The quick version
A missed swing or direct pitch into the target is a strike; three strikes make an out, four balls a walk. Catches make outs. Other fair hits earn bases by the marked zones. Move imaginary runners, record runs, and change sides after three outs. Higher score after both teams bat in three innings wins.
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Mark the field and explain this house game
Every rule below belongs to this house format. Bring the original slender yellow plastic bat and a clean, unmodified baseball-size WIFFLE ball, not a hard baseball or a round-hole practice ball. Keep a spare ball if available. Field with bare hands. Choose level grass with room for an open 90-degree wedge extending 80 feet from home, plus clear retrieval space beyond it. Get permission to use the space and keep the hitting direction away from paths, windows and other groups.
Put down a flat home marker. From it, set two foul lines at a right angle. Measure four arcs across the fair wedge, each centered on home: 20, 40, 60 and 80 feet. Use five low-profile markers per arc, including its two foul-line endpoints. Temporary approved field chalk can make the arcs easier to judge. Agree the imaginary curve between markers before play; each arc itself belongs to the farther scoring zone. The 80-foot arc is the home-run boundary. Put a flat pitching marker 30 feet from home, along the middle of the wedge.
Use a securely supported strike target with a flat face 20 inches wide by 30 inches high, its bottom 13 inches above the ground. Center its face 3 feet behind the rear tip of home. Count the face and its edges, not the stand or legs. A target that could tip, snag someone or sit in the swing path needs repositioning before play. These target measurements follow an NWLA equipment example; our shorter pitch distance and all other field dimensions are house choices.
Split into equal sides of one, two, three or four. Everyone bats in a fixed written order. On defense, one pitches and the others field in fair territory, clear of the swing. In one-against-one, the pitcher handles the whole field. Teammates waiting to bat stay behind and well to the side of the batter, away from the target and retrieval lane. There is no catcher, umpire or physical base runner required.
Write a score sheet with three inning columns, total runs, outs, balls, strikes and three boxes for occupied imaginary bases. Choose which team bats first by a coin flip; keep that order all game. Take a few unscored pitches to agree a comfortable pitching pace. Use easy overhand or underhand deliveries, not hard fast pitching. The pitcher must wait until the batter is ready and release with a foot touching the pitching marker. Before starting, point out the four zones and say: three outs, three complete innings, extra full innings if tied.
Pitch, award bases and change sides
Start the first at-bat
The first listed batter stands beside home with a clear swing, facing the pitcher. Announce zero balls, zero strikes, no outs and empty bases. Pitch only after the batter is set. A swing that misses is a strike. A taken pitch that directly hits the target face or edge before bouncing is a strike. Every other taken pitch is a ball. A pitch hitting the batter is dead and counts as a ball, with no extra base award. A pitch bouncing before it reaches home is also dead and a ball, even if swung at. If the pitcher rushes, leaves the marker or exceeds the agreed comfortable pace, call no pitch, adjust and repeat with the count unchanged.
Finish the at-bat
Three strikes retire the batter; four balls give a walk. A foul hit adds a strike only when the batter has fewer than two; at two strikes, fouls do not end the at-bat, including a foul hit into the target. A foul fly caught before touching the ground is an out. Use full swings: a deliberately tapped bunt is a dead-ball strike and can be strike three. Fair contact starts a fielding play. After an out, walk or hit, reset balls and strikes to zero and bring up the next listed batter.
Resolve a batted ball
Before the ball reaches the home-run boundary, a secure catch before it touches the ground retires the batter. A bobble finally secured in the air is still a catch; dropping it to the ground is not. A fair ball crossing the 80-foot arc in the air is a home run immediately, so a catch beyond that boundary cannot cancel it. Otherwise, an untouched fair ball's first landing earns a single at 20–under 40 feet, double at 40–under 60, or triple at 60–under 80. A fair ball first landing short of 20 feet must roll across the 20-foot arc before leaving fair territory or being stopped to earn a single; otherwise it is an out. Rolling after the first landing never increases an award. For an airborne fair ball touched but not caught, use the distance of that first defensive touch to award its zone, with a minimum of one base; later deflections cannot increase the award. No throw at the target or another person makes a fielding out.
Move the imaginary runners
After a single, move every runner one base and place the batter at first. A double moves everyone two bases and puts the batter at second; a triple moves everyone three and puts the batter at third. Each runner passing third scores one run and leaves the bases. A home run scores the batter plus every occupied base, then clears them. On a walk, put the batter at first and move only runners forced by occupied bases: with first and third occupied, move first to second and leave third where it is. A bases-loaded walk scores exactly one run. Outs leave existing runners in place. There is no stealing, tagging up, extra advance on a missed pitch, or double play in this house game.
