13 Run Baseball League

I don’t love many things, but I love baseball and I really like gambling. Betting on baseball is one of my favorite summer pastimes. It takes time to research games every day. It’s not for everyone and it can be exhausting. Fantasy baseball is also exhausting, but I still compete in one league which keeps me in touch with my friends back east. Also, my fantasy baseball team name is awesome: Las Vegas Porterhouse. Seriously. That’s awesome.

Last year a friend of mine asked if I would like to be a part of his 13 run league. I was curious and after he explained it to me I joined. In brief, each entrant is randomly assigned a Major League Baseball team. The first team that scores 0, 1, 2, 3…13 runs wins the league. Here’s how the website explains the game.

The object of a 13 run league is simple. You need the total runs your team scores in a game to be between 0 and 13. Each total they reach equals one less number that you need. For example, if Boston wins 8-3, you will light up the number 8 on the board. If Boston loses 5-4, then you light up the number 4 on the board. This continues until all numbers from 0-13 are lit up in Green. The first team to do so, wins!

13run.com not only tracks what numbers your team has scored, but it also tracks several other categories based on your league’s start date. Those categories are:

Games Played – This is the total number of games played to date
Games Back – This is the number of games the team is currently behind the leader
High Score – This is the highest score the team has reached in a single game (Generally used to determine 2nd place)
Shutouts – This is the total amount of times the team has been shutout (Generally used to determine 3rd place)

Again, all categories are based on your league’s start date. High Score and Shutouts make for great ways to determine second and third place in your league. For example, if you draw a team that does not have a good offense and is unlikely to get the high end numbers, you can pull for shutouts and/or that one big game where they put up a big total.

Check out an example of this league type here.

It’s a brainless game and another way to easily be involved with baseball. I’ve had a great time doing the league for the past two years. I’ve tweeted about it a bunch and quite a few people have asked me about the game so I figured I’d pass on the information.

Fantasy sports may been seen as a gateway drug for gamblers. Somehow (probably because ESPN & Yahoo are the biggest players) gambling on fantasy sports isn’t shunned the way actual gambling is so you can set up some kind of entry fee for the league similar to the way you would for gambling on fantasy sports.

I don’t remember which team I had in last year’s league, but this year I had the Tampa Bay Rays. I was pretty stoked because I figured they would score a lot of runs and have a chance to win the league. Unfortunately, they didn’t score 10, 11 or 13 runs in time for me to win. Instead…

…the team I hate most won. As you can see from the screenshot above, the Boston Red Sox were the team to knock of 0-13 first. I was in it for a while but I lost and now I have another reason (not that I need it) to hate the Red Sox.

Next year, if you’re looking for another way to enjoy the beginning of the baseball season, but don’t want to devote time to researching the individual players every game I recommend trying a 13 Run League. It’s free to set up and they do all the run sorting. If you care to make it interesting, you can.