Guys I love the site, I check for upsdates all the time, I don't understand the straight pitch style, we refuse to play it, do you guys ever play curve style? When we play we pull teams out of the hat at random and play. The games are low scoring, but we have a good time, we have power rankings and title belts. What does everybody think is the best way to play R.B.I. ?
Welcome Greg...
Actually, it appears that the majority of the people who visit the site do not play straight pitch. We like the high scoring games, but I can definitely see why people prefer curves. To each their own...
Don't think I can make polls, but we'll make this the unofficial straight-or-curve poll...
1 Vote Straight Pitch
we don't have any rules on it but as a common courtesy, we usually just play strait pitch. Except for our friend ryan, who is a little bitch, and won't pitch strait to any big time hitter. Whenever, we play the drinking game, definitely no curves aloud. Its more fun and people drink more with strait pitch.
Even the times we played drinking style we played curved-style, just changed some of the rules, for example striking out had to be changed to like 3 drinks not 10. We would have died!
You definitely can't play death (aka RBI Drinking Game) with curves unless you alter the rules. Three drinks sounds appropriate...
While straight pitch style has its merits, I've always thought the difficulty and finesse of the RBI curveball made the games more interesting. I love the mental games you get in as pitcher vs. batter. Plus, it's not like it's impossible to hit nasty pitches, just more challenging. The games are shorter, too, which means you can get more in during a given sitting.
it's anything goes where i come from
When we play RBI, the greatest game of all time, we play curve style. But, so you won't just use curves at all times, we only use 1 starting pitcher per game. Therefore, in order to save the pitchers' endurance, there must be an abundance of batting practice fastballs. We also play 3- to 4-game series, and using only 1 starting pitcher allows you to use the other in the ensuing game. We found this to be the best.
Welcome Dill...
A couple people have now mentioned the one-starter approach. Dennis Kim (where are you buddy?) is a fan of that as well. The reasoning makes sense, a good blend of skill and scoring. If I do ever jump into curves, I think the one-starter approach would be a good fit...
We used to play the series with same teams, we would enforce the one starter rule, it's a good way to play.
We went away with that now that we draw teams randomly, no one wants to play more than one game straight with a bad team.
You have to give the lesser teams more than just one game to show their stuff. Houston and St Louie get better the more games you play in a row with them. They are slow starters, but it is my opinion that they have good team chemistry over time. Plus, is there anything better than winning a 3 game series with the Astros?
Here is a good way to play when you are too drunk to play a serious game. Pick two teams. The first time through the lineup, you can take out whatever hitters you want to from your opponent's lineup, and place whoever you want from their bench in their place. The teams become almost evenly matched every time. HO and CA become more feared teams in this situation because of the strength of their benches. You can't take out all the good players from these teams because their benches can pick up the slack. Another point: you pick your opponent's starting pitcher. Have fun!
Dill, that idea of taking out your op's starters sounds like real fun. I think we might have to try that this weekend. Go Houston!!!!
How the hell did you come up with that idea, it does sound interesting, good way to help the underdog, I will have to try that one.
I concur, that sounds like an excellent idea. Oh the satisfaction of putting Mike Heath in for Darrell Evans....
Jeez, Minnesota might be as bad as Houston with that method. Imaging that ass lineup with Davidson and Smalley in for Hrbek and Brunansky. Ouch...
Actually my money is on St. Louis, Steve Lake for Jack Clark and it's all over...
Yeah if your playing with St. Louis or San Francisco the subs are completely worthless, it will be a tough game to win. Houston might not change at all, their basically all like Willy Mays Hayes, run like Mays, hit like shit.
My brother greg and I pick a different way. The other day my brother went to our local hobbie store and bought some d-10 dice. We put little stickers with the teams names on them on each number. We have a baby blue one for the atari and black and red for the tengen. Every game we roll so there is no arguments over who gets which team. So this way no team gets neglected.
The dice technique ain't too shabby, though all the Gamers Paradises around here went out of business. Sure I can find some though....
Hey all, just thought I would drop my op on the curve/straight debate. Put me down for curve, we have played seasons with the curve rules and kept statistics that become very accurate with real-life stats.
Guy, //www.angelfire.com/rbibaseball
You're right. Me and Stuart have kept box scores from previous RBI seasons/games. Sometimes the stats were a bit better than the shown stats, but if you drink a lot and then play some series, you don't hit as well, so the stats become very close to the real-life stats.
