Following Splint's suggestion, I am going to play out a game of "Play Ball" using the backs of the 1978 Topps set in sequence.
I'll do this periodically in special posts like this, instead of adding more sections to the regular card posts.
We need two teams. I'm taking the Mudville Nine, from Casey at the Bat, and the New York Knights, from The Natural. (Incidentally, if you haven't been keeping up with Ben Henry's rendition of Casey, then you're missing out. Start here.)
The Knights are the home team (at least in Game 1) and so the Mudville Nine bat first.
GAME 1
TOP OF THE FIRST INNING
Mudville Nine at bat
(Note: the Record Breaker cards #1-#7 do not have the "Play Ball" game on them, so we start with card #8.)
#8 Mike Sadek: BB (runner on 1st, no outs)
#9 Doug DeCinces: BB (runners on 1st and 2nd, no outs)
#10 Phil Niekro: single (bases loaded, no outs)
#11 Rick Manning: K (bases loaded, one out)
#12 Don Aase: 2B (2 runs score, runners on 2nd and 3rd, one out)
#13 Art Howe: ground out (1 run scores, runner on 2nd, two outs)
(Note: I've made the decision here that a ground out or a fly out scores a runner from 3rd with less than 2 outs but does not advance other runners. The rules of the game don't specify how to handle these situations, so I've just decided to do it this way.)
#14 Lerrin LaGrow: 3B (1 run scores, runner on 3rd, two outs)
#15 Tony Perez: foul out (three outs)
4 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks. Mudville Nine lead 4-0
BOTTOM OF THE FIRST INNING
New York Knights at bat
#16 Roy White: HR (1 run scores, no outs)
#17 Mike Krukow: fly out (one out)
#18 Bob Grich: rules card (no play)
#19 Darrell Porter: single (runner on 1st, one out)
#20 Pete Rose: BB (runners on 1st and 2nd, out out)
#21 Steve Kemp: fly ouy (runners on 1st and 2nd, two outs)
#22 Charlie Hough: ground out (three outs)
1 run on 2 hits and 1 walk. Mudville Nine lead 4-1
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10 comments:
Is each game gonna end after 9 innings and then start a new game, or is the one game gonna last the duration of all 700+ cards? Going with the latter will result in an approximately 46 innings, which would be a MLB record.
What's the over/under if you choose the latter option?
Maybe we can have a World Series where it's best of 7? I say New York Knights in 7 games.
no wait, that's too many inning, duh, Best of 5?
We'll play a 9-inning game, or extra innings if there is a tie, and we'll play as many games as we can in 762 cards.
Oh, man, you are giving the urge to break out my new scratch-off tourney early... must... resist...
You are going to end up with one, super high-scoring game. My brothers played this back in '78 regularly and came up with some pretty unrealistic games scores. Way more doubles than in a regular game, for example.
Speaking of Casey at the Bat, I saw that the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project has the oldest known recording of the poem being recited (1898). Link is to MP3 version. Tough to understand that dude but pretty neat to think he was alive to see the Boston Beaneaters win 102 games that year.
Casey at the Bat
AWESOME
This seems familiar. Should be fun to see how high the score gets on this. The game is part of what make the cards so much fun.
r.e. the 46 inning game - i suggest the book 'the iowa baseball confederacy' by W.P. Kinsella (same dude who did 'shoeless joe' of field of dreams fame...)
http://www.amazon.com/Iowa-Baseball-Confederacy-W-P-Kinsella/dp/0345410246
it is a fascinating fantasy/parable about a 2000+ inning baseball game. you read that correctly.
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