Straight to the point

Members of St. John and St. Paul Lutheran Churches - and a number of other surrounding churches - recently completed another season of dart ball, a tradition that has gone on for over 50 years.

The dart-throwing game - is taken quite seriously.

"If you go home and your jaw isn't a little sore from laughing and talking something's not right," said captain of St. Paul's team, Paul Lietz.

Dart ball is similar to a baseball game except darts are thrown to represent a batter. The darts, which represent a pitched ball, are thrown from 15' out at a large wooden or homasote board that resembles a baseball field with colored areas which denote first, second, third, and home plate. Additional areas are marked as strike, out, ball, error, sacrifice, double play, triple play and hit-by-pitch. The home run tends to be in the very center of the board. The diamond is surrounded by a six inch foul line border. The entire playing field is 42 inches squared including foul territory.

Baseball-like rules and scoring are used. A run is scored when a player advances safely around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate. A player may score by hitting a home run or by any combination of plays, after he is "on base" (first, second, or third base) by subsequent batters getting either base hits or home runs that brings him home.

Read more of this story in the March 18 Pilot Tribune.