In my opinion, one of the weaknesses in the APBA Hockey game is the penalty system. Unfortunately, the original system doled out too many penalties and each successive version has tried to kludge the system rather than just starting from scratch. This article will go into how the system works, how to calculate what numbers […]
The Single Column Six
In the last dozen years or so, an occasional card will end up with a weird combination of 0s and 6s in the first column. Prior to this time, the only extra base hit you could have with a 0 was a 1. So is there any rhyme or reason to who gets this combo. […]
The Dreaded Shootout
I am an avid player of the APBA hockey game but I only play tournaments. Since I need to play playoff-style overtimes, I never had to deal with the shootout. However, when I got the 2014 Olympic set, I would have to use the shootout, because that’s what the Olympics did. Even though my Olympic […]
Fielder’s Choice
A while back, I ran a simulation of the various hit numbers. I then did the same thing, concentrating on the pitching grades. This time I’m going to look at fielding, including the arm ratings for catchers and outfielders. The latter prove to be pretty surprising. First off let’s take a look at the most […]
Making the Grade
In the original National Pastime game, the only thing that a pitcher contributed was hitting. There were no grades, no subratings, no handicaps. When APBA came out in 1951, the concept of the grade was added, so now pitchers fell into six classes: A&C, A&B, A, B, C and D. The grade was pretty much […]
Is a 14 better than a 9 — Finding Out the Monte Carlo Way (Part 3)
In the introduction, I went over what the heck this project is all about. In part one, I broke down all of the possibilities of the batter-influenced hit numbers. In part two, I went over the error and rare play numbers and found out that everything was pretty much the same. Now we can move […]
Is a 14 better than a 9 — Finding Out the Monte Carlo Way (Part 2)
In the introduction, I went over what the heck this project is all about. In part one, I broke down all of the possibilities of the batter-influenced hit numbers. In this part, I examine the error and rare play numbers. When I was a wee lad, I was playing a game that involved the 1981 […]
Is a 14 better than a 9 — Finding Out the Monte Carlo Way (Part 1)
In the introduction, I explained a set of tests I did to find out the true value of an APBA baseball card. This section will deal with the valuation of those numbers that the hitter controls to some extent: hits, walks and hit by pitch. The error and rare play numbers will be in a […]
Is a 14 better than a 9 — Finding Out the Monte Carlo Way (Intro)
My APBA playing involves a solo league I put together 16 years ago. The premise is I make either 6, 8, 10 or 12 teams out of that major league season and play a 30 game schedule using the Master Game and the approximately one million innovations I’ve added through the years. So far I’ve […]
Introduction
I’ve been playing APBA since I was 10. Over the years, I’ve noticed things that sometimes fall in the space of “do I ignore it and keep it real” or “do I take advantage of it and have it be a little odd.” Setting up your outfield based on the other team’s error numbers, playing […]