Description: Champion Baseball, Genco, 6/55, two players, small manikin players on the playfield, painted lacquer playfield, uses fifteen 1.5" plastic balls instead of steel balls (same ball as used in Genco's 2 Player Basketball). Champion Baseball was basically the forerunner of the more sucessful, smaller, and more advanced 1956 Genco Hi-Fly Baseball. The cabinet is very deep to allow balls to fly through the air (hence the plastic balls), three decks at back of playfield for scoring. Champion baseball has a much larger cabinet (80"x25"x78") than Genco's 1956 Hi Fly baseball, and this makes the game more fun (there is more physical "ball park" space to hit the ball). But the large footprint of Champion baseball is a problem, as the game is quite huge and tall. But both games, unlike most other pitch and bat games, allows the player to hit grounders or real fly balls into the outfield or over the fence, without the use of ramps. Like real baseball, the player swings a miniature wooden baseball bat at plastic balls delivered in free air. Grounders are hit to the infield for a single, double, triple or an out. Hit a line drive into one of nine grandstand pigeonholes for scores from 3 to 100 runs. Keeps track of base hits with light animated runners on the backglass.

The playfield has manakin 2.5" tall baseball players for seven infield positions (no batter/catcher.) Often they go missing or get broken. The players are all the same except for the pitcher, which is different. The bottom of the pitcher has the making "Randtoy". I have 3d scanned the players, and you can download the STL file and 3d print them. The fielders' STL file is here.

The glass used on Genco Champion baseball is a bit odd. The front glass 22"x20.5"x3/16" and top glass 44"x22"x3/16" are easy gets. But the side glasses are not rectangles. So if they are missing/broken, it's a lot more work to get that sorted.

Note also the 1957 Genco release called Quarterback that used the same "ball through the air" concept. Unfortunately this game does not have manikin players. Instead it uses flat plastic printed players.

If you have a 1955 Genco Champion Baseball for sale please contact me at cfh@provide.net