Well, I guess you have to begin somewhere. Might as well be right here. At the beginning.
In 1961, Hal Richmond formed a company that produced a statistically accurate simulation of Major League Baseball's 1960 season when Pirates Bill Mazeroski smacked a homer in the bottom of the ninth in the final game of the World Series to beat the vaunted New York Yankees four games to three.
He named the company Strat-O-Matic and a legend was born. The game is a card and dice game where you determine the play's outcome by rolling the dice and referring to either the hitter's card or the pitcher's card for the result. Sometimes you might refer to an accompanying chart for a further result such as a stolen base or resolution of baserunners advancing with a groundball.
Eventually, Strat-O would branch out and take on the NFL, the NHL and the NBA with card and dice games. Then, with the advent of the computer age, Strat began to offer games for PC platforms with season disks. You could replay an entire season. You could see how Babe Ruth would fare against Roy Halladay. The skies were and, to this day 53 years later, still are the limit. Strat-O-Matic is the only baseball game that has a display in the Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
Strat-O-Matic is located in Glen Head, NY, on Long Island. SOM has spawned numerous long-standing leagues of players who gather in person, online or by mailing in lineups and such to compete for bragging rights. The game is fun, addictive, even educational. For those of us who have a love for statistics, well this is the game for you. I cannot tell you the pages of stats I have amassed over the years.
If you would like more information, please visit www.strat-o-matic.com and find out how you can get into the game yourself.
Thank you for reading.
ChrisW
Welcome to Chris Walrath's Strat-O-Matic page. Strat-O-Matic is a gaming company that has been making sports simulation games since the early 60's. They produce both PC and card and dice (C&D) versions of games for Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL, the NFL and NCAA Football (and that would be American football). I will be updating replays and other odds and ends on this blog. I hope you enjoy it. If you ever want to roll a game, please feel free to contact me. Thank you.
