55 Years ago today. My first "sim"!

Ormondbeachdan · 11-25-2018, 07:28 AM

Flashback, Nov 25, 1963. I was 14. It was the week Kennedy was assassinated That is why I remember this so vividly.My Dad and myself always read "Baseball Digest". There was always an ad for Stratomatic Baseball. "Watch players come alive on your tabletop" etc.

My Dad said " We need to get this!". So I got to order the "starter pack". Think it came with 6 teams of your choice. One sided cards at the time, no lefty/righty splits. 20 cards per team.

I was like Ralphie in Xmas story waiting for his decoder pin to come in the mail. Skunked again! Then that GREAT day came .Unfortunately the same day Kennedy was killed.

My Dad said Sunday he wanted to play that afternoon. So we each picked a team. I had the Reds, he had the Giants and my brother the Dodgers. 30 game schedule. Kept records in a special notebook by hand. BA, Singles Doubles Triples, HRs, Runs scored, Rbi's At Bats, BA
and also pitching records.
This was the start of my love of simming.. Something special about "rolling those dice" and each year wondering what the individual cards would look like .
Been playing one sim or another ever since. In the 70s I thought "Wow this computer stuff is going to be something, thinking maybe.. JUST maybe someday baseball would be played on it, with records kept and Hey choice of ballparks, players running, hitting and fielding... Nah... too much too hope for. LOL

One thing I might add.. Back then we kept the teams intact. No trading allowed. That's just the way we rolled.
So... Who else has been playing that long or longer?
This game has given me the most joy without any doubt. Thank you so much for it!

geobaldi · 11-25-2018, 08:28 AM

I wasn't around at that time but I started playing the All-Star Baseball board game, from Cadaco, in the late 80's. Used to watch the Cubs games on TV while playing the board game at the same time. I kept box scores of all the games and everything. Fast forward to now, and Strat-O-Matic Baseball shares playing time with All-Star Baseball. I'm currently playing through a full season with all the teams in Strat-O-Matic and keeping track of all the scores, and stats. It's taking a while since that's almost 5000 games I have to play and record, but it's worth it if that's something you're into. I'm also doing the same with the Techno Bowl football board game, but that's a conversation for a another day.

Déjà Bru · 11-25-2018, 09:28 AM

That's where it started for me as well, Dan. Thanks for the flashback memory.

Eckstein 4 Prez · 11-25-2018, 09:42 AM

Great story. Thanks.

I am a little younger but have a similar story - for me it was a baseball dice game I learned from my uncle in 1981, which led to Statis Pro Baseball. I played that through the 80s and early 90s, took a break for a few years, and was in my first year of law school when I discovered OOTP in early 2002. The rest is history.

Leo_The_Lip · 11-25-2018, 12:22 PM

I still remember that weekend myself.

I was sitting on the living room floor playing this:

https://www.ebay.com/i/113343163622?chn=ps

in an Ivy League fictional (of course, no teams in this one) league (I lived near Princeton) competition. My family was watching CBS coverage.

All of sudden, Oswald came on screen and Jack Ruby shot him, right there on live TV.

I'll never forget that moment.

Kushiel · 11-25-2018, 01:38 PM

I started way back with Stratomatic Baseball too. I played some others too as the years went by. I always loved them all because I could play with my friends and family as well as solo any time I wanted. I have fond memories of such quality time with my Dad and Brother.

zrog2000 · 11-25-2018, 01:49 PM

I started out with a board game called Longball and then later on with APBA, probably around 1980. I used a program called Appleworks to make my first spreadsheets. I played every game and kept box scores. I even updated the standings daily on a cork board and kept track of league leaders.

Zorro · 11-25-2018, 01:58 PM

I started in 1960 with a game called Negamco. I had the Baseball and the Basketball Version. I also saw it in a Magazine and it took like 6 weeks to get here. I remember going to sleep every night dreaming about it and 6 weeks is forever for a kid. Lol.

