Plus, their ace pitcher, Carl Erskine had an outstanding 20-6 record this year. On paper, the Dodgers seemed to have the better team with such greats as Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges. The Dodgers had won 105 games in 1953 while the Yankees had won *just* 99.

Now, in reality, the Yankees took down the Dodgers 4 games to 2. To test realism, I decided to replay the 1953 World Series using the teams included. You can call for hit and runs and bunt attempts. However, you can’tdo some basic things such as calling for straight stolen base attempts, those have to be rolled results. You make pitching changes and can call on pinch hitters. In fact, when the bases are empty, regardless of how good or bad a team’s defense is… a 12 is always a ground out to 3rd.ĪPBA, in its basic form (aka how I play it) is sort of a combination between a managerial game and a spectator game. You add all this up before the game, so it’s not a constant thing you have to check. There are three levels of defense as well. Over a 10, you see how good the defense is. Pitchers in APBA are given a letter grade from A to D. If the result were a 1-10 you look at the top secion where the result depends on how good the pitcher is. Now, it is important to ensure that you look at the correct column. You then open the spiral-bound play book to the appropriate situational page and look for the result. A 12 when the bases are empty may give a different result than if the bases are loaded. You then take the game sitation into account. It just so happens that both Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle, and ace Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine have the same result: a 12.

If we look at the example cards I posted above… Once you get the result, then you find the 23 on the batter’s card. You always read the red die first, and the white die second, so if red is 2 and white is 3…you rolled a 23. Do you want to run an entire season, and keep microscopic detail of each player’s performance? You can do that, but it costs extra (more later).Īfter you set up your two teams, it comes up to simply going to the first batter card in your lineup’s stack, and rolling the two dice. Want to just roll dice and play a full game in about 15 minutes? You can do that! Want to keep score, and track statistics over a series, you can do that.

One of the things I like about APBA is that it is easy to customize the game to be as basic or in-depth as you like. But there’s so much work that goes into making an accurate game, you’re paying for that level of expertise and time.ĪPBA Baseball can be played by 2 players, but I find it a better solo experience. On a physical stuff level, it seems skimpy.

Apba baseball scoresheet