Strat O Matic turns 50

[batmagadanleadoff]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2011-01-28-strat-50th-anniversary_N.htm

[seawolf17]

I really want to go to the 50th anniversary shindig they're throwing in NYC on 2/12, but I can't figure out how to let Ms. Wolf let me go.

[batmagadanleadoff]

You shoulda married like this guy did:

Just ask Brett Carow, a 31-year-old River Falls, Wis., resident who is one of 10 finalists in Strat-O-Matic's "Ultimate Fanatic" contest. The winner will be announced at the anniversary celebration, and Carow would have to be considered a front-runner for the honor. His credentials, as listed on the Strat website: Brett's Strat-O-Matic resume is quite impressive: over 10,700 baseball games played in 20+ years. In addition to sleeping through prom to participate in an overnight Strat-O-Fest, Brett played Strat-O-Matic throughout the course of his honeymoon and regularly skipped college classes to come to Opening Day. The icing on the cake: Brett's wife scanned a 1941 Ted Williams Strat-O card onto a cake for him in honor of his 10,000th game played. Carow told USA TODAY that the cake, now eaten, symbolizes his love for Strat � and his wife, Carisa. "She's wife number two," says Carow, an account representative for a rental car company. "Wife number one just didn't quite get the Strat thing. But Carisa is fine with it. On our second date, I told her, 'I have a confession to make.' She said, 'You don't have a child from your first marriage, do you?' And I said, no, I play this baseball game..."

[Theoldmole]

Very cool cake. Very cool wife.
I wonder how old APBA is?

[Vic Sage]

I loved that game when i was a kid. My brothers had it and taught it to me.

In HS, i started playing a baseball board game with my friends that had team charts instead of individual player cards. It was very 70s. I think it was put out by Sports Illustrated, but its all very vague. It wasn't as good as Strat, but nobody played Strat anymore so that's what i had.

At some point i read this book http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Baseball-Association-Henry-Waugh/dp/0452260302, and it scared me away from these activities.

In recent years, online fantasy baseball has really been great for me in reclaiming those old joys.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Was this it?

[Vic Sage]

Was this it?

I'm not sure. I never saw the box cover, and only remember the actual team charts themselves.

The game was stored in the HS social studies office, and we'd sit in there and play between classes, keeping track of our games in a ongoing league throughout the school year. You could use up to 3 different team charts, and combine them to create your team. That edition of the game had the 1971 teams (you could order other years, too), and so I used the Mets (mostly for Seaver's incredible `71 season), the Padres (who had slugger Nate Colbert and pitchers Dave Roberts, Clay Kirby and Bob Miller) and Detroit (with Mickey Lolich, and Norm Cash, Willie Horton, Al Kaline and Gates Brown off the bench). I did alright.

[Vic Sage]

this is it!
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/original-1971-sports-illustrated-67539587

[batmagadanleadoff]

Vic Sage wrote: Was this it? I'm not sure. I never saw the box cover, and only remember the actual team charts themselves. The game was stored in the HS social studies office, and we'd sit in there and play between classes, keeping track of our games in a ongoing league throughout the school year. You could use up to 3 different team charts, and combine them to create your team. That edition of the game had the 1971 teams (you could order other years, too), and so I used the Mets (mostly for Seaver's incredible `71 season), the Padres (who had slugger Nate Colbert and pitchers Dave Roberts, Clay Kirby and Bob Miller) and Detroit (with Mickey Lolich, and Norm Cash, Willie Horton, Al Kaline and Gates Brown off the bench). I did alright.

"Was this it" was rhetorical. I'm sure you were playing SI. You had an older box. I could probably name you more 1971 than current major leaguers. I spent a good deal of my childhood --years-- playing the '71 SOM set. And it was while playing a game with the '71 Tigers as a young teen that I had my breakthrough epiphany moment and discovered the value of walks and on base percentage. I still remember the key highlights. In that game, the Tigers beat the Indians in a wild high scoring game that had many lead changes. Al Kaline went 0 for one, but with four walks. Kaline was in the middle of every Tiger rally, including a walk with two outs and nobody on base that kept the last inning alive for Bill Freehan to hit a three run come from behind walk-off homer. Of course, we didn't call game winning HR's walk-offs back then. I took notice of the walks though, and from then on there, I fell in love with the player who could take a walk.

