(or 2001 a Strat-O-Matic
Odyssey)
by Phil Trygar
Understand,
that I am writing this chronicle many years past the actual occurrences. Know
this, and also understand it has been said that my alleged affliction with
Strat-O-Matic Baseball has warped my judgement and made me less than of sound
mind. To these criticizms I say…Naaaahh.
I
have been playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball for what will be my 26th
season in 2001. The game has had a great effect on my past, my present, and
most likely, my future. I have met many great and interesting people through
this hobby over the years. Many decisions that I have made and paths that I
have taken have been influenced by The Game. Sound odd? I’ll bet if you look
back on some things you’ve done in the past, and if you’re reading this, things
you are currently doing, I’d say the same thing has happened to you.
Some
examples, you say? Strat taught me how to write left handed. Well, it didn’t
specifically teach me, but it motivated me into learning how. I had broken my
right wrist in the late Spring of 1976. I couldn’t write well enough to do
homework, but I HAD to fill in my box scores. So I learned to do my game box
scores left handed. I can still write fairly well with my left hand if I need
to today.
Strat
taught me how to use a computer. Again, maybe a little bit of a reach, but it
did motivate myself and my friend Paul to purchase Tandy computers so we could
use the first versions of the Computer Game. We used those computers for
nothing else. Believe it. Talk about proprietary systems. Today, I am a cost
accountant and a fairly proficient, self-taught computer user that got his
start on early PCs because the computer version of the game motivated me to go
out and buy one.
I
worked 5 seasons with the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Red Barons and got that job
with the team because of showing examples of my Strat statistics and box scores
to the Assistant General Manager. Well…again, not entirely true…but believe it
or not, partly. I had applied for something with a little more meat to it, but
a lot of positions were already spoken for, so I got the job as Computer
Message Center and Scoreboard Operator because I knew computers (see preceding
paragraph J), I knew baseball (you
can make the leap yourself on this statement), and I knew statistics. Hell, I
could calculate players’ ERA and batting average in my head, in my sleep. I
also was in the right place at the right time, but that’s a tale for another
time as well.
I
could go on and site other examples, such as always being able to win a Trivial
Pursuit the Sports Edition game because I could name every 40 man roster for
every Major League team from 1975 to present, but I won’t bore you with that.
What always was in my mind and in my league compatriots minds, was making the
trip…the pilgrimage…the trek…the quest…to the Mecca of our sport, Glen Head,
Long Island. Through the following chapters, travel with me and my fellow Strat
Maniacs, as I chronicle (or at least attempt to chronicle. Hey, I’m getting old…the
memory’s not what it once was) my lifetime of being a Strat-O-Fanatic. It’s
about not just what occurred in my life involving this game and my eventual
trips to the game company, but it’s also some of the other happenings in my life
as well. Hopefully, I can tell it all to you with as much enthusiasm, enjoyment
and amusement as there was when it was (and
still is) happening. Hopefully you’ll get from it what I got out of some of
these memories.
That it’s not about winning and
losing all the time…it’s how you play the game…and who you play it with.
Peace…