I purchased the 1971 APBA players set during the late summer of '72, I think. Eventually Ray and I played the whole '71 NL season, redrafting the players (mostly by random) to make up new teams. There are something like 1000 games in a complete season for 12 teams. We kept statistics for each team and player, spending Sunday nights tallying up the week's individual totals and recording them on ledger sheets. Manny Sanguillen led the league in hitting for us, whacking .351 (.319 in real life). Once we started the season, after redraftting the teams, the 1st AB of the 1st game rsulted in a HR by Ron "Bean Me Again!" Hunt. Each game took about 30 minutes to play and we frequently played 4 or 5 games in an evening. On rainy winter Saturdays (before there was anything to watch on TV besides Notre Dame football and Keith Jackson (Whoa Nellie!) talking about the "Big old Horses" on the Oklahoma offensive line, we might do an all day marathon.
We thought we had lives, anyway.
It was too easy in APBA to just use a guy like Gates Brown, who was .338-.408-.549, in 218 PAs for the Tigers that year, as a fulltime regular and watch him pile up the numbers. After I graduated, Ray replayed the entire AL season....and used Brown everyday. Mostly guys had to stick to their "real" defensive positions, however. I actually still have that game laying in a drawer in the garage.
I think I have a life.
My brother and I also bought APBA NFL Football, PBA Bowling, Horse Racing (cool), PGA Golf. The golf was cool as you could pit Bobby Joes against Sam Snead. I think we had the Basketball game, too. But it seemed overly complicated and we could invent easier games that gave you the same thrill.
Never played Strat-o-Matic Football, but Kerry and I were Sports Illustrated Football diehards. Loved that game.
We even invented a game called Hot Wheels Football: One guy piled up 11 cars in stacks on the track and the offensive player then ran three blockers down the track, followed the "ball carrier" Hot Wheels car. We had a 10-yd 1st down stick and everything. Should have patented that one.
My brother and I thought we had lives.
BTW, he went on to become a lawyer, then an assistant DA, then a top staffer for a congressman in DC, then legal advisor, speech writer and all-around right hand-man for both Bob and Elizabeth Dole (Liz, first...Bob stole him away), then a State Director for a US Senator, then a lawyer again, and now Director of the Oregon Historical Society. He's co-written nearly 10 books, several with the Doles, and somewhere found the time to be a 4-time winner on Jeopardy.
Well, at least he had a life!
My current baseball addiction (besides you guys) is WhatifSports Hardball Dynasty. You run a franchise, from Rookie Ball up to the bigs, drafting, scouting, weathering injuries, etc...just like real ball. My Syracuse Sicilians just blew a 16-4 streak by losing 3 games to head into the All-Star break. My 40 Home Run LF is on the DL for the 2nd Consecutive season. I hate that. Just traded for a $12M thumping catcher with decent pitch calling skills. He's helping both my offense and defense.
Crud. I wish I had a life.
Moe