In The Box

In my opinion, one of the weaknesses in the APBA Hockey game is the penalty system.  Unfortunately, the original system doled out too many penalties and each successive version has tried to kludge the system rather than just starting from scratch.  This article will go into how the system works, how to calculate what numbers […]

The Single Column Six

In the last dozen years or so, an occasional card will end up with a weird combination of 0s and 6s in the first column. Prior to this time, the only extra base hit you could have with a 0 was a 1. So is there any rhyme or reason to who gets this combo. […]

The Dreaded Shootout

I am an avid player of the APBA hockey game but I only play tournaments. Since I need to play playoff-style overtimes, I never had to deal with the shootout. However, when I got the 2014 Olympic set, I would have to use the shootout, because that’s what the Olympics did.  Even though my Olympic […]

Fielder’s Choice

A while back, I ran a simulation of the various hit numbers. I then did the same thing, concentrating on the pitching grades. This time I’m going to look at fielding, including the arm ratings for catchers and outfielders. The latter prove to be pretty surprising. First off let’s take a look at the most […]

Making the Grade

In the original National Pastime game, the only thing that a pitcher contributed was hitting.  There were no grades, no subratings, no handicaps.  When APBA came out in 1951, the concept of the grade was added, so now pitchers fell into six classes: A&C, A&B, A, B, C and D.  The grade was pretty much […]

Introduction

I’ve been playing APBA since I was 10.  Over the years, I’ve noticed things that sometimes fall in the space of “do I ignore it and keep it real” or “do I take advantage of it and have it be a little odd.”  Setting up your outfield based on the other team’s error numbers, playing […]