by GFDWARF07 » Thu Oct 06, 2011 9:22 pm
My first game came with the 1980 set and I bought every set for many, many years, and tons of old seasons too. I used to play 54 game seasons, the extrapolate all the stats X3 to compare with real life. I usually played solitaire style, basic game in those days, managing both teams (and TRYING to be true to the teams I didn't care for as well). But sometimes you just HAD to send Yogi home from 2nd on a single* with Oliva in RF! I kept track of 2B, 3B, HR and RBI for batters and K's and W's for pitchers. All with tick marks in a notebook. There was a beauty to that.
And half the fun was keeping a continual play by play (with color commentary) going in your head the whole time! Sometimes even out loud!
One of my favorite memories was playing a game with my grandfather, who was a huge Yankees fan and had watched the '27 Yankees himself as a young man. I had the 1980 Twins, so it must have been '81 or so. He started Heb Pennock - I remember him saying Pennock had been a reliable starter. I also remember him referring to Joe Dugan as "Jumpin' Joe Dugan". First time I had heard that at the time. I scratched out a couple runs, but he won 8-3 or something like that. I still have the box score in the archives somewhere. I remember being in awe of looking at the long column of Homeruns on the Ruth and Gehrig cards. He died in about 1986 at the age of 87, so I am glad I played him when I did.
I have also played my oldest kids, but the fire isn't there. They are polite about it though. :roll: They think their Dad is a geek, but I know I am really cool! :)