Trivia Game Review: ‘MLB Baseball Trivia Challenge’ from MasterPieces

MLB Baseball Trivia Challenge from MasterPieces gives baseball enthusiasts the one thing they might love as much as baseball itself: baseball trivia. Like the NFL Gridiron Trivia Challenge, MLB Baseball Trivia Challenge puts players to the test in proving who knows best about the traditions, statistics, and novelties in America’s pastime.

MLB Baseball Trivia Challenge arranges its questions on a board with five categories: Batter Up, Chatter, Honors, Nicknames & Numbers, and On the Mound. Each category covers a different aspect of baseball. Batter Up focuses on batting statistics, such as asking who was the first Phillies player to hit three home runs in a game since Deron Johnson in 1971. Chatter is almost a potpourri, asking questions about youngest players for teams or Manager of the Year. Honors is of course about records and Hall of Famers.

Nicknames & Numbers is the perfect category for figures enthusiasts, with questions about the year of Lou Gehrig’s famous “Luckiest Man” speech or who was nicknamed The Big Cat. Finally, On the Mound asks about pitchers, with statistics and questions about who played for whom.

Two players or two teams take turns asking each other questions. Blue frame-shaped cover cards cover the board. Each player or team takes a set of framing cards, either red or white (both good colors for socks). A player who answers a question correctly switches the blue card out for their own and continues with another question, potentially creating a streak that could dominate the board. Play swaps whenever a player answers incorrectly or when a special “Tag Out” cover card comes up, which immediately ends the choosing player’s turn.

Other special cover cards can introduce unexpected twists, like “Strike,” which gives players a second chance at answering the question or holding onto the card for another, tougher question, or “Home Run” granting four times the point value.

As in baseball, high scores are what win the game in MLB Baseball Trivia Challenge. Players get points for each question, with higher values for harder questions. In addition, players can rack up serious points by achieving a “Line Score” – having a five-box sequence horizontally, vertically, or diagonally on the board. This adds another level of strategy in choosing questions: try to maximize points? Or look to block an opponent’s chances, for example by scooping up the Nicknames & Numbers cards if that’s the opponent’s best category.

Play continues until all boxes are covered or an agreed-upon time limit or score is reached. With three different ways to bring an end to the game, strategies will change. Players may want to rack up hard questions early on, or try for the long game to build to Line Scores.

MLB Baseball Trivia Challenge is a quizzing game for two to six players aged 12 and up. Its edition comes with over 1,000 questions in such a wide variety that it will be a long time before players find themselves with a repeat. Instead, players will have to know all there is to know about the baseball players, records, and organization that have entertained the country for over a century.