The Table Top Sports Games of Chris Saguisag
Opening Day, delayed by a day
Final from Citi Field:
In the 9th inning I went online and played Edwin Diaz’ entrance music.
It felt good to play this particular game system, it brought me back to almost 40 years ago when I replayed the 1988 Mets season.
Here’s hoping I can actually complete this one in a reasonable amount of time.
*glares at 1921 and 1971 season replays*
I have missed playing this game.
I separated the team cards and skimmed the rules over the weekend.
Early Tuesday morning I set up the game and fired up Digital Diamond Baseball and chose Opening Day for the Mets (rain delayed from the day before, Brewers @ Mets).
I took the dice and paused for a moment before rolling, relishing the return of the the game engine that I played out my first season replay back in 1989.
I proceeded to play through the first inning, referring back to the rulebook and charts, and it felt like riding a bike as I got back into the flow of the game, it was so familiar.
And then…
Francisco Lindor steps up to the plate, the roll came up as a Deep Drive from Freddy Peralta’s (pitcher) card.
Check the direction of the hit, check the wind, roll on the wall chart, and it’s
a home run to the Coca-Cola Porch.
I forgot how much I love how descriptive this game gets.
After 1 inning, Mets up 1-0
I’ll finish up the game tonight.
Stay tuned!
The first replay, nay, the first replay GAME that I ever bought was 1989’s Pursue the Pennant.
It came with the 1988 season, which I replayed the New York Mets’ season in it’s entirety, all the way through the 1988 NLCS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Mets.
Over the years I bought every season that they produced, including an old time set with sepia-tone stadium inserts.
I believe the last set made was the 1994 season and the game became Dynasty League Baseball, which I believe I did pick up, along with the 1995 season.
Except for a few old-time card games, I never did play with any of the other seasons after collecting them all.
In 2012 I started playing Strat-O-Matic, among other baseball games, leaving Pursue the Pennant/Dynasty League behind.
While I kept the core boxes for both games, I believe all of the season sets have been lost in the move out from the house last year.
Flash forward to this year, where I recalled that the Dodgers and Mets again played in the previous season’s NLCS, and I pulled the trigger and picked up the 40th anniversary edition of Pursue the Pennant/Dynasty League, with the intention of replaying the 2024 New York Mets season, much as I did back in 1989.
Stay tuned!
As I said in the previous post, I have tried to start this shorter replay using BallScore, but it never calculated games correctly, so I decided to try Digital Diamond’s Boardgame Companion, and it worked pretty well.
The game gave me a running play-by-play commentary, which was nice. I had a few moments of having to look stuff up, specifically how to enter plays into the game and relearning Inside Pitch Baseball.
I also had to figure out how to replace pitchers after pinch hitting for them, and after the game I corrected the team names and logos.
I’ll probably run this replay with this program, and my other existing replays using BallScore.
The boxscores come out about the same as in BallScore.
The result was the same for Gooden (no decision) but Jack Clark changed the outcome with a 2-run blast in the 11th inning.
I’d been using BallScore for quite a while, still do, but for some reason the program keeps messing up whenever I try starting a short replay of Doc Gooden’s 1985 Cy Young season.
So I’m trying out Digital Diamond Baseball and it’s Board Game Companion instead.
Report coming later, I hope.
Stay tuned!
Welcome to Opening Day 1986!
Final from Three Rivers Stadium:
Doc goes the distance to secure the Mets’ first win of the season.
And I just realized that I’ve started my first non-Giants full season replay since 1989, when I replayed the Mets 1988 season.
Also, for some reason, rolling a game in APBA seemed less strenuous than any baseball game that I’d been playing lately, namely Ball Park Baseball and Payoff Pitch Baseball.
Go figure.
Next: The Mets travel to Philadelphia for a weekend series against the Phillies.
Stay tuned!
It appears that I have the following seasons for APBA Baseball:
1986 (from my brother, Robert)
2000 (50th anniversary set, fancy set and cards)
2002 (at the time I thought this was going to be the last hurrah for World Series appearances by the Giants)
I’m getting a new boxed basic APBA Baseball set this weekend. I have no plans to pick up any new teams.
I just wanted something simple as an alternative to Ball Park and Payoff Pitch Baseball, which is why I have no plans to get the Master Addition booklet.
For 1986, I plan to play both the Mets and Giants, maybe abbreviated seasons, using APBA for the road games and Payoff Pitch for the home games for both teams.
Not sure about 2000 and 2002, though I do plan to replay the 2000 Subway World Series at the very least.
From the scorecards I found Robert did play the 2002 World Series, with a different outcome.
There’s also a team envelope with the 1971 San Francisco Giants.
I think back then I was planning to play at the very least the 2000 season since that’s the boxed set that I have.
REALLY fancy cards in this set.
I’ll figure it out after the new box arrives.
Stay tuned!
I never saw Tom Seaver pitch.
I was born his rookie year in 1967. I don’t recall the 1969 World Series, though Dad once told that my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents probably rooted for the New York Mets because they were the National League team.
I really started paying attention to baseball long after his time as one of the dominant pitchers of the game. And I didn’t become a Mets fan until 1984.
But I know how much he means to the Mets. You don’t get called ‘The Franchise’ for nothing.
The only interaction I ever had with Seaver was when he was a broadcaster for the Mets in late 1980s. I was in a group of autograph hounds near the visitors’ dugout at Candlestick Park. He came onto the field during batting practice, I spotted him, and screamed, “Hey, Tom, can you sign a few?” to which he looked our way, smiled, waved, and said “Sorry!”
At the time I was a little miffed that he snubbed us, but years later realized that the guy was probably doing his job, maybe setting up an interview or just imparting some knowledge to some of the current Mets.
I just watched the last half of the Tom Seaver statue ceremony from Citi Field. It was nice, but I honestly don’t feel the same emotional bond that so many other Mets fans have for the man.
It is a nice statue, though.
