Baseball Stratogists

Strat-O-Matic in the Real World

Q & A: Baseball Guru Bill James ^New!

Bill James Keith Philpott for TIME

Bill James, the legendary baseball stat guru and godfather of the data-driven "Moneyball" movement that has changed how front offices evaluate players, has written a new book, The Bill James Gold Mine 2008. TIME's Sean Gregory caught up with James, now a senior advisor to the world champion Boston Red Sox, from the team's spring training facility in Fort Myers, Fla., to talk about the state of analytics in baseball, the Roger Clemens steroids controversy, and whether a certain New York Yankees star looks like Henry Fonda. more...

Confessions of a Simulated Mind

By Jonah Keri
FROM ESPN.COM

Dennis Martinez Would you miss the birth of your first-born child because of your fantasy league? Of course not. Neither would Chris Blake.

An avid player of Strat-O-Matic baseball, Blake has participated in all kinds of leagues since childhood. He'll go to great lengths to play his favorite simulation baseball game -- traveling great distances to roll dice and wield fistfuls of player cards, or whiling away hours, even days, on the computer playing Strat online. more...

Strat Stories from One Who Really Knows the Game

By Doug Glanville
FROM STRAT-O-MATIC SPHERE

Thanks to my big brother Ken, I became a Strat-O-Matic groupie at the ripe old age of 5. Apparently, Strat-O-Matic was part of his ultimate progression to become a Major League baseball player. He had written down five steps to baseball glory and one of the key steps, right after Wiffle Ball, was becoming proficient in Strat-O-Matic baseball.

So at 5 years old and with hands hardly big enough to hold the dice, I was placed in a league full of young teens. This league consisted of my brother’s companions, many with which I had close to an 8-year age disadvantage. more...

Baseball Fans Stay True to Low-Tech Board Game

By Uri Berliner
FROM NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO

Hal Some fans don't wait until opening day for baseball season. They indulge their sports fantasies year-round. Many play video games with splashy graphics. But the most enduring baseball diversion is a humble board game called Strat-O-Matic with an influential and devoted following.

Strat-O-Matic was one of the first diversions for numbers-obsessed sports fans. Launched in 1961, it's a predecessor to the stat-based sports fantasy leagues now attracting millions of participants. more...

It all adds up

By Dave D'Onofrio
FROM CONCORD MONITOR ONLINE

olderness School baseball Coach David Lockwood has never been big into statistics, but back in the early 1990s a player came through his program who so enjoyed the numbers of the national pastime, he'd devour them like a nine-course meal.

Dividing his days between becoming a star shortstop and systemizing his Strat-O-Matic roster, the kid would school his coach with stats swiped from all sorts of places. He'd also trade banter with equally obsessed teammate Jimmy Gibbons, the tandem broadcasting a breadth of encyclopedic baseball knowledge to anyone within earshot. more...