I received an email from Russ who asked about which boards are best to use when playing with older APBA baseball cards. I have seen this topic broached elsewhere so I this it’s worth bringing up.
Russ asks:
In playing a season with cards before created before 1995, should I use the old boards, The new result booklet or does it not matter?
In short, there are very few compatibility issues when playing with older cards with the new boards. In fact, I just played a few tournament games against Eric Berg this weekend using the original 1986 Cleveland Indians team with the new boards. I could not think of any situation where there were issues.
There are references to the K rating and the R rating which don’t pertain to the older card sets. Those references can just be ignored. Depending on how old the set is, you may also see references to the ZZ rating or even the Z rating which came out in 1957. If that were the case, be careful not to damage that valuable card set!! Seriously, these can be ignored as well since the cards won’t have those ratings.
If you want, you can add your ratings to the cards. I have seen enterprising APBA replayers comb through the stats and determine who should receive an K rating or an R rating based on pitcher’s strikeout stats. As I always say, it is your game and you can make it your own to enjoy. Fortunately, the Company makes this easy.
Turning the question around
However, if you to invert that question there a few confusing anomalies. If you are playing with newer cards, you may run across some a few symbols which do not exist on the older boards. Most significantly, the K rating and the R rating are relatively new on the cards and don’t have appear on the older boards.
These ratings appear alongside the pitchers’ grades are newer and if you want, you can make some adjustments which can help. You can read this article I wrote in 2013 entitled “What are the ‘R’ and ‘K’ pitcher ratings and how do I use them with my old boards?”
Not making any changes so will not significantly affect the game result too much but if you want the full effect of the game (especially if the strikeout and walk stats are important to you), I encourage you to check it out.
Of course, if you are still using the older boards, I do encourage you to try the newer booklet. Change is hard for a lot of us but I think most who have bought and used the new booklet charts, are happy with them.
This got me thinking about my 1986 Cleveland Indians I was playing against Eric and if they were changed in the updated set (maybe someone with the new cards or APBA GO season can tell me). The Indians that season had a few knuckleballers in Phil Niekro and Tom Candiotti. Candy eked out a BY but Niekro had no strikeout letters to go with his C grade. Looking at his 3.5 K/9 IP, I’m wondering if that would be wondering if that is low enough for an R rating. The other C in the rotation is Ken Schrom (a CZ) had a 3.8 K/9 IP.
Not surprisingly, Cleveland’s pitching staff was dead last in strikeouts in 1986 in the American League.
I hope this answers your question, Russ! Thanks for your question!
Hi Tom,
Using the newer charts on the older cards can affect some things greatly. Depending on what year the charts that the cards were made for a result of 9 against an A starter would go from a strikeout to a pop fly out with the bases empty. I don’t know if there are any major changes that would affect a B or C starter, but I would guess there is probably one or two.
The hit and run chart is significantly different, and your stolen base totals may be drastically less with the newer charts, and you lose a lot of hit results as well. As far as I can tell the sacrifice charts remain unchanged.
Hi Scott!
I didn’t mean to imply that there haven’t been changes on the new boards. There certainly have been including the ones you mention.
My point was that for the most part, the game is compatible and can still be played with the older cards. I believe this is not the case for older APBA Football cards (APBA Football fans can chime in on this).
Your point about the Hit and Run boards is a good one. Those charts have significantly changed (I think for the better). Whether it affects the older cards differently, is up for debate.
thanks!
Tom
Having grown up with the old board basic game and cards the changes to the hit and run have changed the game dynamics significantly; I agree with you that the changes are for the better , As a kid I would bat Carreon second on the 1964 White Sox. With either Al Weis or Tom McCraw batting ahead of him I would always hit and run if either were on first. This converted Carreon’s four or five 24s to essentially sacrifices, his 13s into stolen bases, added a hit on 31 and if he reached base as an average baserunner it did not seriously clog the base paths. I made similar lineup adjustments with other teams. The impact was to decrease double plays and increase stolen bases. Not realistic I admit but a lot of fun.
I got the large boards from 1983 if I get players cards from 2029 season will it be accurate