KEEPING STRAT-O-MATIC ALIVE

I went to my first Strat-O-Matic draft since I was a kid this past weekend.  Let me state for the record, that I don’t know what the producers of TV networks are thinking… there needs to be a reality show based on a group of guys calling each other douchbags and ripping through papers of stats and names from whatever era they choose in an attempt to draft the best team possible in a fantasy world of nerds!  It would be epic... I call dibs, I found the best crew.

Mind you, these guys are regular dudes, but they’ve been doing this for 23 seasons now, the same guys, the same ball busting and the same passion of baseball in their blood.  They love the sport and love to meet up once a year for this draft. It’s too important to miss. The best part is they concentrate on the 80’s, a great era in baseball.  

The draft went about 3 hours, guys like Bret Saberhagen and Rickey Henderson were picked rather quickly. Guys like Tony Pena, Frank Viola and Lou Whitaker  we swiped up later. But more than the players, was the dialog. “Don’t be a douche,” one of the guys yelled in from the kitchen as we looked at the “big board” to figure out what our next picks would be.  

The joke of the day was Danny Tartabull… “No one saw that pick coming,” said one of the guys. Just then, another dude yelled out “Danny Tartabull everybody… DANNY TARTABULL” and laughed hysterically, almost evil, as he clapped his hands together rapidly as if Tartabull walked into the room at that moment there was going to be a throw down.  It was a mock… but that’s what guys do.

There was pizza, beer, wine and a lot of laughs.  Now mind you, I had never met this group.  I went with 2 of my buddies, one of which grew up with this crew, but by the time I walked out of there, I felt like they were my friends too. We had things in common, but Strat-O-Matic brought us together.   Nice guys; blue collar guys, salesmen, lawyers… I even think there was a butcher in there too.  Just a great mix of dudes who came together for the love of baseball…again… 80’s baseball.   

Overall, it was fun, a lot of smiles, until I was leaving and one of the guys who started the whole thing looked at me concerned… “This is too much fun… but I worry about it going away, you know? Strat-O-Matic is dying, man.  We don’t want it to die!”  He was serious, and I got that.  As kids, we all played games like Micro League Baseball and Strat-O-Matic and we all compiled the stats before computers did it for us.  It was a nerd's culture and I’m happy to say I was apart of it, and so were these guys.  It was an outlet for years, a place to go when things in the real world became too much.  You escaped to Micro League Baseball or Strat-O-Matic for a few hours.  

“It won’t die”, I said. Although, I was unsure about my answer.  I mean, in this world of video games and electronics and so many different outlets out there… it could very well die.

Well, I slept on it last night and I decided that I don’t want it to die either.  What I’m going to do is reach out to Strat-O-Matic and see if they need help getting their site more exposure.  Maybe we’ll strike an advertising deal, maybe we’ll cross promote.  Who knows, but I want to help keep Strat-O-Matic alive!

That goes for Micro League too… you remember, right? (Read THE MICRO LEAGUE REDUX IS COMING.) I’m doing my best to try and create an APP to get Micro League downloadable and posted on Bleeding Yankee Blue. I have a good friend who is working on it. This guy may be the smartest computer guy in the country!  Hell, maybe I’ll eventually post a downloadable Micro League link, as well as a Strat-O-Matic link on BYB, so us nerds can keep the traditions going and maybe even introduce it to a new generation.  We need to keep this nerd stuff in the spotlight.

So look, if you like Strat-O-Matic, if you like Micro League Baseball… comment. Tell us what you like most about it.  If you like more than the other, tell us why.   If you have ideas to give Strat-O-Matic more exposure, reach out to me. We want to hear from you. 

Let’s keep these games alive forever… what do you think?

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