That was also probably the last time I ever slotted Bud Harrelson at the top of the lineup.

[Guest Edgy DC]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Was this it?

I'm thinking that's rookie Dave Kingman on the box.

What's not adding up iw how he appears it be in white and Johnny Bench (?) in gray at an astrotuf park.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I think that Candlestick had artificial [crossout:jecwok9n]turd[/crossout:jecwok9n] turf back then. That catcher is a Phillie -- perhaps Bob Boone. His uni is definitely not Bench's #5.

Good call on Kingman.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Wow, yeah, defintiely a Phillie.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Candlestick did have fake grass for a while there. I think they may have been the first time to ditch plastic for real grass.

[Frayed Knot]

I believe Candlestick was the one who had an artificial turf infield with a regular grass outfield for a time. Or was that Comiskey?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Vic Sage wrote: and so I used ... the Padres (who had slugger Nate Colbert and pitchers Dave Roberts, Clay Kirby and Bob Miller)

I'm suddenly remembering how bad the 1971 Padres were. They had to have been one of the worst teams of the '70s, even with Dave Roberts pitching like a Cy Young candidate. Ed Spiezio, Enzo Hernandez, Don Mason and Clarence Gaston were everyday players who all on-based under .300. Even the de Roulet Mets woulda made mince meat outta that squad.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I believe the Mariners of 2010 are believed to have had the worst offense since those Padres. Spezio would sire Scott the next season.

[batmagadanleadoff]

What chance did the 1971 Padres ever have, with two 1962 Mets ("Nelson" Miller and Cannizzaro) on their roster?

[Frayed Knot]

Nate Colbert (although the '72 version, not '71) was for a time (and maybe still is) the answer to the trivia question about what hitter had the largest percentage of his team's RBIs.
Colbert knocked in 111 in a year when the Padres scored all of 488 runs. No one else on the team even reached 50 and only two - Leron Lee and Cito Gaston - broke 40.
Scary hitter with a short prime.

[Guest Edgy DC]

With him, Carlton, and the likes of Wilbur Wood and Mike Marshall, that period had a lot of strange outliers. Guys asked to absolutely carry their teams. In many cases they carried them absoltuely nowhere, but still.

[Theoldmole]

50s, too, where on two occasions, if memory serves, the MVP was on a last place team -- Ernie Banks and Hank Sauer.

[seawolf17]

I am definitely breaking out SOM tonight.

[batmagadanleadoff]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: What chance did the 1971 Padres ever have, with two 1962 Mets ("Nelson" Miller and Cannizzaro) on their roster?

There's a trivia question! When was the last time two members of the 1962 Mets were teammates?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

1971, San Diego.

[batmagadanleadoff]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: 1971, San Diego.

Wrong. "Nelson" was Ed Kranepool's teammate on the 1974 Mets.**

haha.


** 1973, too.

[Vic Sage]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: and so I used ... the Padres (who had slugger Nate Colbert and pitchers Dave Roberts, Clay Kirby and Bob Miller) I'm suddenly remembering how bad the 1971 Padres were. They had to have been one of the worst teams of the '70s, even with Dave Roberts pitching like a Cy Young candidate. Ed Spiezio, Enzo Hernandez, Don Mason and Clarence Gaston were everyday players who all on-based under .300. Even the de Roulet Mets woulda made mince meat outta that squad.

As i recall, my `71 MetPodgers were:

SD
1b - Nate Colbert
SP - Clay Kirby, Dave Roberts
RP - Bob Miller

NY
c - Grote
2b - Boswell
SS - Harrelson
CF - Agee
LF - Jones
UT - Teddy Martinez
SP - Seaver, Sadecki
RP - frisella, McGraw

DET
C- Bill Freehan
1b - Norm Cash
3b - Aurelio Rodriguez
LF - Willie Horton
RF - Al Kaline
of - Gates Brown
of/ss - Mickey stanley
OF/1b - Jim Northrup
SP - Mickey Lolich, Joe Coleman
RP - Fred Scherman

lineup
Agee CF
CJones LF
Kaline Rf
Norm Cash 1b
Bill Freehan C
Boswell 2b
Aurelio Rodriguez 3b
Harrelson SS

bench:
Colbert 1b
Grote C
TMartinez IF
Gates Brown OF
W.Horton OF
J.Northrup 1b/OF
Stanley IF/of

Rotation:
Seaver
Lolich
Roberts
Kirby
Coleman

bullpen:
McGraw
Frisella
Miller
Scherman
Sadecki

I can't tell you how many games Gates Brown won with a big pinch-hit in late innings, with Scherman closing it out for Seaver.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I can't tell you how many games Gates Brown won with a big pinch-hit in late innings, with Scherman closing it out for Seaver.

