Following up on my last article on luck in APBA, I’m going to take a quick look at the ‘66’ and more precisely the ‘6’ dice roll.
We all want to roll the ‘66’ in APBA, of course. It transcends all APBA games and it epitomizes the game itself. The APBA Company even named a game after the dice roll. But do we really want to roll a single ‘6’? My guess is that we do given the ultimate result of the ‘66’ but it’s interesting how the dice rolls compared to the results are laid out. I’m sure it wasn’t a coincidence but a plan on the Company’s part.
While the ‘66’ dice roll is always the #1 best result in 99.99% of situations, what about the other dice rolls with a white ‘6’?
Put in the context of APBA baseball:
- 16- almost always a grounder to short unless he’s a freeswinger in which case it’s a K
- 26- usually a K or maybe even a double play
- 36- if you’re lucky, a player might have a 14- walk, otherwise it’s a 33- popout
- 46- again, this tends to lean toward the K
- 56- if he’s Pujols, it’s a 14-walk but if he’s human, count on a 34-popout
On the other end of things, what happens if the red die shows a red ‘6’ and the white die is spinning? You’ better be hoping for a another ‘6’.
Usually, the ‘sixty numbers’ aren’t quite as predictable. The 65 is always a 35 and this year, the 61 is the elusive 12. The 63 is the second 31 (if not, just a 30 or 32). The 62 and 64 are up in the air used to fill in the extra 13s, funny numbers and occasional walks.
The point being, APBA is genius in making the 66 the coveted number but at the same time, that is only time you want to see that number ‘6’.
They even take it a step further with the white ‘5’. We all know the white ‘5’ means something pretty good in APBA. But the only time it’s a sure automatic out??
With the red ‘6’…
This and the last post makes it sound like you’re trying to construct some shaved dice to reduce the frequency of the 6 and increase the frequency of white 5s. You don’t really want to do that, do you? :-)
All this dice talk makes me wonder – if you frequent casinos, do you play blackjack or craps? (I used to play BJ, but now I play craps almost exclusively.)
@Steve lol, the whole concept of the article is an expansion of some ideas of a former manager in our league who pointed out the Six theory in an article once. I found it fascinating and like i said, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
I refer to the dice result 65 as the marriage of two good numbers, that somehow don’t work out together.
@Tedd but occasionally, they get together for a one night stand in the case of Pujols’ 56-14 ;-)
I was also thinking when DON’T we want to roll a 66? I have had opponents who curse the 66 when their pitcher is up, even when they get a hit. The thinking is, I suppose, if Mr Slugger was batting, they would have got an even MORE favorable result.
I personally don’t think APBA, dice rolling, or for that matter, life works that way. If Mr Slugger was up, he would have gotten a dice roll. And you just can’t “save” your good rolls for your good hitters. Life doesn’t work that way. Take your good rolls when you can get them.
Call it Zen APBA.