Is this a book about us?

[GMLoophole]

While looking up something else (once in a while I find what I set out to), I ran across this book description at Amazon...

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.- Robert Coover (1971)


A satirical fable with a rootless and helpless accountant as the protagonist. Alone in his apartment, he spends all his nights and weekends playing an intricate baseball game of his own invention. The author has won the William Faulkner Award and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award.

So, I guess it's referring to Strat-o-Matic and Statis Pro and so on? And surely I wasn't the only kid to improvise games using baseball cards.

Anyway, wondering if anyone ever read this. As always the Amazon reviews are enjoyable, partially because no one seems to have any idea that either the tabletop or computer versions of Mr. Waugh's game exist.

Gotta go... need to finish some Mexican League logos!

[TribeFanInNC]

It's a fictional book about a guy that basically creates his own Strat-o-Matic-like baseball dice game. I personally didn't care for the writing style much, but plenty of people think it is an excellent book.

[Goodsox]

Fantastic book! I first heard about that here a few years ago and I ordered it and loved it. I don't read much for leisure, but this is definitely worth reading and fans of games like OOTP will most likely enjoy it even more.

[ctorg]

I loved that book. I totally understood the dude's obsession.

[shawa666]

Unfortunately, yes.

[lt2cents]

Read this book when a teenager--- long ago. Your mentioning it reminds it is one of the few books I might want to return to someday, not because it is any great literature-- (mixed reviews)-- but because, thinking about it now, maybe it had some kind of influence on my interests in life.

[Fredrocker]

I read this book a few years back and it is entertaining in a subtle way. It reminded me of some of the so called flaws in my character. I really could understand and relate to the author, if a baseball fan especially baseball gaming, its worth a read

[Henry]

Excellent story. I even replayed the UBA in OOTP a number of years back. Some odd parts in the book - especially the end - but the author was really writing about the psychological stability of the main character - but does a marvelous job at explaining his fictional baseball league and making it believable.

[landru]

I've read it and it is uncomfortably a little too close to our hobby. Coover is a very postmodern writer - in his other books he gets a lot weirder.

What you might not know is Jack Kerouac's homemade baseball games. Kerouac was a football star in high school and not at all just the beatnik you might think he was. Here is a link to a NY Times article on his baseball game A New Book Details Jack Kerouac’s Obsession With Fantasy Baseball - NYTimes.com

[ctorg]

Yeah, I remember reading about Kerouac and feeling legitimized!

There's a certain kind of person for whom this kind of gaming sets off endorphins that others get from hard drugs, I think. Other people are puzzled and trying to explain it to them is nearly impossible.

Part of it, for me, is the ability to play god with a universe of my own design, which has always appealed to me (I used to design fictional worlds for fun as a teenager). Part of it is the stats and love of numbers. Unlike real life, you can actually measure things pretty well and there are winners and losers. Really, I can never exactly say why I like games like OOTP so much, but I'm definitely addicted.