Bally Baseball

Bally Baseball, manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Corporation and shipped beginning in May 1951, is a historic electro-mechanical arcade game — but it is not a pinball machine. IPDB classifies it as a puck game, similar to the "puck bowler" or "ball bowler" machines Bally made around the same era, even though Bally's own Numerical List of Machines called it a "baseball game."

The game features a baseball theme played out over a full 9-inning format for two players, with a revolving turntable on the upper playfield adding dynamic movement to the action. It cost 10 cents per player and, at an advertised 7 feet 9 inches long and 26 inches wide, was a substantial cabinet for its time. A Cash Box trade ad from May 5, 1951 notes that shipping of the game began that week.

Little is documented about the game's designer or how many units were produced. As an early electro-mechanical sports-themed amusement game from one of the industry's most storied manufacturers, Bally Baseball remains a curious footnote — valued by collectors more for its rarity and its place in Bally's early lineup of novelty and puck games than as a pinball machine.