A three-dice representation of major league baseball

Abstract

Based upon a two-dice representation of baseball encountered by the author in the late 1950s, trial-and-error experimentation utilizing a third die, spanning three years (from April 2005 to October 2007 {489 dice-games}), has led to a set of rules involving three dice that statistically mimics the run-scoring in Major League Baseball to 99.5%, the statistical correlation mentioned itself based upon all 165 games played by the Chicago Cubs in the 2007 Baseball Season and a corresponding set of 165 dice games played over the same time frame. The dice game itself incorporates essentially all aspects of the actual game – including double and (very rare) triple plays, stolen bases/advances due to wild pitches or passed balls, further advances associated with the latter due to throwing errors, etc., runners occasionally going from first to third on a single, runners occasionally scoring from second on a single or from first on a double, sacrifice bunts/flies – even rare scoring on outs other than on sacrifices, and other (rare) “weird” plays. The game is easy to play (no player by player “weight factors”, for example) and, once one becomes accustomed to the rules, most games can be played in approximately one ninth the duration time of an average Major League Baseball game. Finally, a comparison of the dice-generated runs-per-game frequency distribution to the recently published Major League Baseball Attractor is illustrated.