The Big Leaguer Baseball Game Board Game

[aelefson]

Hi-

I recently found the Big Leaguer Baseball Game pictured below. Has anyone ever seen another before or know anything about it? There is a patent number but I am guessing this is an application number as it is 1,581,189. I assume this is a homemade prototype but I figured I would check. The box is in horrible condition. The player jumping is sort of pasted on instead of being printed on the box. It does not have a date, but I am guessing circa 1920.

Can anyone provide any other information about the game? It was found in an antique shop in central MA. The dealer has gotten his items either in New England over the years or on eBay recently (judging by other items I have purchased and researched). I do not know where this came from but my guess is New England as a search for the title of the game produced no responses online.

Please feel free to show your own vintage baseball games.

Alan

[Butch7999]

Hi Alan, fascinating pick-up! Y'know, there's a great line from ornithologist David Quammen in his book,
The Song of the Dodo -- "You think you know every bird in the world, and then someone shows you a Curl-crested Aracari."
We have to quote that maybe just a little too often, because after more than thirty years of slogging around
our little backwater of a hobby, once or twice every year we still encounter something we've never seen before.
And we have never seen, nor ever heard mention of, what you have there.

Just a little checking allows us to tell you this much: the game was designed by William R Fuchs (that's pronounced
"Fewks," for the sniggering schoolboys out there) of Washington DC, patent applied for in 1921 and granted
patent 1,581,189 in April 1926. The game, as you might find in the rules pamphlet, is meant to be played
with two pairs of dice, one for the team (gamer) in the field and the other of course for the team / gamer at bat.
We can see already that the results of some dice throws differ subtly from those described in the patent application,
so other aspects of gameplay may also have been altered between patent and production.
One interesting detail in Fuchs' patent drawings is that the little stand-up player-figures meant to be used
in gameplay are pictured exactly as those used in National Game Makers' 1921 number, Major League Ball,
a game (or at least its player-figures) discussed in this forum on numerous occasions.

We can't read the name of the manufacturer or publisher of your game, seen in a bit of a blur on the box lid
in your photos. Might you tell us what that says? The typewriter font used for the rules pamphlet and the
likelihood the game is the lone extant example do suggest it's a one-off prototype and the only one made,
but the box, despite its damage, and the presence of relatively professional typography on its lid, make a
better argument in favor of it having been a cottage-industry, low-production-run item.

"perezfan" Mark started a cool "show your games" thread in here a few years ago -- https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=228673
... unfortunately, Botophucket has grey-bannered all our pics there (we should edit that, one of those days),
but you can get a rough idea of our stuff and of even better stuff from the few members here who are into games.
If you're developing an interest in antique tabletop baseball, Alan, please visit our website and forum!

[Huysmans]

Hey Alan

That is one amazing find! Congrats!
I love antique baseball board games, they're so great to display.
You've been doing some great picking the last little while, good for you man!

Brent

[aelefson]

Thank you Butch and Brent! Butch, that is incredible detail, thank you! Unfortunately, there is no manufacturer's name on the box that I can see.
Instead, it says Thrilling! Realistic! Strategic! There is a sentence under there but it seems like a blurb as it begins with The World's Best and Game is near the end of the sentence. I took a picture of the playing figures and posted it below. I really appreciate you providing all of the information. I still am guessing it is a one-off but I would love to know if others are out there.

Unfortunately I do not collect baseball games but I buy them when the price seems right and the game is unusual. Please let me know if there are any collectors that might be interested in this game.

Thank you Brent for the compliments! I am amazed at what I have found recently too and I do not even post most of my good finds (just last weekend I found a Canobie Lake Park poster from 1902 with a baseball scene and a 1921 Babe Ruth original drawing. I might eventually post those). It is amazing to me what is available through antique shops and flea markets. I much prefer buying at those places as opposed to hobby or online auctions.

Alan

[Butch7999]

Hi again, Alan, thank you for the follow-up! It wasn't too hard for us to get some details on the game,
amply armed with the patent number.
Our initial thinking was that what you have there, even in a damaged state and despite the unlovely monospace font
seen in the rules and player tabs, required at least some little financial investment for professional printing of
the box and board, and so was probably put into at least limited production. But now we're thinking that the lack of
any indication of a manufacturer or publisher (thanks again for translating the blurb on the box lid) suggests it might
indeed have been a one-off, Fuchs perhaps having invested a few dollars for production of the game as a prototype
to show to game manufacturers he hoped would buy the rights to it for mass production.

You don't have to be a game collector or specialist per se to drop in at our Baseball Games forum! We, and the rest
of the members there, would love to have a look at Big Leaguer and other "unusual" numbers you might have
("unusual" are our personal favorites), and any member of our group would definitely be interested in obtaining
Big Leaguer at the right price (no idea off-hand what that might be).