Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 31, 2004
Strat-o Memories

Steve Treder offers up his memories of Strat-o-Matic baseball at the Hardball Times. I started playing the game in college, where I was a proud member of the Thirteenth Floor Strat-o-Matic League. Later, I joined the Sombilla, and participated in two seven-game World Series (I lost both, you can read the summaries here and here). I also played in a play-by-mail league for a couple of seasons. I love the game, and many of my best stories are a result of Strat-o.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:14 AM | Simulations | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I loved playing Strat. The first game I ever played was a rematch of the 1978 playoff between the Yankees and Red Sox. This time it was Dewey Evans cranking a three-run homer into the netting atop the Green Monster in the bottom of the ninth to win it for the Sox. Needless to say, I was hooked.

I also remember years earlier playing the game where you put a disk representing each player over a spinner to determine the outcome of the at-bat. Anybody remember the name of that game?

A more modern time-waster was the classic Micro-League Baseball for the old C-64. I loved trying to beat the best teams in history with the 1955 Washington Senators (Mickey McDermott on the mound, Harmon Killebrew at short, Mickey Vernon at first).

Posted by: Pat Curley at March 31, 2004 12:00 PM

The name of the game with the spinner was All-Star Baseball which I played before graduating to Strat-O-Matic. Played SOM for 10 years from ages 12-21 and loved it. Even went to a SOM convention once and got to the quarterfinals with the 1979 Cubs. Learned a lot about baseball through playing SOM and Steve Treder's article really captures the essence of being a kid and SOM fan.

Posted by: Carl LaFlamme at March 31, 2004 01:02 PM

Ever play Pursue The Pennant? THAT was a great game.

Posted by: Stephen Silver at March 31, 2004 03:09 PM

Dave, you've got to tell them about the famous all-righty lineup!

Posted by: Randy Sabia at March 31, 2004 03:39 PM

APBA was the game I played. I used my dad's old cards that he used to get by mail.

Don't we all wish we had time to play them now?

I don't have any time left since being married and running all of my ESPN Fantasy teams........

Posted by: Easycure at March 31, 2004 03:48 PM

You played 'the greatest world series' in West Newton, right around the corner from my house =P

OOTP6 is also a great game!

Posted by: andrew at March 31, 2004 04:34 PM