Fact Slugger: a multiplication baseball game

How to play

It's a night game and you're up to bat. Every pitch is a times tables fact, such as 7 × 8. Type the answer on the keypad and press Swing. A right answer is always a hit; the pitch clock decides how far it goes.

1. Pick one or more tables (or Mixed 2–12), choose ×, ÷ or Mixed, and set the pitch clock: Relaxed (12 s), Normal (8 s) or Fast (5 s).
2. Type the answer with the keypad or your number keys, then press Swing (Enter). If the clock runs out first, a typed answer swings automatically. Made a typo? ⌫ or Backspace deletes a digit.
3. The bar under the fact is the pitch clock. Swing with most of it left for a home run, then a triple, a double, or a single when it's nearly gone. The labels under the bar (HR, 3B, 2B, 1B) show what you'd get right now.
4. A wrong answer is a strike, and so is letting the clock run out with nothing typed. The game shows the right fact straight away. Three strikes is an out.
5. Your runners really go round the bases: a double with a runner on second brings them home. An inning ends after 3 outs or 6 batters, and the game lasts 3 innings. Score as many runs as you can.

Reduced motion: the ball appears where it lands instead of flying, runners step straight to their base, players stand still and there are no fireworks. Only the pitch clock bar moves. There is no timing or aiming skill involved: the answer decides every swing.

What it teaches

Fact Slugger asks children to produce each answer, not pick it from a list. Typing 56 from memory is harder, and does more for long-term recall, than spotting 56 among three choices. That's why it's a step up from our other games.

• Speed without stress: a slow right answer still scores a single, so accuracy always pays. Fluent facts earn the big hits, which rewards the automatic recall that frees up working memory for harder maths.
• Easy facts first: the first pitches use ×1, ×2, ×5 and ×10. Harder multipliers join as you keep hitting, up to ×12 from the second inning.
• Missed facts come back: a fact you strike out on is pitched again a few batters later, then once more after that, so it gets fixed while it's fresh.
• Division as recall: choose ÷ and each pitch is a fact like 56 ÷ 7. Children type the missing factor, which ties every division fact back to its times table.