Mr. Clutch doesn’t necessarily claim to have invented the
Internet, unlike a former Presidential candidate, but he certainly stakes claim
to being one of the first people to be using it. Most people’s earliest
remembrance of the Internet is typing in a www into the search bar of a
graphical interface. Some newer folks don’t even refer to it as “The Internet”
but instead call it “Google”. Oh boy, these newbies have no idea of what it was
and how the idea of connecting computers and information really started.
Not to bore anyone with the history of on-line computing,
but originally one would “dial in” directly to a bank of phone lines usually
setup in some kids basement. It was called a BBS, acronym for “Bulletin Board
System”. If you were lucky enough to connect you were able to swap files, read
messages, post information and possible chat with another fellow on-line nerd.
There was no monthly fee for this as you were just connecting peer to peer(s).
It was the caveman days of the world wide web.
Next came CompuServe, a professional version of the BBS,
and its graphical interface older brother called Prodigy. Prodigy was the
closest thing to the real Internet before the real Internet. Cro Magnon man
possible Prodigy was the first “Place” to play any sort of on-line fantasy
baseball. For the historians in the house we’re talking 1984. That may seem
like yesterday, but it was 32 years ago. The concept of capturing baseball
statistics in a computer for analysis and use was born. Not to fear, as it was
done with pen, paper and some ingenuity well before that.
Turning back the clock way back to 1963, most likely
remember it as the year we lost JFK. A few others remember it as the year that
Strat-O-Matic was born. Some math geek out there figured out how to, somewhat,
accurately portray the result of a baseball game, and more specifically a
players performance, based on a literal role of the dice. Each hitter had
at-bat results listed on a card, with the dice roll deciding the result per at
bat. Likewise, pitchers had the same. One die decided if the hitter or pitcher
dictated the result, while the other two gave the specific outcome.
Seems like just another board game, but it was more than
that. It was a game with a cult following that took the kid and adult baseball
fan base by storm. Little Clutch and his friends would buy the update to the
game every year and play complete seasons some summers. Sure kids should have
been outside playing the game “For real”, and plenty of that happen too, but
there was always time for “Strat”. Time was found early mornings, rainy days,
late nights and the proverbial three-day weekend. Some of the player card would
wear out from use.
How accurate was the stats? Well, in 1980 George Brett
batted .390. In the complete strat season, he hit .405. That was pretty good
and pretty accurate. The only thing the Strat failed factor in was things like
home field advantage, stadium designs and weather conditions. With that, Brett
probably would have hit .390 in both real life and on paper.
Of course today Strat-O-Matic is the do-do bird, or at
least the manatee. With the Internet and all stats available on-line, and
entire Strat season can be virtually calculated in minutes instead of the ins
and outs of an entire summer. It’s one of those things, and there are not many
of those “Things”, that should have stayed in the analog world. The concept of
sorting player cards, setting up the cardboard field and making manger-like
decisions while viewing your paper bench just beats doing it on a color screen
any day of the week.
There was a reasonable facsimile of Strat in the
computerized world that was not half bad. Back in 1984, the same year Mr.
Clutch was a pioneer on-line with Prodigy, a computer game was released for the
Atari 400/800 computer. The mention of Atari is a reference to the Atari
computer, not the 2600 gaming system.
I’m guessing nobody has head of this game since back then only a tiny
fraction of people had an actual home computer. Mr. Clutch was of course one of
the fraction, again leading the way into cyberspace. The game was called
“Microleague Baseball”.
Microleague was a baseball video game in which one did
not control the players or actually “Play” the game. The best way to describe It
would be a baseball simulation game with graphics. You set your team lineup for
the team you were representing, while the computer managed the competition.
When you started the game, each play was a statistical simulation based on actual
player stats, primitive analytics and a little bit of luck. After each play
completed, you had the option to make the normal managerial changes in the
game. Sounds a lot like an automated on-screen version of Strat-O-Matic!
The results of the Microleague games and player
performance were also very accurate, especially for the computing power
available back in the day. Though playing the game seemed like a boring
proposition, it actually was fun and better than Strat in only one way. Each
simulated play was actually displayed on the screen as action. So, you saw the
pitch being delivered, the ball being hit and possible fielded and the running
of the bases. You didn’t know the result of the play until it happened. It
really was like managing an actual game.
Today the baseball video game business is in the billion
dollar range. New MLB endorsed video games was graphics that rival real life
come out every year. The play action and everything else in the package is of
course light-years better than the early 1980’s. Though there is no comparison
to the play quality of the games in the modern era, it’s still likely that
systems like Strat-O-Matic and MicroLeague more accurately portrayed the
results of the game. Finally, a case where the machines have not taken over!
Toot-a-loo Cyberdyne.
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