Wow, it is good to know that the RBI stats are pretty close to the real stuff if you play the intended way. Though I bet Backman wouldn't top .300
backman wouldn't have a batting average, cause there is no way you should ever leave him in to bat.
This is the best website I think I've ever come across. Thanks guys.
I have a question about straightball. We are confused about one basic rule. Can the pitcher move left or right before he pitches the ball or must he stay in the middle of the rubber? We must know this before we play our first Death match tomorrow night. We can't wait!!
Good to see ya The_Jerry, doubly so seeing that you have the first Linux penguin avatar. The whole site is running on my Redhat 7.0 work machine....
But per the Drinking game page http://dee-nee.com/rbi/drink.shtml
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When playing the RBI Drinking Game, the standard set of rules are a little different than one might think. First off, you want to play a Straight Pitch throwing style. Secondly, the slow-ball pitch is strictly forbidden with two strikes. Although this may seem basic and odd, you must remember that the point of this game is to drink. Throwing curves and striking out batters makes the game too slow and low-scoring. Also, once you get a few games/beers under your belt, trying to follow the curves and play strategically is quite the challenge. Moving the pitcher on the mound is allowed, but curves of any sort are not.
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So move that pitcher and let us know how your first Death experience goes..
Playing strategically has been the name of the game for us so far, so this is going to be quite a change. But since the point of the game is to drink, I am pretty sure we will all come out as winners.
Yes there are only winners in Death I'm sure. Should we really try to play with Everclear Punch? Congrats Dill, Denny Walling level.
Yes I am quite pleased to be moving up on the dee-nee forum ladder. Everclear punch could be the death of us, no pun intended. Has anyone other than Stuart noticed that Everclear mixed with anything makes you extremely pissed off?
never tried everclear...
as far as keeping stats and them being close to real life... there has to be one big exception... my favorite player tony gwynn... they made him so shitty... there is no way he hits .370. all he does is pop out. its a major disappointment. he only plays as a pinch hitter for the pitcher.
the dice work but i see a trend depending on where the stickers are placed cause boston never comes up and houston and new york come up all the time. i am sick and tired of playing with those impotent teams.
and burnzky, neglect wow a big word for you i am impressed.
Hey isn't everclear illegal, that's what I heard, but it must be some strong stuff.
As for the dice, my dilema is that majority of the time I get New York and only once has National league come up, the dice should show true randomness, but only after a long season we will know, only time will tell.
i am no physics major but i was thinking we might want to use a sharpie instead of the stickers so that the weight is not thrown off on the dice.
Contrary to popular belief, I do value my brain cells, which is why I stay away from Everclear. If I had to venture a guess, the 85% alcohol is the source of those mood-swings. Stick to beer - and if you do feel like playing death with the hard stuff, go for Southern Comfort. You might not be able to remember anything the next day, but at least you'll have your vision...
southern comfort is good shit... when we play death, greg drinks the so co and i down parrot bay.... only takes a few games before we are both trashed.
u mean how u were at the ortegas party last year. Greg had to catch u before u hit the floor.
no i wasnt gone that night... that was just a buzz it was champagne and beer...
Oh my God. Me and Stuart did play Death this weekend with the Everlclear. It is 95% alcohol. 190 proof. We were only able to play 2 full games and 2 innings of another before we passed out. Our first game was Houston-St Louis, just to get a game under our belt. Score was extremely low for Death, but guess what. I'll be damned if Ozzie Smith didn't park one to Right off of Nolan in the first inning! A 10 drinker hit by Stuart in our inaugural game of Death! I was nearly trashed after the second batter of our first game thanks to the Wizard and some 190 proof.
That is one crazy way to begin your death experience, Everclear and Ozzie Smith homers. Although Sam Adams Double Bock is the official death beer, we might have to have Everclear as an honorable mention. I don't even think we can get that stuff in IL anymore, haven't seen it in years. But then again I haven't been looking....
playing death with everclear has to be a true sign of masachism.
Yeah, you can still get Everclear in Illinois. The one time poster, Skups, had it over at her place last week...
i think playing death with only one other person is also masachism in and of its self. having at least 4 other players would be ideal so that a full night of playing would lead to everyone getting slammed at the end of the night rather than after two games.
