Baseball

The Baseball pinball machine, manufactured by Daval Manufacturing Co. of Chicago in April 1937, is an example of pre-war electro-mechanical (EM) pinball design. Its release coincided with the enormous popularity of baseball as a national pastime in the United States during the 1930s, when sports themes were a natural fit for coin-operated amusements.

The machine's defining feature is its complement of 16 spring bumpers, which governed how the ball scored as it traveled down the playfield. As with all pinball machines of this era, there are no flippers - those would not arrive until 1947 - so play revolved around the skill of the plunger shot and careful nudging as the ball ricocheted among the bumpers.

No designer is credited for this machine, and relatively little information about it survives. For those fascinated by pinball's early development, however, Baseball offers a glimpse into the game's formative years and the simple, bumper-driven gameplay that defined the late 1930s.