Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Statis Pro Baseball

With the 2005 baseball season quickly approaching I find myself in a nostalgic mood; reflecting back on how big a role the great game has played in my life.

Most of my fondest childhood memories involve baseball. Trips to Cleveland's old Municipal Stadium to cheer on an up and coming Indians team with a young thirdbaseman by the name of Jim Thome. A road trip that included stops in Cooperstown, NY, Pittsburgh, Cincinnatti, and Detroit to see all the old ballparks in those cities (and the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown of course). Blue Jays games in old exhibition stadium. Sitting in the left field general admission seats, cheering on George Bell and booing Rickey Henderson whenever the hated Yankees came to town. And then there are other, non-Major League related memories involving baseball.

Playing in a men's fastball league with my Dad a couple years before he died. For many games we actually comprised a pretty darn good middle infield combo with Dad at second and me at short. I remember him playing a playoff game, he played first base, with a broken index finger. He was the only guy on our team, probably in the whole league, to use a wooden bat. In that playoff game he went 1-1 with a single, an RBI, drew 3 walks and scored 4 runs. All that with a broken finger. And Sammy Sosa missed how many games last year because of a sneeze!?

Today, I was reminded of another childhood memory involving baseball. The Statis Pro Baseball game. I don't know if you've ever heard of the Statis Pro game before but as a young 11 or 12 year old (and into my mid-teens) I lived for that game. One of my brothers introduced me to this tabletop card-style game. This was before video games came along but Statis Pro was equally, if not more, addictive then any video game I've played.

I used to love going through season after season, keeping track of player stats, making trades, and just getting a sense of what it must be like to be a big league owner and/or general manager. It was a game that allowed your imagination to really get involved as you flipped through cards and came up with strategy- are you going to let Sandberg swing away with a man on first and two outs, or are you going to call for the hit and run and see if you can't get that man over to third? It was awesome!

Unfortunately, Avalon Hill, the company who made the game, ceased productions in 1992 after a dispute with Major League Baseball over royalty fees. I was 15 when Statis Pro ceased to exist but for a couple years after production stopped I would create my own player cards and try to continue to play the game.

Now, 13 years after Statis Pro produced it's last game, I find that there are still those out there who continue to play the game. Not only that, but there are those who continue to create player cards, continuing on from '92 season right up until this past 2004 season. How excited I was to find this out.

Unfortunately, I do not have my last version of the Statis Pro game anymore (which I believe was either the '91 or '92 version) so I have begun a desperate search to find the actual board game and playing cards that accompany the player cards. I would love to be able to introduce my son (in a few years when he's old enough) to the wonderful world of Statis Pro Baseball. For any true baseball fan it is a great game to play and it brings me back to a simpler time of life.

If anyone out there knows where I can get my hands on the actual Statis Pro game let me know. All I could find on Ebay was a 1986 version.