Six-Man Baseball

Six-Man Baseball is a variety of baseball devised during the Great Depression and introduced in 1939. Its inventor was Stephen Epler, who was also the creator of six-man football, a variation that actually caught on. The idea behind both sports was to cut costs and allow smaller schools to field a baseball team.

There were a few other quirks in the rules of this variety of baseball: only two bases were used in addition to home plate, and because the distance between these remained the standard 90 feet, it resulted in a field with a more acute angle of 60 degrees between the foul lines instead of the usual 90 degrees. The pitcher's mound was also at the standard distance of 60' 6", and thus was placed just in front of the line between first and second base. Another significant rule change was that after the completion of each plate appearances, the six fielders would rotate, thus ensuring that every player got to play every position including pitcher, in addition to coming to bat more often. The game was played in seven innings of four outs each, and a walk required only two balls and and a strikeout two strikes, with every foul ball counting as half a strike.

This strange type of baseball never caught on beyond a small audience. It was considered too far from the real game to serve as a development tool, and its quirks reduced its viability as a spectator sport. While Epler expended a lot of effort in trying to promote his invention, into the 1950s, it never really caught on and is now only a historical curiosity.

Further Reading

• Kevin Warneke and John Shorey: "Six-Man Baseball", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 51, Number 2 (Fall 2022), pp. 66-69.