Ormondbeachdan · 11-25-2018, 02:34 PM

Sure wish I had kept every addition I had purchased.. Played APBA too of course..I card quality was Unique.. and then they came out with the "Master Edition" wowie wow wow!

zrog2000 · 11-25-2018, 02:41 PM

I remember I even made my own cards and kept every roster up to date. I never knew baseball as well as I did back then. I could tell you the lineup, bench players, rotation and bullpen of every team in the majors. I was the definition of baseball nerd. Too bad advanced stats weren't a thing back then or I would have majored in it for college and gotten a job in baseball.

vyshka · 11-25-2018, 07:11 PM

My sim history started with Statis-Pro football. I played in a league at a local hobby store. We ended up having a Stratomatic baseball league as well. On the PC I started with Lance Haffner 3-in-1 football. After that it was a game based on Miller Associates baseball on the computer sports network, I believe called General Manager. Also had of pursue the pennant, and diamond mind (might have been something else). Front Page Sports titles in the 90s, and eventually OOTP.

Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk

<Pion> · 11-25-2018, 09:42 PM

My first was in 1972, it was SI Baseball and had the 1971 teams with one team of players on each sheet of paper (no individual cards though they later had a version of historical greats with one player per card). I eventually wrote a baseball game using that 1971 game on a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer using BASIC-A.

BusterKing · 11-26-2018, 07:04 AM

my first baseball video game was Hardball for my state of the art Amiga computer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr2iUSfeilk

Years later I got myself a pc and found the very first OOTP version in a bargain bin at the mall, eventually got hooked on the text simulation with OOTP and baseball mogul but OOTP got much better then all the other games. Bought every version of it.

Germaniac · 11-26-2018, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ormondbeachdan

Flashback, Nov 25, 1963. I was 14. It was the week Kennedy was assassinated That is why I remember this so vividly.My Dad and myself always read "Baseball Digest". There was always an ad for Stratomatic Baseball. "Watch players come alive on your tabletop" etc.

I loved "Baseball Digest" ... I could subscribe to it from Germany and I was so excited everytime I took it out of my mailbox

Matty86 · 11-26-2018, 04:55 PM

I started out with APBA baseball in the early 90s (I was probably 8 or so when my dad bought me a copy at a yard sale and played it with me). Didn't play card and dice for years through my teens but I've been in a face to face APBA league for 7ish years now!

I remember playing Triple Play baseball on the PC and maybe Ken Griffey Jr baseball on the N64 growing up before I came across Season ticket baseball (OOTP) shortly after their first release.

wolfslice · 11-26-2018, 06:59 PM

Ah, that story made me nostalgic. Those memories of playing games as a kid have always been my favorites too (though I'm 34 so I grew up with NES Mario, and my favorite-- the Monkey Island series).

There's just something warm about it. Getting all excited for the game and finally opening it and playing-- without all the adult troubles that weigh you down later...

Yeah those are memories to hold on to.

uschi_baerchen · 11-29-2018, 08:47 AM

I started with the Avalon Hill Baseball Game, but found no one to Play it with me (I am from Germany), but then Earl Weaver Baseball appeared on PC and I simmed the Orioles. I remember Cal Ripken was the Corner Stone of my Team (with his brother at 2 Base) and Micky Tettleton its Nemesis. God, that guy sat on the pitches, his lines looked (exagerated) 600 PA, 450 AB, 150 Walks, 415 Strikeouts, 35 HR, 0 1B, 0 2B, 0 3B. It was wonderful. I made all decisions, Hit-and-Run, Bunts, Squeeze Bunts, Squeeze Steals, In and Outfields in and out. ...
And then I went out (around 1995) to the Baseball Bundesliga (= Major League in Germany) to get some life Feeling. It was the Hamburg Steelers in Lokstedt. And then it happened:
Steelers batting and leading 2 – 1, top of 7th inning, 1 out, runners on first and third. Runner on third is the American player trainer of the Steelers by the way. Throw comes, third going two steps towards home , catcher misses catchable pitch (FIRST ERROR), ball crashes behind him into the net, runner on first not paying any attention (or paying attention to the blonde girl behind Home Base for that matter). Player trainer cries “Go IDIOT”. Idiot recognizes he is meant and makes two lazy steps towards second base. By that time catcher has recovered the ball and takes a look at player trainer and runs towards him. Player trainer trots back into direction to third, catcher throws to third baseman (SECOND ERROR), third baseman does not catch the ball (THIRD ERROR), runner from first is now between first and second and thinks, it is a good idea to go back to first (FOURTH ERROR), third baseman recovers the ball and throws to first (FIFTH ERROR), first baseman (yes, the ball was juiced) misses the throw (SIXTH ERROR), runners on third and first hold until the ball is recovered (ERRORS SEVEN and EIGHT) and that was the last life scene of baseball I saw in my life, I collected my wife and left the playground for good.

