A few years back when APBA went through their board changes, our basic baseball game league made some pretty radical changes in retrospect to how we play the game. In short, we decided to play the game “out of the box” with just a few exceptions. No error chart, no unusual number card… play APBA baseball the way it was “meant to be played”.
Right now, we have just three minor changes to the current APBA boards:
1) The Pitchers Hitting Card for pitchers with less than 10 at bats
2) a 2B-9 and SS-10 don’t make an error with the bases empty
3) no rainouts.
To be sure, it’s a lot easier. No extra rules to remember.
But here’s the rub… some managers in our league are discontented with the way the boards handle baserunning. See in the past, before the changes, our league allowed managers to coach baserunning and stealing separately. You could coach a runner to not steal but let him fly like the wind on hits. This sounds a bit like having your cake and eating it too but they do have a legitimate gripe. More than one manager has invoked the time honored saying, “You just don’t make the first or third out at third base”.
I, for one don’t like it when my runner gets caught stealing third especially when it’s my number one hitter, Jose Tabata on second and it’s Ryan Zimmerman whose at bat. I could base coach Tabata but that would take away Zim’s juicy rbi hits.
This whole issue goes back to the accuracy vs realism dichotomy. Is it realistic that Tabata would try to steal third with two outs? Maybe not. But it is probably more accurate in terms of numbers of caught steals in the context of the full season.
This much is for sure. It is neither realistic nor accurate with our former method of coaching on hits and stealing separately. Let’s face it, we never let our runners steal (outside of the 11s and 10s, of course) unless we had runners on first and second or a runner on second with a batter with a 22 on his card. Talk about “playing the boards”. We rarely had a runner caught in a steal unless it was during a hit and run play.
One of our managers put it this way. Playing it safe with the current APBA boards means that since the runner can’t get a good lead off the base. That being the case, he’s not going to be able to take the extra base.
To end, I will say this, there is one manager in our league who will base coach a non-Slow runner when there is a batter up with a 39 on his card. Is he over cautious? Or just a prudent manager? Before you answer, he’s won more championships than anyone in our league.
” there is one manager in our league who will base coach a non-Slow runner when there is a batter up with a 39 on his card. Is he over cautious? Or just a prudent manager? Before you answer, he’s won more championships than anyone in our league. ”
Not surprising. He’s not playing baseball, he’s playing the APBA baseball game. This is a compliment, not a criticism. If you play a game, the object is to win. A large component of winning is playing the game you’re playing (APBA baseball), not imagining that you’re playing some other game (baseball).
That’s why many leagues have add-ons – to make the APBA game *more* like baseball. Error randomizers, Rare Play randomizers, even hit randomizers are all strides in this direction.
I am the guy stirring the pot on this topic. It’s extremely frustrating to me to play out-of-the-box APBA when there are far superior, more realistic, games on the market today.
Even more frustrating to me is that we used to use several improvements that we’ve stopped using. We stopped using the funny number chart, so now shortstops & firstbasemen are better leadoff hitters, because they have 23s & 41s respectively (we used to have these play results foul balls with the bases empty). Now it also is not as advantageous having a SS hit & run, because of a 39, while a secondbaseman has a 36, which is a good hit & run result. When choosing a pinch hitter, I might not choose a firstbaseman with runners on base & nobody out, don’t wanna hit into a triple play. Or a batter with a 22 might not be the wisest choice with the bases loaded, don’t wanna hit into a line drive DP.
Then there are the error numbers. Which error numbers are good for a particular hitter, where to position my outfielders depending on what error numbers are on your outfielders cards.
I really don’t enjoy playing this type of APBA, but it’s maddening not to be aware of what’s coming up. How can anyone be really surprised at hitting into a triple play with a firstbaseman up? How can you be surprised when a 39 nails a runner at the plate to end an inning with the bases loaded?
Thanks for letting me rant, I do feel better now.
Go ahead Teddy, stir the pot. It makes it more interesting. :)
My thoughts:
In theory, I liked the Unusual Play Card (aka Funny Number chart) and Error Chart. Obviously, it randomized everything and got rid of a lot of issues you just described. I wouldn’t be too unhappy if we brought them both back.
That said, it’s simpler just to roll on a card and THAT’S what we got.
The funny thing (no pun intended) is that a lot frustration from a lot of managers is when they would roll a 66 on the UPC or Error charts. To them, that’s a wasted 66. I heard this used an argument to get rid of it at the time.
I think many feel that when you roll those dice, it should only be for an offensive at-bat.
Another reason I don’t like the ability to split up the basecoaching is that it has no effect on 11’s and 10’s – it basically means that you’re eliminating the caught stealing from the game unless you do something else to change that.
That said, I like the unusual play card and error cards. I’d support bringing those back. Its just the basecoaching thing I don’t like.
There are runners caught stealing on a Hit & Run, also there will be runners caught trying to steal when the batter has a 22 & the unusual play number results in a 39. It is just so frustrating to be down by a run & 2 outs, with a batter with a 39 on his card, and I have to decide whether to coach the potential tying run because the base runner might get caught trying to steal. I don’t mind having runners thrown out trying to steal 2nd nearly as much as making the 3rd out trying to steal 3rd or home.