GREAT MOMENTS IN STRAT

Have you experienced a game of Strat-O-Matic so thrilling, unique or bizarre that you just HAVE to share it with someone? That would be us. Send you Great Moments in Strat to SOMTalkShow@aol.com. Please include your name and hometown. Readers like to see that and you deserve the credit.

Three-In-One

Moment #1 - Playing the college football game, my alma mater William & Mary is playing my wife's alma mater Duquesne. It should be an easy win for the Tribe (2004 version) as they have the "competition" advantage over the smaller school built into the game. Early on, it's all W&M as they jump out to a 17-6 lead. Then, the turnovers and penalties mount and Duquesne begins to pound the flat passes and get back into the game. With time running out, Duquesne trailing 28-23, converts a key 4th and 11 - then scores a TD with :08 left! They get the 2-point conversion to go up 31-28. My wife stops by to see how the game's going (she's predicted a Duquesne upset). She see the score and howls with triumphant laughter. An upset is all but certain. W&M returns the ball to their own 40. :01 left, nothing to do but throw the bomb and hope. Duquesne goes into its 2-deep zone. W&M's QB heaves the ball...complete...TOUCHDOWN! The Tribe wins it 35-31!

Moment #2 - With my 4-year-old son at the controls, Notre Dame trails Michigan 24-20, with the ball at their own 15 and 1:15 to play. He calls the plays, I work the clock management. With the skills of an all-american offensive coordinator, he leads the Irish to the Michigan 40 with :15 left. He calls the bomb, complete! 39 yards and out of
bounds at the 1 with :08 left. I advise a pass, as ND is out of time outs. He ignores me and calls an end run to the halfback. It works! He scores the TD and Notre Dame leads 27-24 with :01 left. ND kicks off and Michigan can only advance 30 yards as time runs out!

I love the college football game. Great games galore! And my son and I love how you can save the fight songs to play when a TD is scored. A great job by SOM!

Moment #3 - At the end of my 1969 NL baseball replay (which took nine years to finish!) - The NL West has five teams within three games of each other with two weeks to play. The Dodgers take first, then fade. The season ends with the Giants beating the Padres 7-6 as Nate Colbert strikes out with the bases loaded and two outs in the 9th and the Braves beat the Reds 3-2 as Hoyt Wilhelm fans Tony Perez with the tying run on base and two out in the 9^th. So, the season ends with the Braves and Giants tied at 90-72! A one-game play-off pits Ron Reed vs. Juan Marichal. Amazingly, Aaron, Carty and Cepeda hit back-to-back-to-back homers off Marichal in the first inning, the Braves go up 5-0, then San Fran scraps back to 5-3 and loads the bases in the 9th with Willie Mays up! Wilhelm manages to get him and the Braves win the Division, 5-3!

1969 NL is a great season to play. The teams are all pretty good, except the Phillies, Expos, and Padres and you can have super-close races in both divisions. The Mets won the East in my replay with a hot second-half, passing the Pirates. The playoffs await – Mets vs. Braves!

Steve Walker, Ellicott City, MD

A Game Made for a Pitcher’s Duel

Well, Strat fans, I just played a gem of a game with my new 1965 season set. I quickly opened the 1965 set as it hit my front porch and set up a classic battle. The Dodgers went to Candlestick to battle the Giants. The pitching matchup was Sandy Koufax vs. Juan Marichal. What a game it was!

After Maury Wills flied out to start the game, Jim Gilliam promptly deposited Marichal's first pitch into the left field seats to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. It looked like that one run would be all that Koufax would need. Koufax was perfect through five innings.

Tom Haller led off the bottom of the sixth with a home run to even the score at 1-1. The pitching duel was on. Marichal gave up a few hits along the way, yet kept the Dodgers off the scoreboard. Meanwhile, Koufax retired the next 12 hitters to force extra innings.

I figured I’d let each pitcher go another inning and then send in the bullpen to decide the game. The bullpen never got a phone call. Marichal got the Dodgers out 1-2-3 in the top of the 10th. Matty Alou started the bottom of the inning by lining out to Wes Parker at 1st base. Then up came Willie Mays. Mays was 0-for-3 on the day and I rolled the dice. The result was 1-2-2. So I looked up 1-4 on Mays' card vs. a lefty and almost fell out of my chair. Willie hit it out! The Giants mobbed him at home plate after watching his walk-off shot clear the fences. What a finish!

Here are the pitching lines:

Marichal: 10 IP 7H 1R 1ER 0BB 4K-WIN

Koufax: 9 1/3 IP 2H 2R 2ER 0BB 4K- LOSS

Yeah, folks, Koufax pitched a 2-hitter and LOST!

