Fortunately for Bucaria, president of Kitchen Table Games, his game received a response worthy of the game's birthplace.

"We were accepted nicely," Bucaria says. "We had a ball."

In three days, Bucaria sold all 75 games he brought with him and gave out more than 800 brochures.

Big Bucks Baseball is played on a pitch-by-pitch basis and revolves around the spinning of a roulette-type wheel.

Offensive and defensive skill levels are determined by colored rings that snap to the bottom of each figurine. Red is the best, white is next, and blue represents average.

Batters can take pitches, or swing for the fences, by dropping a miniature baseball into the moving wheel.

Depending on skill level, where the ball stops on the wheel determines the action on the field. The figurines are then moved around the base paths accordingly.

"I want this to be a family game," Bucaria says. "I want this game to be played, if not on a kitchen table, on a dining-room table."

The game can be played in three modes: Fast, Regular, and Big Bucks.

Fast baseball is played without much detail and doesn't utilize the wheel's outside ring designated for the pitcher.

In the Regular mode, balls and strikes are called, and green event cards are used, which call for the downgrading of players, rain outs, triple plays and dropped third strikes.

A game of Big Bucks Baseball, like its American-pastime counterpart, sometimes takes up to three hours to complete.

In this advanced version, revenue can be generated by the selling of concessions and the purchasing of TV and broadcast rights. The more money a team owner accumulates, the better the team. Each game comes with three sets of 10 figurines.

For more information, Kitchen Table Games can be reached at (800) 470-2312.

The game simulates a real baseball game as it combines the strategy of baseball with the excitement of Monopoly, the thrill of dice and action of roulette.

The game gives the players the feel of being a baseball team owner or manager. It includes 30 sculptured figurines, three dice, 32 player upgrade snap rings, 12 ball-strike markers, ten concession/broadcast replicas, two miniature game baseballs, 90 pieces of currency, 32 special event cards, score sheets, game board, and instruction booklet.

The game is priced at $39.95 plus $6.95 shipping. Massachusetts residents must add 5 percent sales tax. To order with a credit card, call (800) 470-2312. To order by mail, send a check or money order made payable to: Kitchen Table Games, 5 Grant St., Framingham, Mass. 01701.

He's facing some stiff competition, though. Some of the hottest-selling toys in Japan are electronic ones: video games and the Tamagotchi Virtual Pets. But Larry Bucaria, a Framingham, Mass. inventor of a baseball board game, is fixing to change that - with the Japanese External Trade Organization going to bat for him, no less.

The government-sponsored trade group recently ran a two-page spread on Mr. Bucaria's Big Bucks Baseball in its quarterly publication. Already, four Japanese firms have expressed interest in acquiring the rights to sell the Monopoly-like game in Japan. It may be too early to tell who has the inside track, but Mr. Bucaria says "negotiations are going well."

Big Bucks Baseball is a spin-the-dial game that allows players to amass wealth by quickly building a parking and refreshment concession empire, while spending the dollars trading for the league's best players.

"I've tried to make the game as close to real life as possible," explains Mr. Bucaria, a 68-year-old retired Raytheon executive who took five years to invent the game.

The game was interesting enough for Boston University marketing professor Michael Peters to assign Big Bucks Baseball as a class project for a group of graduate students earlier this year to determine its potential.

Through that program, Michael Peters, a marketing professor at Boston College, is advising Bucaria on a business plan for Kitchen Table Games' product, Big Bucks Baseball. Bucaria's son, a financial consultant at Merrill Lynch, handles the accounting.

The retired Raytheon Co. executive has always enjoyed creating board games for his children and grandchildren. Unlike most baseball board games, Bucaria's game offers immediate play-by-play action. The heart of Big Bucks Baseball is the patented Strategy Wheel, which controls the play. Like in real baseball, the game begins with the pitcher, who spins the wheel. The batter has the option of taking the pitch to see if the pitcher has thrown a strike or a ball, or attempting a hit.

The batter "hits" by throwing a miniature ball into the wheel.

Priced at $39.95, the game comes with three teams of realistically molded figurines. Because he has four daughters who are baseball fans, Bucaria included one female player. A compact, folding game board serves as the field, with surprise event cards, concession and media replicas, and paper currency to reward the most valuable players.

Bucaria's proudest transaction has been with Mickey's, a baseball collectible store across from the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The game is also sold at collectible stores in Watertown's Arsenal Mall, the Natick Mall, and the Emerald Square Mall in Attleboro. His goal now is to arrange a licensing agreement with a professional team.

Bucaria now believes, after all the work and nurturing the idea for the game, the big bucks are just around the corner.

Big Bucks Baseball comes with more than 200 pieces, including the Strategy Wheel, multi-colored game board, 30 molded ABS figurines, three challenging dice, 32 player-skills upgrade rings, 12 markers, eight concession replicas, two TV/radio broadcast replicas, two miniature game balls, 90 pieces of currency, 32 event cards, reproducible score cards, and an illustrated instruction book. Three different games can be played: Fast, Regular, and Big Bucks. Sold out following its debut at the Hall of Fame.