I mean, he wanted his game to be easily playable for The creator, who it turns out stole his APBAĬoncept from a precursor game, kept tweaking until he finally vented Ah, there was cleverness everywhere in this game. A 'Y' meant moderately good in this regard. An 'F' rating for speed meant 'fast.' Tony Oliva was an 'F' at the start of his career but at the sad end, ol' Tony could get thrown out at first on a liner that fell in.Ī pitcher with an 'X' was good at strikeouts. Were only rated up to '3' because of being judged less valuable than

Aĭefensive position or positions were specified along with numbersĭenoting fielding skill. You could size up a player within seconds just by 'reading' his card. You could argue the cards were more useful than the Topps kind. In fact, I just appreciated having the APBA cards even if I chose not to play games. Pitchers were graded to yield appropriate performances. No doubt, the best hitters in real life would be the best in APBA. We rolled the dice and went by numbers on player cards. Yes, a board game with the typical accoutrements. Major league baseball cannot be replicated with perfection Quite obsessive and would kick and scream about certain apparent We all knew each game had its strengths and weaknesses. Gimbel's in 'Miracle on 34th Street.' Game aficionados considered both decent. It was cute the way the two took pot shots at each other, a la Macy's vs. APBA and its rival Strat-o-Matic were the best for their time. If itĮxists it's a curiosity, or should be one.Ĭomputers can put together simulation models that would do rings around APBA. I won't even bother researching whether the game still exists. APBA baseball is a museum piece showing how nerds developed complicated systems in pre-digital

Apba baseball game boards