Me being schooled by fellow IAL member Chuck Lucas circa 1982
I have been chatting with Brian Cavanaugh from the Bridesburg Boys and Girls League over Facebook recently and the topic got on to how we originally got turned on the game of APBA.
Here’s the story I told Brian:
As for me, my brother who was 11 years older than me, played it. He had the 62 set and eventually the 69 and 70 sets. He was nice enough to teach me how to play and like you, I was hooked. I played my own replays in my attic bedroom.
My replays were pretty shabbily done by today’s standards and I never finished them except for my 1977 Red Sox team replay.
I never really played in a league till my sophomore year in high school back in 1980 when Tedd (you see him as Teddy Ballgame on the blog) saw my name in the APBA Journal Directory. He called me out of the blue and asked if I was interested in being in a league. Don (you might see him as Don S on the blog) lived nearby and came over for an "interview" and we played some APBA. I must have done ok because they let me in.
I remember being so excited and telling my parents that some "adults" wanted to play APBA with me. :)
I’ve been in the Illowa APBA League since then.
Looking back, I had to wonder what my parents thought about these older men who wanted to invite their 16-year old son to an overnight weekend get together for a "draft".
So that begs the question… What’s your story? Who or what introduced you to the game of APBA?
When I was about 11 and my brother 8, one year for Christmas he got APBA football and I got baseball. The next year I got APBA basketball. I rotated being obsessed with these 3 games over the years, just the basic games, with just the card sets that came with the games, 1994 for football and baseball and 95 for basketball. I would dabble with them on and off over the years until I finally decided I wanted to get back into APBA baseball about 2 years ago, ordered the master game, and I have been off and running ever since. Barely a day has gone by since then when I have not played. I recently became a convert to BBW, and am already through a full season replay. I LOVE APBA
I first read about the game in Baseball Digest in 1973 (at age eight) and sent away to the game company for the brochure. It came, with the Tom Seaver and Pete Rose sample cards, and a printout of the Bases Empty boards.
I tried to figure out how to play from that brochure, and found two dice to play the ‘game’, alternating the cards as batters. Meanwhile, I would leave the order form in places where my parents could find it, and sure enough, I got the Basic Game for my ninth birthday.
Been playing the game now for 37 years.
Mine’s similar to Jeff Papas’s. Had a late-1981 Baseball Digest, I think this one with Danny Darwin on the cover. And the ad I had seen a dozen or so times in prior issues finally captured my attention. A couple of weeks later I had the full-color brochure (oh, wish I could have that again, if only as PDFs) with the George Brett 1980 card (brochure also included a full pic of Ruth’s triple-1s 1927 card. I got the 1980 and ’81 card sets and proceeded to have a major blast with just those two card sets for the rest of the decade.
I only started a couple of years ago – a friend of mine, Mike Lam, who is a fellow war gamer, was staying over. He pulled out his APBA set to play a game in his 1983 replay. He still uses the large Master boards rather than the newer flip-style. I asked him to show me the game, and since then I’ve been hooked, buying up seasons when the Tigers had good years. I’m doing my own 1984 replay (click the season drop-down to get to 1984 then “Show Standings”).
My friend’s older brother had a 1957 football set (this was in ’62 or so, when I was in 4th grade). Played a couple of games and loved it. I got a Coleco baseball game (with the spinner and the circular cards), and that was OK, but I kept seeing the ads for APBA and Strat in the back of Sport Magazine, and I sprang for the Strat ’62 season baseball set. Converted to APBA a couple of years later, and bought just about everything APBA sold in the 60s – old-time teams, Baseball, Football, (AFL football with the purple cards!), Basketball, Golf.
Fell out of it when I went to college, but in the late 80s I chanced to interview at a company where Walter Hunt was working. I noticed the APBA BBW game on his bookshelf, and reconnected with the game through a league Walter was in. Been happily playing ever since.
I found the ad in Street & Smiths Baseball annual for 1980. Convinced my parents to by the basic game and quickly became addicted. My neighbors and I played the 1979 season and then later my brother and I would play football and baseball after moving. I have been hooked since 8th grade. Even well into adulthood my Grandmother would get the newest edition of baseball cards for my birthday every year. Still playing. It takes much longer these day to finish a replay but currently playing the 2009 Yankees with the Master Game.
When we were in 5th grade(1982) one of our teachers taught us how to play when we started the section on probability in Math class. He gave each of us a team and assuming we did well in class that day he would give us time to play. Made for great rainy day recess time.
Never really got into the replay thing, not that nostalgic I suppose, but we had “all star” teams if you will. From then on we had APBA club in middle school and high school. Even a few summers we would get together and draft teams to play. Vince Coleman could fly….