Markus Heinsohn · 11-29-2018, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uschi_baerchen

I started with the Avalon Hill Baseball Game, but found no one to Play it with me (I am from Germany), but then Earl Weaver Baseball appeared on PC and I simmed the Orioles. I remember Cal Ripken was the Corner Stone of my Team (with his brother at 2 Base) and Micky Tettleton its Nemesis. God, that guy sat on the pitches, his lines looked (exagerated) 600 PA, 450 AB, 150 Walks, 415 Strikeouts, 35 HR, 0 1B, 0 2B, 0 3B. It was wonderful. I made all decisions, Hit-and-Run, Bunts, Squeeze Bunts, Squeeze Steals, In and Outfields in and out. ...
And then I went out (around 1995) to the Baseball Bundesliga (= Major League in Germany) to get some life Feeling. It was the Hamburg Steelers in Lokstedt. And then it happened:
Steelers batting and leading 2 – 1, top of 7th inning, 1 out, runners on first and third. Runner on third is the American player trainer of the Steelers by the way. Throw comes, third going two steps towards home , catcher misses catchable pitch (FIRST ERROR), ball crashes behind him into the net, runner on first not paying any attention (or paying attention to the blonde girl behind Home Base for that matter). Player trainer cries “Go IDIOT”. Idiot recognizes he is meant and makes two lazy steps towards second base. By that time catcher has recovered the ball and takes a look at player trainer and runs towards him. Player trainer trots back into direction to third, catcher throws to third baseman (SECOND ERROR), third baseman does not catch the ball (THIRD ERROR), runner from first is now between first and second and thinks, it is a good idea to go back to first (FOURTH ERROR), third baseman recovers the ball and throws to first (FIFTH ERROR), first baseman (yes, the ball was juiced) misses the throw (SIXTH ERROR), runners on third and first hold until the ball is recovered (ERRORS SEVEN and EIGHT) and that was the last life scene of baseball I saw in my life, I collected my wife and left the playground for good.

Hahaha... the beauty of German baseball

LivnLegend · 11-29-2018, 09:31 AM

To the OP, great story.

I remember seeing ads for Strat-O-Matic and other tabletop/dice baseball games when I was a kid. The ads would be in Baseball Digest or Sporting News. I always wanted it but the computer age was in early development so I focused more that direction, especially since I didn't know any friends or family that had interest in that sort of thing.

I did own Longball and Pursue the Pennant games, but other than getting my dopey brother to play me, I didn't have worthwhile opponents so they mostly just sat in the closet collecting dust.

Once I got my hands on Micro League Baseball on my old Mac and Earl Weaver Baseball for the PC, it was full on immersion, with advanced stat keeping and pure joy.

11-25-2018, 07:28 AM	#1
Ormondbeachdan Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Ormond Beach Fl Posts: 299	55 Years ago today. My first "sim"! Flashback, Nov 25, 1963. I was 14. It was the week Kennedy was assassinated That is why I remember this so vividly.My Dad and myself always read "Baseball Digest". There was always an ad for Stratomatic Baseball. "Watch players come alive on your tabletop" etc. My Dad said " We need to get this!". So I got to order the "starter pack". Think it came with 6 teams of your choice. One sided cards at the time, no lefty/righty splits. 20 cards per team. I was like Ralphie in Xmas story waiting for his decoder pin to come in the mail. Skunked again! Then that GREAT day came .Unfortunately the same day Kennedy was killed. My Dad said Sunday he wanted to play that afternoon. So we each picked a team. I had the Reds, he had the Giants and my brother the Dodgers. 30 game schedule. Kept records in a special notebook by hand. BA, Singles Doubles Triples, HRs, Runs scored, Rbi's At Bats, BA and also pitching records. This was the start of my love of simming.. Something special about "rolling those dice" and each year wondering what the individual cards would look like . Been playing one sim or another ever since. In the 70s I thought "Wow this computer stuff is going to be something, thinking maybe.. JUST maybe someday baseball would be played on it, with records kept and Hey choice of ballparks, players running, hitting and fielding... Nah... too much too hope for. LOL One thing I might add.. Back then we kept the teams intact. No trading allowed. That's just the way we rolled. So... Who else has been playing that long or longer? This game has given me the most joy without any doubt. Thank you so much for it!

