[nolemmings]

Hey Butch,

I devised a three-dice game when I was ten and then revamped it to four dice when I was 12 or 13. I wish I knew where the “codes” were these days–I had them memorized down to each play but had them written down so the 2-3 neighbor kids who challenged me could either test my honesty or look for themselves. Outs were simply listed as groundout, fly or foul out, and line out. In the three-dice game walks and Ks had to be earned one roll of a ball or strike at a time, with no HBP that I recall. In the four-dice game I used three red dice and one white die, and I had a few changes if the white die came up a specific number; for example, 1-2-3-4 was an infield single but if the white die was the “1" it was a strikeout. All I remember about the 3 dice game was that 1-1-1 and 6-6-6 were home runs and the other threes of a kind were extra-base hits. It was all random with no weight for greatness. Mays could bat .125 and Gus Gil .300.

My game was tied to baseball cards–you had to field a team at each position using the Topps cards, and no multi-player cards were allowed. Guys like Bobby Heise were especially valuable, because his card just said “infield” so you could plug him in throughout the various positions– a few guys even had the designation “inf-of”, which of course was a manager’s dream. I also remember the 1973 Yankees having four third basemen –Allen, Sanchez, Nettles and Lanier, which greatly hampered their bench. Lanier and Allen were not true third sackers but had played there the year before because Nettles had not yet been acquired. Thanks Topps. What also was really cool was that one of the neighbors had only 1968 cards, so it was possible through trades that we would have the same guy playing for each side.

I remember that Joe Foy led my league in HRs by a landslide in the three-dice game. Foy was on the ‘69 Royals, who also had Luis Alcaraz leading off for me because I liked his card. I kept a written account of all games, but again there was no recording of defensive outs, just “O” for out. I remember a star was used for RBI, a check mark for run scored and x for SB–symbols I still use today if scoring a game. Same for the four dice game, which used all my 1972 Topps, and where the Brewers beat the Cardinals in the World Series, led by spark plug Brock Davis (I remember I hated playing “capless” players but didn’t have OF depth at the beginning and Davis just kept hitting all season) Great memories.