When his wife starts to imply it’s time to say goodbye to the couple thousand baseball cards from childhood, a man has two choices: To let go of childish things, or to make those childish things relevant, and tools for a man to share the national pastime with his children.  I clearly did not tell my wife that I had a plan for these cards just so I could keep them.  Nor did I spend hours sorting, searching, selecting and designing hundreds of games to play using these cards just to rescue them from the landfill.  No, I decided that I would not let Topps get the better of me.

Not one of my 90’s baseball classics is really an investment piece.   But, if I played my cards right, I could not only find a way to spend time sorting, remembering and curating my original collection, but could make a valid argument for buying new cards to round out the first round purge of cards that had decimated the original collection.

Armed with my original BrittForce shoebox of cards, I found a way to make my original collection relevant again, and teach my kids the joy of a new pack of cards.

I’ll be sharing some of my favorite games, and would love to hear your feedback on ways to make them more playable for players of all levels.  The goal of Open Hands Gamers is to make room at the table for players of every age, every skill, every ability.  Because at Open Hands Gamers, everyone plays.

A nice and easy first pitch…

 

Caught Stealing

Plays like: Memory, Concentration

Players: 2+

Skill level of players: Batboy

Curate Your Cards: A bunch of doubles (if playing with non-readers) or two players from lots of different teams (i.e. 2 Astros, 2 Dodgers,etc.)

Object: Swipe the most matches

Play-by-Play

Shuffle cards and place them face down in rows on the table. Fan A selects two cards and turns them over. If they match Fan A steals the pair and goes again. If the cards do not match Fan A is “caught stealing” and their turn is up. Turn the cards back over and the next fan takes their turn. Play continues until all matches have been made. The fan with the most matches wins.

Color Commentary

Now where was that other Luis Aguayo card? This is our 5- year-old’s current favorite game. She’s caught on to the fact that the different colors won’t be matches, but the 3- year old hasn’t. She just flips until she gets what she wants. Be warned that you might have to gently remind the beginning-readers that it’s not as fun to play when you just read the back of the cards.