11-25-2018, 09:28 AM	#3
Déjà Bru Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: United States Posts: 10,456	That's where it started for me as well, Dan. Thanks for the flashback memory. __________________ - Bru

11-25-2018, 09:42 AM	#4
Eckstein 4 Prez Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: The OC Posts: 6,347	Great story. Thanks. I am a little younger but have a similar story - for me it was a baseball dice game I learned from my uncle in 1981, which led to Statis Pro Baseball. I played that through the 80s and early 90s, took a break for a few years, and was in my first year of law school when I discovered OOTP in early 2002. The rest is history. __________________ Looking for an insomnia cure? Check out my dynasty thread, The Dawn of American Professional Base Ball, 1871.

11-25-2018, 12:22 PM	#5
Leo_The_Lip All Star Starter Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1,703	I still remember that weekend myself. I was sitting on the living room floor playing this: https://www.ebay.com/i/113343163622?chn=ps in an Ivy League fictional (of course, no teams in this one) league (I lived near Princeton) competition. My family was watching CBS coverage. All of sudden, Oswald came on screen and Jack Ruby shot him, right there on live TV. I'll never forget that moment. __________________ "My name will live forever" - Anonymous

11-25-2018, 01:38 PM	#6
Kushiel All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Deep in the Heart of Texas Posts: 1,697	I started way back with Stratomatic Baseball too. I played some others too as the years went by. I always loved them all because I could play with my friends and family as well as solo any time I wanted. I have fond memories of such quality time with my Dad and Brother. __________________ *Favente Deo supero*

11-25-2018, 08:28 AM	#2
geobaldi Bat Boy Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 17	I wasn't around at that time but I started playing the All-Star Baseball board game, from Cadaco, in the late 80's. Used to watch the Cubs games on TV while playing the board game at the same time. I kept box scores of all the games and everything. Fast forward to now, and Strat-O-Matic Baseball shares playing time with All-Star Baseball. I'm currently playing through a full season with all the teams in Strat-O-Matic and keeping track of all the scores, and stats. It's taking a while since that's almost 5000 games I have to play and record, but it's worth it if that's something you're into. I'm also doing the same with the Techno Bowl football board game, but that's a conversation for a another day.

11-25-2018, 01:49 PM	#7
zrog2000 All Star Starter Join Date: Nov 2018 Posts: 1,335	I started out with a board game called Longball and then later on with APBA, probably around 1980. I used a program called Appleworks to make my first spreadsheets. I played every game and kept box scores. I even updated the standings daily on a cork board and kept track of league leaders.

11-25-2018, 01:58 PM	#8
Zorro Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 2,944 Blog Entries: 3	I started in 1960 with a game called Negamco. I had the Baseball and the Basketball Version. I also saw it in a Magazine and it took like 6 weeks to get here. I remember going to sleep every night dreaming about it and 6 weeks is forever for a kid. Lol.

11-25-2018, 02:34 PM	#9
Ormondbeachdan Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Ormond Beach Fl Posts: 299	Sure wish I had kept every addition I had purchased.. Played APBA too of course..I card quality was Unique.. and then they came out with the "Master Edition" wowie wow wow!

11-25-2018, 02:41 PM	#10
zrog2000 All Star Starter Join Date: Nov 2018 Posts: 1,335	I remember I even made my own cards and kept every roster up to date. I never knew baseball as well as I did back then. I could tell you the lineup, bench players, rotation and bullpen of every team in the majors. I was the definition of baseball nerd. Too bad advanced stats weren't a thing back then or I would have majored in it for college and gotten a job in baseball.

11-25-2018, 07:11 PM	#11
vyshka Major Leagues Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Chandler, AZ Posts: 389	My sim history started with Statis-Pro football. I played in a league at a local hobby store. We ended up having a Stratomatic baseball league as well. On the PC I started with Lance Haffner 3-in-1 football. After that it was a game based on Miller Associates baseball on the computer sports network, I believe called General Manager. Also had of pursue the pennant, and diamond mind (might have been something else). Front Page Sports titles in the 90s, and eventually OOTP. Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk __________________

11-25-2018, 09:42 PM	#12
<Pion> All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1,428	My first was in 1972, it was SI Baseball and had the 1971 teams with one team of players on each sheet of paper (no individual cards though they later had a version of historical greats with one player per card). I eventually wrote a baseball game using that 1971 game on a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer using BASIC-A.

