How to Play

You pitch by centering the baseball in the pitching pipe and lettting go. The ball rolls down the pipe, across the field and over home plate, where the batter is waiting to swing. The batter tries to hit the ball through gates in the fence to score singles, doubles, triples. Hit it back up the pipe and over the fence for a homer.
Pitching Ballpark Classics

To perfect your pitching skills, squeeze the baseball at the top of the pitching pipe in different ways to make the ball move. The inside of the pipe is slick, like a bowling alley, and the felt turf of the playing field is rough. By changing your finger placement and adjusting the force as described below, you can learn to throw fastballs, curves, change-ups, sliders, and create your own pitches. With a little practice, you'll learn to control your speed, spin, and location to outsmart batters just like the pros do. 

Here are four of the most popular pitches in baseball: the fastball, curve, changeup, and slider--as thrown in Ballpark Classics. Click the play buttons below to see how they look from the batter's box.

How to Throw a Fastball

Maximum force and minimum spin help you really bring the heat, just make sure you can put it over the plate! Beware, throw the fastball too often without changing speeds and the batter will lock in on it. Goodbye, baseball. A popular way to throw the fastball is to balance the ball in the pitching pipe underneath your thumb. Then, place your index finger under the pipe and squeeze. To put it on the outside corner, like the video at left, place the ball a little to the left of center. For some chin music, start the ball slightly to the right inside the pipe. Experiment with pressure, location, and change speeds.

How to Throw a Curve

Getting the ball to bite into the felt turf about half way through the infield, results in a lovely arc that's as impressive to watch as it is impossible to hit, since the bat only covers outside edge of home plate. Can be hard to control, but develop a good one, and it's even harder for the batter to handle. With practice, letting the ball slide off the side of your finger or thumb at about 8 o'clock in the pipe will produce the pitch at left.

How to Throw a Changeup

Set up the hitter for a fastball, then freeze them with the changeup. It sounds like a fastball, even looks like a fastball, but once you master this pitch, its late movement will cause batter distress. The wickedest changeups appear to be fastballs, but once they catch up with their backspin they'll die just inches before home plate and roll harmlessly right across the dish. Strike three, looking. To throw it, try the fastball approach but ease up a little and let the backspin do its thing.

How to Throw a Slider

Once you have your curve under control, add a slider to your arsenal of pitches. A slider breaks hard and fast so you will need the right combination of backspin and speed to make it break. Apply some spin to the ball at the sides of the pipe for a tricky trajectory, and paint the inside and outside corners.

Full count and the bases loaded? Playing a rookie and you want to give them a fighting chance? In both cases, you need to throw a strike. So groove one by placing the ball at 6 o'clock in the pipe, let it go, and hope for the best!

Batting is all about timing, bat speed, and getting inside the pitcher’s head. Ballpark Classics features batting so realistic, be careful, you can get called out on a check swing! Batting is easy to do, but challenging to perfect–just like real baseball.

Play Ballpark Classics in teams, head-to-head, or alone in a solo session. A nine inning game lasts about 20 minutes. Takes less space than foosball or air hockey and stores away easily. Packs up quickly for a road trip. Designed and manufactured with quality first here in the U.S. and fully warranted, Ballpark Classics operates on friction and gravity. No batteries to buy, no electricity needed, replacement parts always available.