The Marx Brothers movie "Duck Soup" features a cast of zany characters who turn everything sideways. In Depression-era Fredonia, a wealthy woman schemes to replace the imaginary country's president with a self-declared tyrant, a peanut vendor becomes the Secretary of War and a spy defects because the other side offers better food. Duck Soup softball is conducted in the same spirit of crazy disregard for logic, and if you don't like its rules, feel free to make up your own.
Origins of Duck Soup Softball
Two friends from St. Louis Park, Minn., dreamed up the convoluted rules of Duck Soup softball. Stu Alexander and Steve Alpert, attending a 1980 softball tournament in which their team was scheduled to play at 4 a.m., began rewriting the rules of the game. On the Duck Soup softball website, they recall coming up with ideas to allow for do-overs and wacky playing assignments, eventually writing 29 new rules. They named the first tournament, held in 1983, the "Softball Fiasco." Because the pair previously had named their softball team "Duck Soup" in honor of Groucho and Harpo Marx, they added the term to the tournament's title.
Original General Rules
The Nos. 2 and 5 fields at Aquila Field in St. Louis Park use four bases rather than three, and the Nos. 1 and 4 fields use large home plates. Teams win a bonus run for each player who dresses as Groucho Marx, with a limit of three runs. If the last player in a team's batting rotation scores a run, it counts as three runs. Visitor and home team designations are decided by answering a trivia question. The visitor team is awarded one-half of a run. Each team is permitted two do-overs during the game, one offensive and one defensive. The manager gives a home run bonus coupon to the umpire before the game. The coupon indicates an inning number and batter number, and if that batter makes it safely to base in the designated inning, he's awarded a home run. The game is limited to 75 minutes, with no handshaking allowed after the game.
Original Inning Rules
During the first inning of a game, each batter gets only one pitch and each team gets four outs. During the third inning, each batter must swing from the opposite side of the plate from his normal batting position. Playing positions for the fourth inning will be determined by drawing names from a hat. Players run the bases in reverse order during the fifth inning. For all innings, the batter who made the last out in the previous inning is the catcher. Batters get three balls, two strikes and one courtesy foul.
Variations
In the spirit of anarchy that inspired the game, tournaments held in other areas have devised variations on the rules. Fort Hays State University's game required first-inning pitchers to throw underhand, second-inning fielders to throw the glove along with the ball and third-inning players to use a whiffle ball and bat but no gloves. The Wichita Department of Parks and Recreation ruled that the game had only six innings, with 10 to 12 players on each co-ed team. If the last batter in the rotation scored a run, it was counted as three runs only if he wore an orange hat.
Member Comments