11-26-2018, 07:04 AM	#13
BusterKing Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,371	my first baseball video game was Hardball for my state of the art Amiga computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr2iUSfeilk Years later I got myself a pc and found the very first OOTP version in a bargain bin at the mall, eventually got hooked on the text simulation with OOTP and baseball mogul but OOTP got much better then all the other games. Bought every version of it.

11-26-2018, 04:55 PM	#15
Matty86 Major Leagues Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 401	I started out with APBA baseball in the early 90s (I was probably 8 or so when my dad bought me a copy at a yard sale and played it with me). Didn't play card and dice for years through my teens but I've been in a face to face APBA league for 7ish years now! I remember playing Triple Play baseball on the PC and maybe Ken Griffey Jr baseball on the N64 growing up before I came across Season ticket baseball (OOTP) shortly after their first release.

11-26-2018, 06:59 PM	#16
wolfslice Minors (Single A) Join Date: Nov 2018 Posts: 67	Ah, that story made me nostalgic. Those memories of playing games as a kid have always been my favorites too (though I'm 34 so I grew up with NES Mario, and my favorite-- the Monkey Island series). There's just something warm about it. Getting all excited for the game and finally opening it and playing-- without all the adult troubles that weigh you down later... Yeah those are memories to hold on to.

11-29-2018, 08:47 AM	#17
uschi_baerchen Minors (Single A) Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Buchholz in der Nordheide Posts: 91	I started with the Avalon Hill Baseball Game, but found no one to Play it with me (I am from Germany), but then Earl Weaver Baseball appeared on PC and I simmed the Orioles. I remember Cal Ripken was the Corner Stone of my Team (with his brother at 2 Base) and Micky Tettleton its Nemesis. God, that guy sat on the pitches, his lines looked (exagerated) 600 PA, 450 AB, 150 Walks, 415 Strikeouts, 35 HR, 0 1B, 0 2B, 0 3B. It was wonderful. I made all decisions, Hit-and-Run, Bunts, Squeeze Bunts, Squeeze Steals, In and Outfields in and out. ... And then I went out (around 1995) to the Baseball Bundesliga (= Major League in Germany) to get some life Feeling. It was the Hamburg Steelers in Lokstedt. And then it happened: Steelers batting and leading 2 – 1, top of 7th inning, 1 out, runners on first and third. Runner on third is the American player trainer of the Steelers by the way. Throw comes, third going two steps towards home , catcher misses catchable pitch (FIRST ERROR), ball crashes behind him into the net, runner on first not paying any attention (or paying attention to the blonde girl behind Home Base for that matter). Player trainer cries “Go IDIOT”. Idiot recognizes he is meant and makes two lazy steps towards second base. By that time catcher has recovered the ball and takes a look at player trainer and runs towards him. Player trainer trots back into direction to third, catcher throws to third baseman (SECOND ERROR), third baseman does not catch the ball (THIRD ERROR), runner from first is now between first and second and thinks, it is a good idea to go back to first (FOURTH ERROR), third baseman recovers the ball and throws to first (FIFTH ERROR), first baseman (yes, the ball was juiced) misses the throw (SIXTH ERROR), runners on third and first hold until the ball is recovered (ERRORS SEVEN and EIGHT) and that was the last life scene of baseball I saw in my life, I collected my wife and left the playground for good.

11-29-2018, 09:31 AM	#19
LivnLegend Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: 100% pure adrenaline! Posts: 5,624	To the OP, great story. I remember seeing ads for Strat-O-Matic and other tabletop/dice baseball games when I was a kid. The ads would be in Baseball Digest or Sporting News. I always wanted it but the computer age was in early development so I focused more that direction, especially since I didn't know any friends or family that had interest in that sort of thing. I did own Longball and Pursue the Pennant games, but other than getting my dopey brother to play me, I didn't have worthwhile opponents so they mostly just sat in the closet collecting dust. Once I got my hands on Micro League Baseball on my old Mac and Earl Weaver Baseball for the PC, it was full on immersion, with advanced stat keeping and pure joy. __________________ Excess ain't rebellion. You're drinking what they're selling.