[Reggie]

Originally Posted by Ormondbeachdan

Here is my story. I will be 69 come next week. Am I the oldest on the boards?
Seems like yesterday... but lets go back in time.. Nov 1963 . I was mesmerized by the ad they always ran in Baseball Digest. "Baseball comes alive on your Tabletop" etc etc. My Dad was fascinated as well.
He ordered us the Stratomatic starter kit. I think it included 6 teams of your choice. Paper stock, one sided cards in those days.
I was like Ralphie in the movie "A Christmas Story" waiting for his secret decoder pin to come in the mail!. Finally the box arrived. Oh Joy!.. My task was to open it and read the directions which I did, putting all thought of homework aside... after all this was important stuff.. Baseball on my living room table.. Willie Mays would be fielding, Maury Wills stealing base after base.. Sandy Koufax mowing down batter after batter!
That week Kennedy was killed.. That weekend my Dad said "Ok, let's get away from the TV and play Strat. My brother , Dad and myself formed a 3 team league. My brother had the Dodgers, I had the Giants and my Dad took the Reds. No trading... ever!.. We played a 30 game schedule. I started doing the records by hand of course. Not even a calculator in those days. All the basics, Avg, runs, rbi, Dbls Triples Homers and Wins Loses, K's ERA etc.
Notebook style.. all meticulously done to cherish forever!. Ok skipping a few months, naturally in the Spring totally hooked ordered the entire new set of cards.. and the cycle started again.. Back in the 70s I was still playing, mostly solitaire , keeping records of course. A thought came to me.. "Gee, someday with this new computer stuff, I bet they will have this for computers and you will even be able to see Lou Gehrig running around the bases.So I've been simming for 55 years now!!
Ok.. in ending I want to say, I have always had that boyhood urge each Spring... and with OOTP throughout the last 12 years or so, those feelings have only increased.. I can remain a young boy at heart! Thank you Mark and Team!
Dan Spellacy Ormond Beach Fl

Records by hand brings back summer vacation memories. Had my dad bring home score sheets he printed off at work. Then we would update stats after each game on a main page off the score sheet. Went through a lot of erasers.