1971 Gates Brown was the most controversial figure in my lifetime of playing SOM. In my first draft league (with some of my neighborhood friends) I drafted Brown, intending to start him in every single game.

In the real world, Brown, in his prime, was a devastating crusher of right handed pitchers who almost never batted against southpaws. He was the platoon player. (I looked up his career stats -- he faced RHP's 2,295 times and LHP's just 250 times. This ratio must be in record-setting territory for a player with more than 2,500 lifetime PA's.)

True to form, the real Brown, in 1971, hit righthanders like an MVP -- .342/.410/.542. He faced LHP's just six times in 1971, but slugged .800 and OPS'ed 1.133 against them. To give you an idea of what an OPS of 1.133 meant in 1971, the league leaders in OPS that season were Hank Aaron (NL-1.079) and Bobby Murcer (AL-.970) Brown's '71 season SOM card was devastating against both lefties and righties. I played Gates regularly. My friends were amused, probably even annoyed, but protested only mildly.

My use of Gates Brown was an egregious abuse of the realism principle. Brown almost never played against lefties in the real world -- and his impressive SOM card against lefties was based on a minuscule sample size of six plate appearances. And I knew and understood all of this, even though I was a little kid and the word "egregious" might not have been in my vocabulary, then. But because there was no prohibition against using Brown every day, I prevailed. Rules were rules. And no rules were no rules. I won the tournament, and Brown had some of the biggest hits in that league.

For our next 1971 SOM draft, I devised a formula so that players' SOM PA's would be limited to roughly but not exactly, the number of PA's they accumulated in the real world 1971. Here, my friends were not amused and protested vehemently. In the end though, my formula was accepted. Nobody wanted to risk an unrestricted Gates Brown on somebody else's team.

On August 7, 1968, Brown made history. He wasn't in the starting lineup, so he decided to grab two hot dogs from the clubhouse. He was ordered by manager Mayo Smith to pinch hit. He stuffed the hot dogs in his jersey to hide them from his manager. "I always wanted to get a hit every time I went to the plate. But this was one time I didn't want to get a hit. I'll be damned if I didn't smack one in the gap and I had to slide into second�head first, no less. I was safe with a double. But when I stood up, I had mustard and ketchup and smashed hot dogs and buns all over me. "The fielders took one look at me, turned their backs and damned near busted a gut laughing at me. My teammates in the dugout went crazy." After fining Brown $100, Smith said, "What the hell were you doing eating on the bench in the first place?" Brown: "I decided to tell him the truth. I said, 'I was hungry. Besides, where else can you eat a hot dog and have the best seat in the house'"[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Brown

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The key to Gates Brown's ferocious 1971 season was of course his roommate, former Met Kevin Collins. The pairing of black and white players as roommates in baseball even then was considered somewhat daring.

�I don�t consider this a breakthrough of any kind,� [Collins] told The Sporting News. �People are people. That�s the way I was brought up.� Collins said Brown, as a veteran, could have chosen to live alone but preferred a roommate, in part, to help him with his neckties. Collins remarked that the only challenge of rooming with Brown was enduring his roommate�s snoring. �The key with Gates was I wanted to fall asleep earlier than he did,� said Collins, who remained close to Brown long after their careers. �And you hoped to hell you�d fall asleep before he started honking. It was like the Burlington Northern coming down the track.�

http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=1911&pid=2679

[Frayed Knot]

I had a baseball card of Gates Brown back in the day.
He was such a scary looking character that my sister was afraid of it.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Why am I not surprised that Gates Brown snored like a locomotive?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Gates Brown and Ron LeFlore were both signed by the Tigers out of prison.