Family game
Baseball Highlights: 2045
Mike Fitzgerald · Eagle-Gryphon Games
- Players
- 1–4
- Time
- ~45 min
- Ages
- 9+
9+ is the starter edition; some editions say 14+.
Buy online at GameNerdz · Bases Loaded Edition
This week: The World Series
Two one-run games. Let your kids be the manager.
The Brewers lead the series 2–0. Our family pick is a quick card game about building a team and deciding who plays.
Why this week
The World Series is on. The Milwaukee Brewers won the first two games at home, 3–2 and 5–4, and the series moves to Tampa Bay to face the Rays for Game 3 on Monday. Two teams, two one-run games, and a whole country arguing about lineups and pitching changes: the perfect week to let your kids be the manager.
In Baseball Highlights: 2045 each player runs a team. You play short “mini-games” of six cards each, then sign free agents to make your team better before the next one. It’s quick to learn, every game is close, and it rewards exactly the decisions you’ll hear argued about during the broadcast: who to put in, who to save for later, and when to take a risk.
Sources: Brewers win World Series Game 2 (MLB.com) · Brewers rally vs. Rays in Game 2 (ESPN)
How to learn it
Play video: How to Play: Baseball Highlights: 2045, by Board Game Blitz, 5:46How to Play: Baseball Highlights: 2045
Board Game Blitz · 5:46
A 6-minute video covers the rules: How to Play: Baseball Highlights: 2045 (Board Game Blitz). Watch it together before the first game; a first series takes about 45 minutes. Watch on YouTube
Talk about it
Younger players
about 10–12- In the game you sign new players between games. If you could sign anyone, real or from our family, what would they be great at?
- The Brewers have won the first two games. Does that mean they'll win the World Series? What would you want to know before you guess?
- Pitcher or batter: which job is harder, and why?
Teens
- Baseball teams use mountains of data to pick lineups. When you decided which cards to keep and which to buy, what were you weighing up? Is that what a team's analysts do?
- The game imagines baseball in 2045, with robots on the field. Robot umpires are already being tested for calling balls and strikes. What should technology be allowed to decide in sports, and what should stay human?
- Neither the Brewers nor the Rays are among baseball's biggest spenders. How do teams with less money compete, and is the system fair?
Make it work for everyone
The announcer
Lots of small text and icons on the cards: one person can be the "announcer" who reads each card aloud as it's played.
Co-managers
Pair a younger player with an adult as co-managers, deciding together.
Short on time?
Play a shorter series and stop while everyone's still having fun.
Find a copy
In San Francisco?
Dogpatch Games
Our neighborhood game store, at 1095 Tennessee St. Ask them, or check their games library.
Shopping online?
We use GameNerdz
Buy online at GameNerdz for Baseball Highlights: 2045 (Baseball Highlights: 2045, Bases Loaded Edition)
Not in SF?
Find it at your local game store.
Ask them; many stores can order a game in for you.
Not sponsored — these are simply the stores we use.
Solo game
Looking for a solo game for this week's event? Try 7th Inning Stretch.
Have a baseball fan who wants to keep playing after the kids are in bed? It's a card-drafting and dice game with a vintage baseball-card look: build a roster, set your lineup, and play the late innings of the games that matter.
1–2 players30–45 min14+
The shelf
Issue No. 1 · Week of Oct 25, 2026
Solo7th Inning Stretch: issue 1, The World SeriesFamilyBaseball Highlights: 2045: issue 1, The World SeriesThe World Series
BoardGameGeek: Baseball Highlights: 2045 · 7th Inning Stretch
Next Friday
SoloNext week's solo gameFamilyNext week's family gameMore every week: a new issue every Friday.