Category: tabletop baseball

APBA: back to basics

I started out with APBA back in ’74, but have played only a handful of games in the last 25 years. I’ve been trying out a few different TTBB games over the last year, and the other week I started thinking about APBA again. After losing an eBay auction for an 80s edition, I ordered a new copy, curious about how the charts & cards have changed since the old days.

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Ads from 1973-1974

I recently acquired some old baseball mags from the time I started following the game. The 1974 Street & Smith’s yearbook was a particularly important specimen, as it was there I first saw anything about tabletop baseball. The APBA ad must have grabbed my imagination more than the others, because I sent away for their free brochure and sample cards, and soon afterwards ordered the game.

Looking back from 2008, I’m surprised at how many games were advertising. Who runs print ads nowadays?

My favorite bit is in the APBA ad from another energy crunch 35 years ago:

Street & Smith’s 1974 Yearbook:

June 1973 Baseball Digest:

Baseball board games at the HOF

Century of baseball board games to open April 12

Exhibit features collection of 100 years of leisure entertainment, 1860s-1960s

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — For anyone who’s ever said, “baseball is just a game,” a collection of baseball board games, soon to be featured in a temporary exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., will show that the passion for the national pastime has deep origins and strong roots as a leisure-time activity in American culture, featuring more than 50 games over a 100-year period from 1860-1960.

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