Baseball Pool

Baseball Pool, manufactured by Genco Manufacturing Company (date of manufacture unconfirmed, though generally placed around 1956 based on similar contemporaneous games), is technically not a traditional pinball machine — it's classified as a cue game, played with a cue stick rather than a plunger or flippers, despite its electro-mechanical scoring and lighted backbox. It's a rare and notable find for collectors of vintage coin-operated amusements with a baseball theme.

The game accepts two dimes per play and features five "wafer bumpers" scattered across an oversized playfield — advertised at 52 inches long by 36 inches wide — that score points when struck by cue-directed shots. Two orange posts illuminate during play, and the backbox displays a lit animation of men running the bases, tying the visual feedback directly to the baseball theme. The final four balls of a game offer double and triple scoring through designated holes, adding a strategic push toward the end of a game.

Genco's own promotional flyer describes the game as playable by "2 or 4 players," while the backglass itself states "2 Players Can Play" — a minor inconsistency in period marketing. As a long-running manufacturer active from 1931 to 1958, Genco produced Baseball Pool as part of its varied catalog of coin-operated amusements, and this cue-based baseball game stands as an interesting example of the company's output beyond traditional pinball.