A Scaled-down Baseball Game Hopes to Save the American Pastime. By Scott Lester, Recreation Resources March 2000 Children will have a blast playing a new game at park and recreation departments in place of T-ball. BLASTBALL! is a scaled-down version of baseball designed to teach young children the basics of baseball without boring them to tears. BLASTBALL! consist of a hard foam ball, a foam-padded bat, a batting tee and an audible base. Children ages 5 to 7 form two teams of five players each. The hitting team hits off the tee and sprints toward the base. The fielding team must catch the ball and yell "Blast" before the runner reaches the base to record the out. If the runner reaches the base first, which makes a loud squeak, then a run is scored. Every player bats in every inning. Once everybody bats, players switch sides. "Its so simple, but it teaches the fundamentals of baseball and softball," says BLASTBALL! creator Bryan Bravard. Before every BLASTBALL! game, coaches conducts a training session that teaches children the basic skills of baseball, such as how field and throw a baseball. As a former college baseball player and coach, Bravard was upset with the fact that soccer was stealing children away from baseball. He considers soccer "an enemy of baseball." Reluctantly, about two years ago Bravard agreed to coach his son's soccer team and made a startling discovery. "I can see why soccer is kicking baseball's butt," Bravard admits. Youth soccer revised the game down for younger children by making the game three-on-three with no score keeping or goalies. This creates more excitement, enthusiasm and interest to get children to come back and play year after year, he says. To compete with soccer, youth baseball lowered the starting age and added a batting tee. There are 12 to 15 players per team and every player bats every inning, but that creates a game that is too long, complicated and doesn't teach proper baseball fundamentals. Children wind up standing around daydreaming instead of concentrating on the game. "Baseball is losing children at the beginning of the funnel," Bravard says. "It (T-ball) bores children to death, the killer of any activity is standing around. BLASTBALL! promotes learning in motion and kids love it. Children get excited to play and I didn't see that same excitement in T-ball." BLASTBALL! is a fast-paced, offensive game that allows children to have more opportunities to touch the ball and be more involved. A five to seven-inning game lasts only 45 minutes. Also, the game doesn't demand a large playing area. The Ankeny, Iowa, park and recreation department held a test league last summer and more then 300 children lined up for the chance to play BLASTBALL! Children aren't the only people interested in the new game; park and recreation officials are catching the excitement. Bravard says more than 100 park and recreation departments are interested in purchasing the game. BLASTBALL! will be available to purchase this month. Bravard says after more than two years of research and development, he is extremely happy to see his idea finally come to fruition. It has been a giant research project, but he didn't create BLASTBALL! for self gratification. Bravard wants to save the American pastime and BLASTBALL! is his tool. "Kids get more excited about baseball from the very beginning, which is the most important aspect," Bravard says. "Our future baseball generation is at stake." Source: Recreation Resources