There is just one more gang of people in NW Arkansas that play RBI for a living, but none of them drink, so inviting them over is not an option. We have searched for other people to play. But the people we found provide less competition than the computer. Believe me, I long for the days when I can play Death with 3 other people. Then our gaming could last more than a couple of games. Actually, if we just stuck to beer, we could last 5 games at least. And we wouldn't feel like we got ran over by Mack trucks in the morning.
What is up y'all?
first off, I'd like to express my most sincere joy over locating this site. confirming that a passion for RBI still exists is a wonderful feeling. we've got about 4 serious players in Austin, Texas. it is mostly a recreational thing, but occasionally the troops are gathered for a tournament-esque event.
I'd like to weigh in on the 'straight pitch' issue. at 1614 (the house of RBI in Austin), the notion of straight pitch is a foreign one. the predominant/controlling factor in most RBI games @ 1614 is the pitching. the only controlling rule we enforce is discriminating between exhibition/series play. if a game is declared an "exhibition" a user can use his pitchers as he pleases. if "series" play is on, obviously the user would be an idiot to bring in his second starter in relief in game one.
within the 1614 viewpoint, there is nothing more beautiful than a RBI pitcher's duel. my homey/roomie JFreed just moved back from that swine infested/baptist run/fried food heaven Waco, TX. in his first game back, we dueled the two worst teams...houston vs St. Louis. a true pitchers matchup. Tudor (plain nasty) and Nolan (what do you say about this guy? he's a beast). anyhoo, a total of ten hits came in the game (two of which were INF 1B's for V Coleman). the game was decided on a single pitch when Nolan left one over the plate and Jack Clark barely cleared the LF fence (I usually hate Clark, but he finally came through for me).
if I could only count the # of 1-0 games that have gone down at 1614...they are a thing of pure beauty.
I would say the high point of RBI bball @ 1614 came last summer when I was able to no-hit our homey Doo Doo Brown over 11 innings. this is the only true no-hitter on record @ 1614 (both players being of quality competition). the house record for K's also fell in this game as Gooden/Ojeda/Orosco combined for 22.
anyhoo...good to be amoungst other RBI players. you'll be hearing from the TX crew on our RBI philosophies and preferences.
howdy sa or however you say it down in texas! i agree that curve style is the way to go and it leads to exciting baseball where as straight pitch resembles slow pitch softball.
SA, it appears that yall play the exact same rules as we do in Arkansas. It is good to hear that there are others that value the 1-0 ballgame as much as we do. I wished I would've known aboot 1614 when I was living in San Antone from Sep-Dec '01. I would've driven an hour to the capital to play in some pitcher's duels.
do they have electricity up in the ozarks yet dill, or do you guys use a generator...?
anyways... i think that the low scoring game is much more fun and it makes the wall scraping homerun all the more exciting.
one more thing, dill, what's up with nolan pulling the race card down in fayetteville?
My wife used to work at an electric company, so I guess we have 'lectricity. But we moved away, so who knows. Nolan is, without a doubt, the most racist person in America. He has said shit like that for years. But it was never broadcast because he was winning games. I think I might go shoot some of his horses like people have done in the past. Good Riddance to Nolan.
guess it goes without saying... winning covers up the flaws of a program. Arkansas has been a ncaa tourney team for as long as i can remember and it is too bad that when things go bad nolan has to show his true colors. aside from his politics and this recent tirade, i think he is a damn good coach.
hey bill and ted boy, get off the basketball crap on the forum, this has nothing to do with straight pitch style. At least start your own topic. OUT!!!!!
my topics dont work... they just go idle so i have to go where the conversation is.
Welcome SA, good to have ya. You seem to know your RBI and that's all that matters in here...
Good to hear some of those RBI feats, I wish we were better historians. We finally started keeping track lately, but we unforutnately lost many records. Here's the preliminary page:
http://dee-nee.com/rbi/records.shtml
It's not on the main site yet because there isn't much there. Too bad most of our great moments were accomplished half-drunk and years ago, which makes it tough to remember the details. It'll grow tho...
maybe there is a way we can play over the internet... that would be neato
There was an Online RBI League being offered awhile back, by the guy who was running the Yahoo message board. I think it was Jason Goettl, but not positive. He had updated rosters from the current seasons and you could play head-to-head via Nesticles (a NES emulator) internet mode....
My link to his league doesn't work anymore, but does anyone know if ORBL is still up?
i am not what you call computer literate so all that just went way over my head... i'll have my little brother look at it and have him make some sense of it.