Complete the half-inning
Call the result, new score, outs and occupied bases before the next pitch. Three outs end the half-inning: erase stranded runners and the count, keep the team's runs, and swap batting and fielding roles. The next half-inning starts with empty bases and no outs. Resume each team's batting order where it left off; do not restart with its first batter. The pitcher may change between at-bats, including returning later. An inning is complete only after both teams have had a half-inning.
Finish with equal innings
Play both halves of inning three even if the second team is already ahead. Most runs after that full inning wins; there is no mercy cutoff or early walk-off in this format. If tied, play another complete inning, starting each half with empty bases, and repeat while tied. If people need to leave, agree to finish the current full inning and record a tie if it remains level. Do not decide a tied game by unannounced total-base points or a coin flip. For another game, clear the sheet, choose the opening side again and reset the batting orders.
With imaginary runners at first and third, a double scores the runner from third, moves first to third, and puts the batter at second. That is one run and two occupied bases. Those movements are our house rule; some leagues advance runners differently.
Settle close calls before the next pitch
Show one unscored single and move a pencil mark from home to first, then demonstrate a double and a catch. The host can say: hit it into a marked zone, let imaginary runners do the running, and collect three outs before swapping. Fielders still move to reach balls; no base running is not a promise of no running or an accessibility guarantee. The two-person game covers the field with one defender, so catches will be less common than with full teams.
Fair and foul: for a ball below the home-run boundary, use its first contact with the ground or a defender. On or inside a foul line is fair; outside is foul. A fair ground ball rolling foul stays a fair ball, but a short roller must reach the 20-foot arc while still in fair territory to earn its single. A foul first landing stays foul even if it later rolls in. For a home run, judge where it crosses the 80-foot arc in the air: it must be within the foul lines. A foul airborne ball may still be caught for an out before touching the ground.
Who calls: the batter calls the pitch's target contact and fair/foul; the nearest defender calls catches and distance. Say the call promptly. If the sides disagree and cannot settle it from what they saw, replay that pitch with the previous count, outs, bases and score. Do not add a penalty or negotiate a new rule mid-at-bat. Move a marker only between games; if the wind or a person displaces one during play, restore it and replay that pitch.
Common mix-ups: a 50-foot first landing is a double, but a ball that lands at 25 and rolls to 50 is a single. A ball picked up off the ground beyond the single arc is not a catch. A missed target throw after fielding has no scoring effect. An uncaught airborne deflection is scored at its first touch, not its eventual landing. Confirm the count before retrieving a ball, and check the written batting order when changing sides; correct an accidental skipped batter before the next pitch rather than inventing an automatic out.
Keep the bat in hand through the swing, put it down before retrieving, and never throw a ball at a person to tag them out. Stop a pitch when someone enters the swing or hitting lane. Treat a ball diverted by an unrelated passerby, pet or moving obstruction as a no-play and repeat the pitch with all state restored. Predesignate any unavoidable fixed obstacle: a fair ball hitting it is a dead-ball single with one-base advancement, replacing all other distance awards; a foul ball hitting it remains foul. If that would dominate the game, choose a different field. Take breaks or stop for unsuitable ground, weather or equipment rather than promising a fixed session length.
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Ideas & Twists
Choose a variation together before you start.
Wiffle ball · See main rules
Suggested house variationUnderhand-only pitching
Require every pitch to be underhand at the comfortable pace rehearsed before play. Keep the same marker, target, pitch count, zones and three-inning finish. An overhand delivery is no pitch: repeat it without changing the count. This changes the delivery, not the batter's base awards.
Wiffle ball · See main rules
Suggested house variationA shorter two-zone field
For a field with 60 feet of clear fair space plus retrieval room, retain the 20-foot single and 40-foot double arcs but move the home-run boundary to 60 feet. Remove triples: fair first landings at 40–under 60 are doubles, and fair airborne crossings at 60 are home runs. Rolling after the first landing still cannot increase the award. Keep the 30-foot pitching marker, target, equal teams and three full innings. Mark this layout before play; it is a different house field, not a claim that the main game fits a small room.
Wiffle ball · See main rules
Suggested house variationFive-inning game
When both teams want a longer game, replace the three-inning finish with five complete innings and add two score-sheet columns. Keep all pitch, hit, runner and out rules. Play both halves of the fifth, then full extra innings if tied. This adds innings, not a guaranteed number of minutes.
About this guide
A house game, not league rules. TWBL verifies that ghost-runner formats exist; NWLA informs the target measurements and branded equipment. Our hit arcs, pitcher spacing, team range, advancement, dispute remedies, three-inning finish and variations are explicit author choices. The manufacturer's rule page could not be retrieved.
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