cards portion of the kit.

I’m in the process of changing the graphics due to branding/copyright respect of the large and powerful legal entity known as . These changes include the 30 team tiles. They will show a graphic of a variety of rally birds instead of the team name.

I laboriously finished all the 60 graphics of the two-sided tiles and ordered a prototype to proof before releasing. I imagine this will happen in November, the same month that TS Eliot took British citizenship in 1927. Coincidence???

BIG LEAGUE… 2019 SEASON ?!

Much to my astonishment, I stare with eyes round like saucers at the fact that the 2019 regular big leaguebaseball season has concluded. Therefore its history of jostling team performance is now available to RallyBird Central’s mathematical wing. What can stop me? I can cogitate and digest the points of the 2019 season into the easy, quick turned, ready-to-play RallyBird rules. I’ve plunged once into the data, and came up for the air. When will my next plunge be? Soon, friends, soon.

When ready I’ll add the 2019 season to the Big League Add-On Kit. Whether it’s part of the printed part or not I have to consider. I suppose it should bump the 2018 season data off. If I include both seasons in print, it adds to the cost. I’ll consider all the options. Both seasons will be available as a free download for anyone who buys the Add-On Kit.

INSTAGRAM

Yes, I did it. The RallyBird Baseball Board Game is now on Instagram. You will never see a picture of me posing with duck lips, however. I’m still figuring out what it can do. I like the ability to send short video clips of the board game in action. I don’t want to shock you, but the address is: https://www.instagram.com/rallybirdbaseball . I’ll follow you back.

The RallyBirdBaseball YouTube Channel

There are 8 videos for you to watch about the RallyBird Baseball board game here. Please subscribe!

In a funny way, the videos reflect a history of my familiarity with making videos, the tools I use, and my ability to edit them. Who knew that board game creation required knowledge of video editing? Crazy world, yes, but it’s also an awesome world of opportunity I’m trying to embrace.

You can help others who might be interested in the board game by clicking the thumbs up button. Thanks!

Dreams & Ambitions

I’d like to make the RallyBird Baseball Board Game available on Amazon. There are a lot of little steps I need to take before I can do this. One I have done already–purchased UPC codes for the game. There are other steps I need to take, equal in charm.

In general I’d like to bring the cost down. Suddenly iron laws of economics stomp in the hallway. I’d like to explore other manufacturers. Suddenly CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and key black) standards rear their proboscises. Professional printing standards shouldn’t be an intrusion!

Well, everything is a learning step and I like to learn. However my little computer is already wheezing with my current graphics program. In short, I probably need a new computer and a new professional graphics program in order to explore other manufacturers. Perhaps there is a work-around. That’s where my thought process slenders down under the Limbo stick and probes the far end of the asymptote.

OCTOBER BASEBALL

Have you been enjoying the October Baseball postseason drama? My little friend here was so nervous about the 9th Inning last night, she just went to bed with a plate of apple pie. I’m still trying to calm my hair down from it standing straight up for so long.

Why is that pain so delicious? Isn’t it odd how baseball adds meaning to my humble life? I made a conscious decision in my middle age to follow baseball again and I have no regrets! It’s so much fun. Too soon it will be over. Relish it, friends!

Thank you for reading.