Batter Up

About Batter Up

Batter Up is a guess-the-player game for baseball fans built around one idea: you can often recognise a hitter from his stance alone. Each day the game shows a dark silhouette video of a mystery MLB batter getting ready and swinging. You type a name, and the reveal clip plays once you get it or run out of guesses.

The main game uses active players only and gives you eight attempts. Each guess fills a row of tiles for jersey number, team, division, country of birth, age and position. Green means a match; yellow means close, such as a jersey number in the same tens, an age within two years or a team in the same league. Read together, the tiles narrow the field the way Poeltl does for basketball, with the stance clip as an extra clue only a regular viewer will catch.

The site has grown into a small family of dailies under one login. Strike Zone does the same with pitchers, Jump Shot with NBA players, Batter Up Classics and Jump Shot Classics with retired players and ten guesses, and Huddle Up with NFL quarterbacks, using college and draft year as clues. Every game has a numbered puzzle and an archive of past days. Winning at least one of the six non-archive games each day keeps a shared daily streak going.

It suits fans who watch a lot of games and like the idea that a batting stance is as recognisable as a face. The silhouettes reward people who know how players move, while the tiles let casual fans reason their way to the answer.

How to play Batter Up

1. Open Batter Up and watch the silhouette clip of the day's mystery hitter.
2. Type an active MLB player's name and pick him from the list.
3. Read the tiles: green is a match, yellow is close (jersey tens, age within two years, same league, related position).
4. Use what the tiles rule in or out to make your next guess, within eight tries.
5. See the reveal clip, share your result, and switch to Strike Zone, Jump Shot, the Classics or Huddle Up from the menu.

Screenshots

Tips

• Start with a player from a middle-of-the-road team and division so the tiles cut the field quickly.
• A yellow division tile means the right league but the wrong division; switch divisions, not leagues.
• Watch the clip more than once: open or closed stances, leg kicks and bat waggles narrow it down fast.
• The country tile is a strong clue; a green outside the US leaves a short list of players.
• Use the archive to practise on past days without touching your daily streak.

Questions