from Amazon
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tango’s Lab: Simple Baseball Card Game
First, let me note my three inspirations for what I am about to post:
1. Bill James created a basketball card game on his site, and I’ve always wanted to do one for baseball
2. The CFL (football) Sports Action game is the best sports board game I’ve ever played
3. Extra Innings baseball game (Jack Kavanaugh) is, if not the best, so wonderfully simple that any added realism comes at a cost of unnecessary complexity
I’ll get into those three things in a future post (maybe, probably), but for now, here is my initial take on creating a baseball card game. I haven’t worked out all the percentages precisely yet. They are rough, but good enough for test purposes. (Don’t comment on the possibility that there are too many or too few walks or not enough doubles, etc. I just slapped something together. Don’t try to arbitrage it just yet)
What I’d like is for you guys to try a half-inning, and see if this is good or tedious. Is it worth it? Is the pitch-by-pitch an added level of realism, or is it just too complex? Is it a chore to remember the count, or is it ok to manually tally the count? Feel free to be as harsh as you like.
Here are the rules in 2 steps (and substeps):
1. Pitcher calls out whether he will try to be careful or wild, and then draws a card:
a. If careful…
A/K/Q/J/10: called ball (this pitch is complete; go to Step 1),
2-9: borderline pitches (batter then calls out swing/take)
b. If wild…
A/K/Q: down-the-middle swing
2-J: borderline pitches (batter then calls out swing/take)
2. Batter draws a card:
a. If down-the-middle swing…
HR: Ace
2B: K
1B: Q, J, 10, 9
out: 2-8
b. If borderline and swing…
2B: K
1B: Q, J, 10
out: 2-9, Ace
c. If borderline and take…
called ball: A, K, Q
called strike: 2-J
This pitch (or at bat as the case may be) is now complete; go to Step 1.
================
A different (in many ways, much better) kind of game: Card_Baseball.pdf
James fleshed out his version based on our game