Baseball Birthday Party Ideas

Baseball birthday parties are lots of fun to plan, and easy to throw. There are many ways to turn baseball themes into party ideas, so take or adapt any or all of these to suit your baseball birthday party needs.

Invitations
Take a picture of the birthday kid in baseball uniform and pose. Use a computer to put that picture onto a baseball card background, or just in the center of an invitation that reads "Batter Up! It's time for _____'s Baseball Birthday Bash!" Put the details inside, and send it out. You could also make invitations in the shape of a baseball, or with the picture of your kid in the center of a diamond as if he is pitching. Make the words, "Here's the pitch: Come to _______'s Baseball Birthday Bash!" Encourage the guests to come dressed in baseball uniforms or team spirit clothing from their favorite teams.

Decorations
Baseball pennants, jerseys, gloves, balls, posters, hats, and pictures of the game are all great for decorating. Balloons are a festive touch as well. Party supply stores have all kinds of baseball decorations, so if you don't make your own, go wild at the store finding exactly what you want to make the room sporty. You can even blow up that picture of your kid poster-sized and hang that with a caption "Safe at 3rd!" or "All Star #__" and put the birthday number in the blank. Of course, have baseball music playing in the background.

Food
Baseball food is perfect - that means food you would eat at a baseball game. Choose a selection from hotdogs, chips, popcorn, soda/ Gatorade/ lemonade, Cracker Jacks, and nachos. For party fare, make some Rice Krispie Treats in the shape of baseballs by shaping them into balls instead of pressing them into the pan. Make laces with string licorice. Or serve round cookies and let the kids decorate them with white frosting and red hots or red string licorice. You can also decorate long oval "finger" cookies like bats. Baseball themed cakes are easy to make by frosting a sheet cake and using frosting decoration tubes to make a baseball diamond with bases made from mini Hershey bars. Put little action figures around the cake as if they are playing baseball on the cake.

Activities
When the guests arrive, take a posed "team picture" of them all together and print out one for each of them. Allow each kid to decorate a frame (get the cheap kind) with baseball themed stickers (available from craft stores or discount stores). Then, do some baseball themed games. Here are some suggestions.

• Hey Batter Batter Relay: Form two teams, and each team lines up parallel to each other. Have two sets of: a baseball hat, mitt and jersey at the other end of the room. The first player of each team races to the clothing, puts it on, yells "Hey Batter Batter!" and races back to the team. He then takes off the outfit, gives it to the next player in line, who must race to the end of the room and put the outfit on, yell "Hey Batter Batter!" and return to the team, take it off, and so on until everyone on the team has done that. The first team to finish wins.
• Play Ball!: For this mini baseball game, use different types of balls to have a mini baseball game. The balls should change with each batter. Kinds of balls: beach ball, basket ball, a ball of socks, a Koosh, a balloon, a ping-pong ball, a Nerf ball, etc. You can use a plastic lightweight bat for the bat, and make sure you have enough room for the game. Each player on a team bats once and the team with the most points at the end of an inning wins.
• Relay Baseball: For this version, each team lines up. One person from each team is the scorekeeper for that team. Put a chair across the room, and designate a diamond and 3 bases around the chair using masking tape. Give the first player on each team a plastic spoon and a ping-pong ball (decorated with red lines to resemble baseball stitching). The first person in line must hold the spoon in his/her mouth with the ping-pong ball on the end of the spoon. Without touching the ball, the player walks to the diamond, walks around the bases and comes back. If s/he makes it, that's 4 points. If the ball drops, score 1 point per base that the player made it to. If the ball drops before making it to first base, that's a "strike" and the player gets two more tries. If it drops on the way back, that counts as a "triple" because returning to the team is "home."

Favors
Little bags with bubblegum, baseball cards, mini baseball toys and/or candy, and the framed "team picture" make great party favors.