Baseball and Kniffel

My host family in German has two boys, ages 5 and 8, and they are totally into football (soccer). But their grandparents were in the US and bought the equipment for playing baseball, so they needed me to teach them this great American past-time.

Well, let's just say it's a lot easier to kick a soccer ball than to hit a tiny baseball with a bat! The boys struggled for a long time and eventually the older one could hit the ball, while the younger one ran around the bases...and kept running around, past home plate multiple times, until the pitcher (me or the father) chased down the ball. Then it would be time to pitch, hit, run again.

I decided not to enforce the rules of strikes, balls, and outs, for we were just thrilled they were finally making contact with the ball and weren't utterly bored...Plus, baseball isn't so easy to play with just 2-3 players, whereas fun can be had with soccer with such minimal people.

Soon the neighborhood kids joined and were fascinated by this new sport. But eventually
they all returned to playing soccer.

We adults went inside for a game of Kniffel. This is the German form of Yahtzee. It's exactly, 100% the same game. Yet nowhere on the box or in the instructions is the word Yahtzee mentioned. One yells, "Kniffel!" when they get 5 of a kind with the dice.

(I wonder which came first, or what the rules are about copying another company's game...?)

Just for the record, I won, with 328 points.