Last week, my children (7 y/o daughter, 5 y/o son) saw my old Strat-O-Matic Baseball game box up on a shelf in a closet. They pestered me until I agreed to show them how to play. (My daughter had received some “girly edition” of Monopoly and she just learned to play, so board games seem cool to them right now.)
I played Strat-O-Matic and APBA quite a bit when I was young, with my brother and with friends, but I hadn’t even opened up a box in years. During college, a couple of buddies and I thought it would be a good idea to buy the Strat game and play it for old-times’ sake. Well, we bought it and put it on a shelf and never played it once.
Anyway, I pulled the game down and tried to re-learn the rules (that took longer than I expected). After a brief argument over who got to be the Reds, a roll of the dice awarded the 1996 Reds to my daughter and my son was given the Yankees.
Long story short: Reds won 3-2. Barry Larkin was 2-2 with two walks, a stolen base, and two runs scored. Kevin Mitchell hit a 2-run homer. John Smiley pitched 8 innings, giving up two runs on four hits, and Jeff Brantley got the save, despite giving up a run in the ninth.
The kids loved it, which was a surprise in the Age of Playstation. Game two of the series is underway (my son is managing the Reds this time around). The Yankees are up 1-0 in the middle of the fifth inning. Keep your fingers crossed.