I received my new APBA baseball boards a couple days ago! I believe it was Ron Taylor who said on Facebook that someone should post an unboxing video on YouTube. I thought since many people had a lot of questions about the boards and the game itself, I would do that. So, I did a quick run-through with no takes and posted it.
As I mention in the video, I had not seen the game or booklet before doing the video other than a few photos on the web. I am actually opening it and seeing it at the same time you are in the video :)
Note: before I go any further (and because I know it will be asked), the booklet is newly formatted and styled but there are NO result differences or rule changes from previous APBA booklet.
Below is the video (here’s the direct link). Apologies for the creaky sounds from the lens autofocusing :)
Contents of the APBA Pro Baseball Board Game included in storable APBA cardboard box
- Two dice (red and white)
- Official APBA yellow shaker
- APBA cards for four 2012 teams (Angels, Giants, Nationals, Tigers)
- Four envelopes for Angels, Giants, Nationals, and Tigers
- Roster sheet for the 2012 APBA Baseball set
- Board Baseball Diamond (with rules of play)
- Four Baserunner markers
- APBA Pro Baseball Board Game booklet
- Two sample box scores
- APBA Flyer/Order sheet
My first impressions of the booklet
As I’ve heard, it is much larger than the previous booklet (you can see a comparison of the two in the photo at left). I guess if I had a choice, I like the form factor of the smaller boards better. However, it’s worth mentioning that the new booklet is the same size as the older cardboard boards (some of you remember them).
The booklet seems relatively well put together. Not too flimsy but not firm either. As you’ll see in the video, they are bound with individual bindings. That was a pet peeve of the previous booklet which was spiral bound. It would un-spiral and I would have to spiral it back in place occasionally. That shouldn’t happen with the new booklet.
The text in the booklet is monochrome so there isn’t much color. That isn’t a deal breaker to me. It is easy to read and THAT’S good. There are helpful (but 
unobtrusive) rule hints on the sidebars of the pages for those new to game and I really like that.
Like I said in the video, I’m going to hold off judgment on whether I really like the new style of the booklet till I use it for a while. I’m not one to make my mind on something till I give it a thorough test.
Overall, though it seems like a decent product and quite honestly, for the price, you can’t go wrong. It’s easy for those of us using an existing product to compare but I’d certainly recommend buying it for new APBA fans. For those interested, the best route to buy the APBA Baseball Game is through the APBA Games web site.
Great job Tom!
The new boards look great and this was a super presentation,,,,,,,,better than a commercial!
DOM IN NY
Tom, I laughed when you rolled the dice and said “fourteen, fly out to left.”. Also, the back of the playing field has a home run derby chart.
Thanks for the reminder on the HR Derby Chart, Mel. I forgot to mention that.
What is apba breez lol
Thanks for the demo. I had been wondering for a while now on them. Only beef I have is having the charts spread over two pages. I wish I still had the “Old boards” like you do. Nice to see the old yellow dice shaker again.
The reason I like my own shaker (or ones that Brando makes for me) is that they actually shake the dice. When I shake my cup before rolling, I do it side to side instead of up and down. The yellow cup is so narrow that it doesn’t allow any room for movement of the dice so they stay in place in the cup till i roll them.
I really just meant that I hadn’t seen the original yellow one in a long time. I have one similar to it, and before I broke a shot glass that worked really well for me as I have pretty small hands, so bigger cups don’t work as well for me.
I remember the first time I saw someone using something other than the issued shaker and immediately started a search, but I am kind of picky in what I use. I am actually trying to find another but have not really gotten around to it just yet.
I really like the new boards because they are larger and easy to read. As I get older (58), this is becoming more important! It is a little odd that they cover two pages but the large size makes up for this. They also seem sturdy but only time will tell. By the way, I play in a league that uses the old boards (4 heavy sheets). When did they change the hit & run boards to eliminate a steal for a first column 11 on a 13 (and other changes)? I was used to the old boards in the league and when I played a game with the new 2012 basic game I was surprised to find the differences in the hit & run chart. Finally, thanks for this blog. It is great!
Hi Dick,
The H&R changes went into effect with the last booklet. Don’t forget that 1 is no longer a HR with the hit and run. That took some getting used to. I admit, I didn’t like the idea at first but overall I liked the rule changes with last iteration after a while.
I find I don’t hit and run as much especially with newer seasons but probably that’s more realistic. I do it more with the 1966 season I’m replaying, more to move the runner along. Again, that might be accurate as it was probably used more then.
The new game components are an improvement (especially the sturdy box) but there a couple things about the new booklet that keep it from being as good as it could have been.
For one, the larger booklet size should have made things MUCH easier to read. If things were printed on a plain white background (like the Master Game booklet) it would have been. Unfortunately, gray shaded areas around the text cancels out much of the added readability the larger font size would have supplied.
Also, since the pages of new booklet are the same size as the old white big boards, if APBA would have just copied the EXACT SAME design/layout of those old boards and use same/similar text size, they would have been able to fit each base runner situation on ONE PAGE instead of two. Doing so would have reduced the need to flip pages thereby increasing game playability.
Lon