Project completed!

Yesterday, the Cincinnati Reds became the 1964 World Series Champions. How can that be? Three years ago, on March 21, 2021 I began playing a 90-game 1964 Major League season with my 1964 Strat-O-Matic table-top baseball game. That is to say, the player-cards reflected their statistical performances from 1964. With 10 teams in both the American and National Leagues back then, this represented 900 games. Naturally, I kept a stat sheet on each team and am working on an analysis of how my Strat-O-Matic players and teams compared to the real thing. With the NL analysis complete, I can say that the results were very realistic with just enough differences to add to the fun. Yesterday, the Reds defeated the New York Yankees 5-1 at Yankee Stadium in Game 5 of the World Series (you think I wouldn’t play a World Series?) The Reds took the Series four games to one.

Playing 900 games means that on average, there has been a game from 1964 unfold on my basement folding table on four out of five days over the past three years.

I sent weekly reports to my buddy Al, who followed the pennant races as enthusiastically—if not more so—than he followed the actual pennant races over the past three years. We remembered many names from George Alusik to Pete Ward and Steve Boros to Gerry Zimmerman. Others we didn’t exactly remember, but we remembered what their baseball cards looked like. Here’s Dave McNally’s Topps card from 1964. McNally, one of my favorite players, was such a baby face; young and eager to start a major league career. Just like we were even if we were in elementary school and he was already in the majors.

I cannot say that this was a labor of love—there was no labor involved at all. And while I’ll miss those guys from my childhood—I chose the 1964 set because that was the first year that I began to follow baseball—I already have a 1941 season mapped out. Can’t wait to see if Joe DiMaggio puts together a lengthy hitting streak and if Ted Williams tops the .400 mark. Perhaps, history will repeat itself and I’ll be there for every pitch.