Center Field

Center Field, manufactured by Nate Schneller Incorporated (Nasco) in June 1949, is a baseball-themed electro-mechanical pinball machine and a conversion of Chicago Coin's 1947 game Play Boy. Nasco advertised that they would repaint the cabinets "upon request," and this title was announced as the seventh conversion the company produced, per a June 1949 Billboard notice (where the name appeared as two words, "Center Field," though later ads rendered it as one word).

Notable features of this single-player machine include five balls per play, a generous ball count compared to many contemporaries. As a conversion rather than an original design, its playfield and mechanics were adapted from Play Boy's existing baseball layout rather than built from scratch.

As with many games from small conversion specialists like Nasco, detailed documentation of Center Field's design, art, and rules is limited. It remains a notable example of how postwar operators extended the life of existing games through low-cost conversions and repaints, offering insight into the business side of the pinball industry in the late 1940s.