The 2020 baseball season has been far from ordinary and has inspired us to find creative ways to enjoy the baseball experience from home. If you’re looking for a family-friendly activity to enjoy while you watch the Blue Jays on Sportsnet or listen on the radio, we’ve got a simple backyard game that you can build yourself! It’s the classic game of Cornhole, with a baseball twist... you can "toss" a single, double, triple or home run. But be careful… you can also strike out!

1. Cut the Plywood board to size. We cut the board to be 2’x5’ but this can be adjusted if you’d like to make your board bigger or smaller.

2. Using a pencil, roughly sketch on the board where you’d like the holes to go. We made sure to leave 6” of free space at the top of the board to allow room for a score board.

Tip: Use a circular object approximately the same size as the hole saw to mark the holes. This makes visualizing the finished board so much easier. We found the lid for the deck screws to be a pretty great match.

3. Once you’ve sketched your hole locations on the board, take a step back to look over the board and make sure that it was the correct layout. If it’s not quite right, feel free to shift the designs a bit.

4. Line up the hole saw with the markings and cut out the circles.

5. Next, cut the 1”x2” pine to create a frame around the board. We cut the corners on a 45 to create a clean look. The frame was then attached with deck screws to the sides of the plywood.

6. Using the leftover 1”x2” we cut 2 legs that were affixed to the bottom of the frame using deck screws into the frame.

7. Run a sanding block or palm sander along the board to remove any rough edges.

8. Using either wood filler or DryDex and a putty knife fill in any knots, gaps, or cracks in the wood (trust us -this step is important if you are painting).

9. Give the whole game one final sand to remove any excess wood filler and wipe off the dust.

10. If the board has knots in it, roll on some Beauti-Tone BlockIt Primer to help seal the knots and prevent them from bleeding through the paint.

11. Once the primer is dry, roll on your favourite paint colour using the Beauti-Tone Signature Series Exterior Paint. We chose to use the colour Slugger

12. We added a little decorative flair by masking stripes with painters’ tape and adding a strip of the colour Grand Slam to the centre of the board.

13. Use the painter’s tape to mask squares in the top corners of the board. Fill in these squares with Beauti-Tone’s Chalkboard paint in the colour Power Hitter to use as a scoreboard.

14. Create a baseball diamond by connecting each of the ‘bases’. You can use two strips of painters tape to create a thin line between each hole. This can then be painted with a paint colour such as Curve Ball. Alternatively, you could draw this line with a sharpie.

15. Label each hole using stencils and the paint colour Curve Ball. The middle one at the top should be labeled Home Run and the holes on either side should be labeled Out. Tip: multiple coats with a dry-brush technique provide a crisper finished look when using a stencil. If thinner lettering is preferred, you can write these on using a Sharpie.

16. Finally, show your Blue Jays pride by decorating your board. You can trace the Blue Jays logo onto your board with a sharpie or customize it with your favourite player’s number!

17. Purchase 8 bean bags to play with, or make your own! Just cut 2 pieces of fabric into rectangles, sew them together leaving an opening, fill ¾ with rice and sew it closed.

18. Set the board up in your backyard, gather your friends and family, and you’re all ready to play!

Each game is broken down into innings of play. During an inning of play, each player must pitch all four of their bags.

Players stand 20 ft. away from the game when throwing their bags. The top of an inning is completed when Player 1 has pitched all four bags. The bottom of the inning is completed when Player 2 pitches all four bags.

The player who scored in the previous inning has the honour of pitching first in the next inning. If neither player scored, the player who pitched first in the in the previous inning or game shall retain first pitch in the next frame.

The game shall be played for 9 innings. The player with the most points at the end of nine innings is the winner. If the players have a tie score at the end of 9 innings, the game goes into extra innings until one player ends an inning with higher points.

Scoring: If your bag lands in the 1st base hole, you are awarded 1 point. If your bag lands in the 2nd base hole, you are awarded 2 points. If your bag lands in the 3rd base hole, you are awarded 3 points. If your bag lands in the ‘Home Run’ hole you are awarded 4 points. If your bag lands in the ‘Out’ hole, on the board, or beside the board you will be awarded no points. You can use a piece of chalk to keep track of the score on the Blue Jays and Guest scoreboard squares at the top of the board.