Just following up with both Rob and Mark...
So, yes, after referring back to our conversation with Tom Shieber, we've confirmed (for now, at least --
games research, especially as it involves scarce or rare games, usually being a glacial process, subject
as always to still later revision) the existence of four varieties of Wiilie Mays Baseball --
the ludo-style game made by Professional Education Products, and three dice-and-cards/charts versions
made by Preferred Games, using very similar graphics.
Whether Professional Education Products and Preferred Games were in fact the same company
operating under different names is speculation. The years in which the games were produced
is for the most part uncertain. Whether they were produced only as prototypes or ever went into
a larger production run is unknown.
Preferred Games' fictional-player card version is separate from the player-photo pitch/hit charts version
(at least six years ago, at the time of our post quoted from our forum, we were under the mistaken
impression that a complete Preferred Games edition included both the cards and charts).
The 1967 copyright on the player cards version tells us... something, but isn't definitive.
No date appears on any of the other versions, although the photos of both Kansas City and Oakland A's
players in the pitch/hit charts version makes that a 1968-or-later game. Peculiarities among the
details in Matty Alou's uniform could potentially nail down a no-earlier-than date, but they don't appear
to conform precisely to the details of any Pirate uni shown in the "Dressed to the Nines" pages that
Mark Okkonen researched for the Hall of Fame's website.
The fourth edition of Wiilie Mays Baseball was the unboxed edition marketed by Pro-Sports Souvenirs.
The components, but for the absent box, appear identical to those in Preferred Games'
pitch/hit charts edition. Its existence would seem to demonstrate at least some limited
commercial distribution. We'd love to be put in touch with whomever it was from whom
Rob bought the game and who claimed to be the grandson of the game's developer.
Mark, you make a valid point, but believe you us, we've seen plenty of games with outright ugly
(not merely bland) graphics, so we're doubtful the vast expanse of white space is indicative
of anything (actually, it might make it kind of stand out among shelves full of loud, busy graphics).
It's odd, too, that while going through at least three completely different designs for the games
themselves over a couple of years or more, the box design seems to have been the one thing
they were happy with... Hey, maybe it was those same art department guys who went on to design
the white-space-obsessed layouts for all things Facebook, Yahoo, and Tapatalk...
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