Gonzalez: Strat-O-Matic, APBA provide old-school way to scratch your baseball itch

From Alden Gonzalez at ESPN.com on April 22, 2020, with mention of SABR member John Herson:

John Brogan was introduced to Strat-O-Matic Baseball by his two older brothers. He was 8 years old, it was the early 1980s, and sports simulation games were all the rage. Brogan immediately became hooked. He played incessantly with friends, at one point staging an entire six-team season in two weeks, then got distracted by adolescence and mostly forgot about the game thereafter, a common path for the typical Strat-O-Matic user. Recently, though, Brogan found out the company was simulating a 2020 baseball season that remains on indefinite suspension because of the coronavirus pandemic, and then suddenly something clicked. He pulled up the company website, ordered the 2019 version of the board game, paid the extra fee for express delivery and received it on his doorstep three days later.

His two young boys would soon learn the wonder of Strat-O-Matic Baseball, whether they wanted to or not.

“My 8-year-old is all in and has become completely obsessed with it,” Brogan, 45, said. “My 5-year-old can’t read yet, so it’s tough, but he’s holding the cards and rolling the dice.”

Read the full article here: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29026588/strat-o-matic-apba-provide-old-school-way-scratch-your-baseball-itch



Originally published: April 24, 2020. Last Updated: April 24, 2020.