Ok, here’s a good one.
I should have thought about this back in March when they put all the real games away.
We could have started our own Dice Baseball League.
During all this covid down-time we could have been playing dice baseball, instead of sitting around staring at a blank TV screen, or trying to come up with stories about old ballplayers and goof balls.
So the blame probably goes to Matt McCann. Matt was a friend of mine in Fullerton back in the days between 6th grade and freshman year in high school. I think those are probably the goofiest times for a kid; at least that’s what they say. Matt was pretty goofy. I am afraid to google him and see where he is now, and whether he is still playing APBA (American Professional Baseball Association). APBA was one of the first cult-games developed to distract junior high boys from doing school work and thinking about girls. Although I never got involved in APBA, I did pick up Dice Baseball and played hundreds of games, involving notebooks full of scorecards, including win and loss records, batting averages and other statistical gibberish. This is likely why I failed Spanish and avoided science like the plague.
If you google Dice Baseball, you will discover that it really is a thing; many formal and informal variations over the last 100 years. So, see, I was not the only crazy person. My version went something like this:
Roll the dice……
1/1 = Home run 8 = out
1/2 = Double 9 = out
1/3 or 2/2 = walk 10 = strikeout
5 total = single 11 = single
6 = strikeout 12 = triple
7 = out
There were usually 4 to 6 teams in the league, chosen by the commissioner, and of course always included the Dodgers and generally included the Giants, the Reds and the Braves; only National League teams of course. The score cards looked at lot like a real score card, with the players names listed on the left hand column and then the 9 innings/columns. The games went pretty fast, with most of the time dedicated to lining of the score card with a ruler, and then listing the names.
SSOMG had mostly forgotten about these exciting times. Of course the Dodgers won most, if not all of their games, as a roll of the dice could easily be altered for a better outcome. Some pitchers lost few if any games. Home runs came at very opportune times. The Giants usually finished last in the league. Most of the games were played in the living room at Jose Way in Fullerton. The living room was used for little-else.
I went through a lot of notebook paper back then, and am not sure where those scorecards ended up; probably with those baseball coins that my Mother gave away to some unsuspecting garage sale drive-by; there goes 3 years of my life….
SSOMG should have brought this up sooner. We could have had a family round-robin during the Pandemic Period. Maybe it’s not too late….ok, let’s start the draft…I get the Dodgers…who wants the Giants? We will all need a couple of dice….and some notebook paper; and a ruler. Of course, I am the commissioner. Maybe we can play the games on Zoom!?! Sheesh!
Sports Stories of My Generation 