Fell out of touch for a little while, then joined a local league with adults, for about a year and then moved out of the area.
Have since moved back and rejoined the SEATO league and loving it, AGAIN. Even my daughter enjoys playing. So I suppose thank you to Mr. Hunter, my 5th grade teacher.
My dad was an avid APBA Baseball fan, as a very young boy I can alway remember the card table positioned in the middle of the living room and my dad rolling the dice. He would keep stacks of score sheets and compile them neatly into spiral notebooks. I remember him raving about the accuracy of his replays. I would sure give alot to be able to roll one more “face to face” football game with him.
Boy, I feel old reading some of these comments!
My first baseball game was ‘Challenge the Yankees’ back in 1964. Greatvgame but limited…
My Uncle was an original 1950 season APBA owner and ordered the game with the 1966 cards for me. Still remember the day it arrived and I was amazed there were cards for EVERY player. Been playing ever since although much of my time is just pulling out an old card set and looking through the cards andcremembering all the old timers.
Tried other games but nothing tops APBA!
Hi Rich
I can relate! My 1st board game was also Challenge the Yankees. I guess I was like 6 or 7 at the time. The “older” kids in my building. they were 10 and 11..LOL..I grew up in Brooklyn NY, in the 60s and 70s, where baseball was still our whole world…we starting making our index cards for EVERY player..if we weren’t outdoors playing, we were indoors playing baseball dice games. Then one day, The oldest, and arguably the smartest kid in our gang discovered APBA…wow…I’m 54 now…and I still play it with the same love and passion as the first day I was introduced to it.
I saw ads in Baseball Digest, Sporting News and Street & Smith. I sent off for the brochures for a couple of years and would read the pages with the testimonials and replay results until they were all dog-eared. Toward the end of my Freshman year in high school, I finally got enough money and ordered the game in the Spring of 1980 that included the 1979 MLB Season. I read the instructions and my first game was the Braves v the Blue Jays. I wanted to learn the game before I played with my beloved Reds. I spent the Summer in my bedroom playing tournaments and series and eventually earned enough money for the 1976 & 1977 seasons. A friend up the street ordered the Football game and we would play after school and in the Summers.
Several years later, a friend from my old neighborhood had me over and he had the APBA Game for Dos. It was a little pricey, but I happened on it one day at the mall with a Baseball Encyclopedia (Pre-Bill James Windows version). I think it was by Random House or something close.
Eventually, I found BBW, and that was it. I have played in leagues for close over ten years and still enjoy a card game every now and then. I have most of the other card games with Saddle Racing and Golf being my favorites. Those two games are good on the computer also, but there is something about rolling the dice.
Great topic and I love reading the other stories, but like the red printed page that came with the old brochures!
The most important trait that I inherited from my father was his love of baseball, not just the game, but everything about it. As a child, I struggled in math and hated long division and multiplication, but I loved creating my own batting averages and E.R.A’s from scratch. I have always loved sports video games, especially baseball games, but I hated how the stats would always be inflated and the fact that there was no middle ground. The hard-level was always too hard and the easiest was too easy. This brings me to the summer of 1992 when I was 15 years old. A friend from a few blocks over came by and we were trading baseball cards. He asked me if I had ever heard of APBA. I said no but I immediately thought of a few games that my father had. My father had the game with the spinners and the player discs, and he always told me about a game that was made by the Nemagi (not sure of the spelling’) company. I asked him later that same night if had ever heard of APBA. I can still see his eyes lighting up before he walked out of the room. When he returned he had a large blue and yellow box from APBA with the game boards and 1977 card set. My dad taught me how to read the cards and the ratings and the next day my friends and I held our first draft with me taking Pete rose at number 2. That league quickly fizzled but over the years I continued to order and played small leagues of 5 teams ( the phillies and 4 others ). I recently began doing rePlays one team at a time and have fallen even mOre in love with the game than I was before.
Back in 1960, after seeing an ad for APBA Football in a magazine (can’t remember which mag), I sent for it and I do remember getting it the day before Thanksgiving. The cost didn’t cause undue concern by my parents, who gladly footed the bill. I eventually played the entire football season with those cards. As the years passed, I didn’t play much until 1972, when I bought the Baseball game. I bought the Master baseball version in 1979, I believe, and I played the Pgh Pirates schedule in those years. I purchased the Golf and Bowling games early in the ’80’s, and I eventually got the Master football game in the mid-80’s, which I still use to play out the Pgh Steelers schedule (with new cards each year since 2005). I don’t replay the previous years’ schedule, however, so comparing stats isn’t that important to me. I’ve introduced the games to friends over the years, and I haven’t found a sports game that’s as enjoyable as the APBA games.