Lee Ursich, San Pedro, CA

The Legend of Andruw Jones

Playing head-to-head in a six-team, 162-game schedule can be emotional, especially on a hot summer night in late August. We often get “fired up” on lucky rolls, but on this night luck was not involved. His team Copperhead was coming into my huge park, HRs and singles on a 1, with identical records. Game 1 bottom of the ninth, 3-2 lead for him, one on and Andruw Jones smashes a 1-5 straight up to win it for me. Game 2 with him leading 5-3 in the 8th and 2 outs again, 2 on and Jones to the plate: BOOM 1-9 straight up, he flips the pitcher card, who happens to be Huston Street, at me. It’s not my fault it landed in the cat’s water. He is steaming! That’s what makes head to head so great. Game 3: Jones again blasts his third straight game-winning homer in, yes, you guessed it, the bottom of the ninth with 2 outs – only this time it was a grand salami down 3-1 and he was thinking about walking him in that situation to force in a run.

Unbelievable as usual; nothing amazes me anymore with the dice. He stormed out of the house (with a wet Street) and didn’t call me for two weeks. We have now since finished the regular season with him finishing in second and me fifth. But for that hot August night the Strat world stood still and Andruw Jones smacked copperhead in three straight.

Some final stats: Jones .233, 51 HR,105 RBI. For a huge park he did well, not to mention his 1(-4) defense. Pedro was lights out: 20-6, 2.27, 235Ks – Cy Young of the league. I think the park really helped.

PS: A really fun day is when we drive up to Glen Head, about two hours away, and wait in line with many other Strat-crazed fans in late Feburary. Last year about 100 or so. Great fun forever. I loved the wife and kids waiting with one guy last year.

Loading the Deck of Cards

My final record was 141 wins and 21 losses! How did the 1980 St. Louis Cardinals accomplish that feat? Well, I used some of the Hall Of Fame players along with the regular Cardinals. I had Charley Gehringer and Arky Vaughn on the infield, along with Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron in the outfield. Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Pete Alexander were in the starting rotation, and 1979 Bruce Sutter was the relief ace.

At one point we rolled through the competition with 33 consecutive wins! Aaron out-homered Mantle 52-51 and Koufax led in wins with 28. Oddly enough, the World Series against the Royals was all too close! George Brett went crazy, was something like 16-27 during the Series, and it went the full seven games. On top of that, we trailed 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th in Game 7, and had first and second with nobody out. Aaron popped out, Mantle struck out, but then George Hendrick nailed a 3-run homer to give us the 5-3 lead. Sutter finished off the 9th, and I celebrated another world championship.

Obviously, it was a fantastic job of managing that propelled us to the 141 wins and the world championship. I mean, it certainly couldn’t have been talent, there really wasn’t any.

Mike Craney, Loogootee, IN

39 Years Without a No-Hitter, So Call On Glen Hobbie

I started playing Strat-O-Matic baseball in 1967 so I have been playing for 39 years. Never had the pleasure of seeing a no-hitter, neither with the cards or now with the computer version.

Well, after 39 years I am playing a short 20 games each season with the 1958 teams. On Nov. 13 I played the Chicago Cubs against the St. Louis Cardinals. The starting pitchers were Glenn Hobie for the Cubs and Sam Jones for the Cardinals. The game started by exchanging 0s until the top of the 3rd, when Walt Moryn blasted a 2-run shot to left center making it Cubs 2, St Louis 0. The Cubs got 2 runs in the top of their 6th and 4 more in the top of the 7th.

In the bottom of the 7^th, Hobbie gave up five consecutive base on balls so the Cards, still without a hit, got three runs. I relieved Hobbie with Bill Henry, who closed the inning still with no hits. Then he proceeded to throw two more scoreless innings without allowing a hit. There I had it! I could not believe I had my first no hitter! If it wasn’t for the seven bases on balls that Hobbie allowed I would not have relieved him and maybe – who knows? – I wouldn’t had the no-hitter.

I was ecstatic and dumbfounded. I printed the box score for the posterity. The funny thing is I had just purchased the 1958 season a few weeks ago. The Cards were a team with various stars – Curt Flood, Stan Musial, Ken Boyer – so it’s amazing.

The day before I was playing the White Sox against the Indians and Billy Pierce threw 8 2/3 inning before he surrendered a hit, so I was disappointed, but I was rewarded the next day. SOM is the best game that I have ever played in my 55 years.

Orlando Leon, Polk City, FL