Big League

Big League, manufactured by Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company in April 1965, is a two-player electro-mechanical bat game built around a baseball theme. Rather than conventional pinball play, bat games have the player swing a bat to hit the ball at targets, and Big League features seven hanging targets for the batter to aim at.

The 'Team Standing' scores in the backglass are displayed on horizontal score reels, adding a layer of competition between the two players. Backglass light animation depicts men running around the bases, and true to its baseball simulation, three outs end the game for each player. The game was available in both Free Play and Novelty models, which differed in backglass and cabinet artwork details.

The game's designer is not documented. It was previously listed in some resources as 'Big League Baseball', but the word 'Baseball' does not appear on the game itself or in period flyers and advertisements. Chicago Coin introduced the game to the trade in the spring of 1965, and it remains a charming example of the mid-1960s baseball bat game genre.