Help w/ID - Baseball pachinko/pinball game

[horzverti]

I am having a tough time identifying this handheld baseball game. I am hoping someone here could shed some light on it.

I will be selling it, just want some info to describe it.

It is 2 1/2" wide and 4 1/4" long and about 3/8" thick. The frame is made of under-finished wood. The piece which covers the game surface is glass. The backing is of a cardboard which seems to be about half the thickness of a standard Topps baseball card. The ball launching lever device is a spring loaded (I think) shaped piece of light tin-like metal.

The game seems hastily assembled. The glass is well fixed into the game, but does not cover the entire playing area. There are gaps between the wood frame and glass edge. Also, the wood frame pieces, although cut to fit, were assembled in way which doesn't quite make a perfect rectangle. There looks to be remnants of a sticker which was affixed to the bottom, front area.

I am thinking that many of these games simply fell apart with use. Not sure how this one stayed intact, but it is holding up well.

The object is to launch the BB size ball into one of the three tin cups which are the bases. The cups are 30, 50 or 100 points.

The game surface shows four cartoon players -a fielder, a runner, a pitcher and a batter. One is wearing a jersey which reads TOKYO. The field is a yellow diamond on green grass.

Please check out the pics and let me know what you think.

I haven't been able to stump you guys yet.

Thanks

[Butch7999]

Hi -- there's actually no single exact or complete answer to this one -- your game is one of about a dozen very similar variations
of a Japanese-made game of uncertain date.
Some have wooden frames such as yours, some have metal frames. The details of the uniforms worn by the cherubic players
vary from one version to the next, and in one variation a couple of the boys are girls, although the placement and poses
are the same in all versions.
The lower front of the game usually has a glued-on paper decoration (the remnants of the sticker you're seeing), featuring several
horizontal colored bands, illustrated with either cartoon kids or cartoon animals depicted as tagging infielder and sliding baserunner,
a title like Base Ball Game or Pinball Game, and there's usually (but not always) a manufacturer's logo in the center.
A variety of different logos have been seen, but the several experts on Japanese toys that we've consulted have been unable
to positively identify any one of them as belonging to any known toy company.
That last thing makes putting a precise date to any of the versions impossible. We've seen some vendors attribute them to the 1930s
or even 1920s, but our guess (just a guess) is that most are 1950s-1960s vintage.
With a little patience, it's not very difficult to find any of the variations on eBay.

[perezfan]

Yup, these are all over the place... not rare by any means. Probably a few are available on ebay right now.

[horzverti]

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

I now have enough info to Ebay it!