Long Story
By Rodger Long - Guest Writer
08/13/2005
Do you remember playing Strat-O-Matic for the first time?
My initiation to Strat came in the summer of 1970, when I was 11 years old. My friend Larry would bring over different sports games, like Sports illustrated baseball and Avalon sports games. We used to play electric football and Oscar Robertson basketball. I loved this stuff.
One day that summer he got a new game he had ordered from a sports magazine called Strat-o-Matic baseball. As you know, it had individual cards based on real players from the 1969 Major League season.
The first game we played I managed the Dodgers and he had the Reds. He stole home with Lee May and beat me in the 9th inning on a split card ' 1.' Even though I lost, I was hooked.
I loved managing my own team and making decisions. We only had six teams but it was fun. One of the teams was the San Francisco Giants, but Mc Covey was not included. Larry wrote SOM but said they could not send him a McCovey card.
Regardless, I ordered the 1970 six-team season set and then the 1971 season, which is my personal all time favorite Strat season. I played thousands of games and did replays. Bob Moose survived getting barfed on from my dog. He has a chunk from his card missing but he never went on the DL.
Getting the cards in the mail was the BEST day. The card stock back then was so much better, and so were the card patterns. Cards came individually separated and rubber banded.
Your only source for statistics was the Sporting News and then you would order the Dope Books, or get their Baseball Register. In the early 80's Baseball Digest would have rookie ratings.
I started to play-by mail (PBM) in 1980. Boy, was that better than replaying season or games. The big phone bills trying to make trades, and paperwork, mailing out your stats. But I kept it up.
Through college, marriage, birth of my daughter, deaths in family , I have been in PBM leagues ever since. As a result, I have made many lifelong friends, been to their weddings (a groom made a trade just before getting married), and watched them have children and grandchildren.
We are fortunate to be a part of something that is special. As much as I want to do well, the friends I have made are worth much more than I have ever spent on this 'hobby' or as my wife calls it, my 'addiction.'