Daily Fantasy, Daily Life: Volume XIV - From Strat-O-Matic to DFS
The best gift in the world is a gift you end up cherishing but didn’t even know existed, never mind know that you wanted it.
That was my experience, Hanukkah, 1981 (I’m old. Shut up.) But yes, there I was, handed a wrapped rectangular box, about the size of a Monopoly box. This caused tremendous upset on my part, as I actually got Monopoly a year earlier, which I immediately bitched about.
Meanwhile, my father filmed my whiny freakout on his brand new VHS camera and which is still, to this day, forever enshrined on a VHS cassette that dear ol’ dad delights in showing my children to prove what an asshat I was as a kid. Anyway …
Anyway, I opened the box, figuring it for Sorry or Parchesi or something, but instead, it was Strat-O-Matic baseball. I was nine years old, and a baseball fanatic.
Strat-O-Matic is an amazing baseball simulation board game – a cards and dice game that perfectly captures the strategy, statistics, and drama of baseball. They even have a computer version. You can play face to face, solitaire, on your laptop, or online.
stratomatic</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/baseball?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#baseball</a> <a href="https://t.co/ElUBQVCesy">pic.twitter.com/ElUBQVCesy</a></p>— Steve Beren (SteveBeren) June 13, 2019
You know that dorky kid on your block growing up who knew everything about baseball? Who knew all the stats, all the players, had all the cards, knew all the rules, everything? Yeah. That was me. I was a baseball nut.
So even though I had never heard of the game, I was happy to get it. I cracked it open, read the directions, and immediately started playing with the two teams that came with the set: The 1979 Houston Astros and 1979 Montreal Expos.
I played a game that night. And then another. And another. And more and more and more. I must’ve sent Terry Puhl up to bat against Steve Rogers 13,000 times.
In February, I ordered the 1981 cards from an ad in Baseball Digest, and then proceeded to spend the next seven years of my life playing Strat-O-Matic baseball.
And while the end of the above sentence is obviously hyperbole, it’s not by much. I had a table set up in my room strictly for Strat-O-Matic. I played solitaire games until well past bedtime. I recreated Mets season after Mets season. I dragged my friends into it.
I’m telling you: By the time I was 14 or so, I was – and remain – convinced I could’ve successfully managed and general managed a Major League Baseball team. I was ahead of the curve.
I realized power and on base percentage were the keys for batters. I realized high strikeout pitchers were ideal. I figured it all out. (By the way, if you’ve read this far and don’t know what Strat-O-Matic baseball is, know this: It was – and probably remains – the premier baseball simulation game on the market.)
I played well into my junior year of high school. Two of my friends became very interested in it as well, and we played after school almost every day – for money.
I legit have memories of Eddie Murray walkoff home runs, Nolan Ryan 20-strikeout games, and Sid Fernandez tossing back-to-back no-hitters.
What’s weird is that even though the above happened in a board game, the memories are very real. I can picture El Sid celebrating his no-hitters. It’s crazy.
No 1981 All-Star Game today. An huge Strat-O-Matic was set up at Municipal Stadium. Bob Feller threw out 1st dice, pic.twitter.com/OhMy86bpAQ
— Split Season 1981 (@SplitSeason1981) July 14, 2014
Eventually, trying to secure beer, weed, and a girlfriend – I was wildly successful on two out of those three fronts – was what turned me away from the game. That was an idiot move, as basically every modern day general manager in every sport played Strat–O-Matic baseball (and/or football, hockey, basketball, which all also found their way into my house).
And … what does this have to do with daily fantasy sports? Well … it really served as a precursor, and even more so once my friends and I started betting on it. It taught me variance is real, it taught me bankroll management, it taught me how to interpret statistics, to separate signal from noise. It taught me a lot. I’m convinced my success as a DFS player stems from my time hunched over this board game.
And every spring, around this time of year, the kid in me gets excited again for baseball, and up I’ll go into my attic where I still keep the game – along with a complete reprinted set of 1978 cards – and roll those dice for a bit.
Image Credit: Imagn