OT - Does anyone have the 1911 Strat-O-Matic Card set?

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Wow, both of those stories are great. I think I read one time that APBA only sold around 100 sets or less that first year in 1951. I have no idea what they would go for or the last time one was offered.

I am now motivated to order the fairly new book on the history of Strat to learn more about its' history. I may even pull a game down off the shelf to play a game. I have picked up about a dozen Strat games over the years at sales, none have omplete seasons though. Same for the Cadaco All-Star baseball, it still has quite a following. I counted nine of those dating back to 1951. I have just always loved the graphics on the old games.

[barrysloate]

Isn't Cadaco the one with the round player disks and the spinner? That game worked on the same priniciple as Strat-O-Matic: if your rolled the dice or spun the spinner enough times, a player would perform exactly as he did during a season. Both games were based on mathematical probability. I don't know if APBA was also. In fact to this day I don't understand how APBA works (I know there is a link above that I want to read).

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Barry, yes APBA is strictly a mathematical formula game. Each player card is created based on his performance from the year.

The Master Game adds a little more pitching counter balance to each at bat. The basic game has a die result that corresponds to a on base chart, there are columns that reflect the teams defensive rating (each player is rated by position then added together) and the pitchers "grade." The pitchers are rated A B C D and have a strikeout rating that can add to the pitchers strenght.

With all of that said it takes only one or two games for it all to become second nature. Games can be played very quickly.

I have played their computer version and it takes the math to a higher level but there is just something about handling the cards that makes it more fun. If I were serious about playing a whole season or even a team's season I would use the computer version since it also has available a stat organizer and compiler.

I think one of the reasons I liked APBA over Strat is that APBAs' game contents seem a little more polished. The cards have rounded corners and a company logo on the back. They are also in team printed envelopes. Does this make it a better game to play, not really, just a better presentation.

[barrysloate]

I used to be able to play a full nine innings of Strat-O-Matic in about 20-30 minutes, so my friend and I could play a doubleheader after school and still have some time left to get a little fresh air. I thought the game was accurate and exciting.

[Harford20]

About a year ago, I purchased an early 1970's complete APBA game, with several 1950's teams. As noted by Milkit1's comments on Cy's post of the Wagner APBA card, it looks very confusing to start, but is easily understood after starting to play. The black numbers are the dice roll (red die 1-6, white die 1-6) and then corresponding red numbers are evaluated on the Situation Board. Each hitter and pitcher is graded (with corresponding numbers) based on the previous season stats.

I have played about 20 games over the past year, but a season would be time consuming (even for a single team, let alone a league). APBA also has "extended" rules for experienced players to get into stealing, bunting, field player movement (shifts, infield in, etc) but I have not gotten to these add-ons yet. All and all, fun to play.

Dave

[milkit1]

does strat have stealing?

[barrysloate]

Yes- the stealing is rated from AAA (best) to E (lead-footed). If you look at Rob D.s card, or that of Cleon Jones, you can see the players steal rating in the upper right corner. Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson might get AAA, but that's about it.

[Cy2009]

Barry,

I have done a lot of mathematics on the Strat-O-Matic cards. I am a math prof so I love it when baseball and math collide (as they often do). About twenty years ago, pre-kids, I was working on my own computer version of the strat-o baseball game and I learned a great amount of knowledge of strat-o-matic from doing this. I had to transfer all of the baseball information into numbers. It was a lot of fun to make the results computer friendly and more work than I could do now with kids. So I figured out how Strat-O has to assemble the cards.

You pointed out that Bonds doesn't have a single on his card, but he had plenty of singles that year. The reason that there are no singles on his card is that he will pick up the singles on the pitchers' cards. The way the cards need to be done is to make sure that the average of Bonds' card combined with the average pitcher's card yields Bonds' true stats of the year.

I could go into detail, but it might bore you. If you are interested in details, let me know and I'll send you an E-mail. I'm sorry. I get on a roll when I can think math and baseball at the same time.

Take care.

Cy