Strat-O

In 2004 Strat-O-Matic released its game discs of the 1911 season and the 2003 season. This was Strat-O-Matic's first "deadball" era deluxe season in its history. A deluxe season is defined as Strat-O-Matic's most precise statistical interpretation of a past season. Those seasons that are non-deluxe have not been statistically researched with nearly as much intensity as the deluxe seasons.

On the Strat-O-Matic Fanforum posting site an excellent post gave a nice description of how the 1911 season plays. It was left by a poster named Ribman during the winter of 2004. Ribman's post conveys a very real sense of what it's like to be inside the mind of a Strat-O-Matic gamer. He called his post "A Whole New World". Here is that post in its entirety.

Posted 2/21/2004 at 11:26pmPlayed my first 1911 games tonight- tourny of course and must admit I have to reprogram my mind- this was as challenging a first 2-3 games I've ever had trying to figure out how to play the 1911 game. I started managing both teams but I finally needed some guidance and let Hal take visitors. Everyone runs and everyone gets the lead like all the time- it's a wild mix of strong hitters with most last 3rd of lineups makes Ray Oyler look like Bonds ( there are starters who hit .132)- so the strategy can change pretty fast. The pitchers are ironmen as expected but Hal "Deadball" era settings are
other worldly- does deadball mean a starter goes until the game is over or dead?

I had an 11 ing game and The Braves lost the upset of the Cubbies as Hal let the starter - the legendary Buster Brown (1st shoe contract) pitched way tired last 3 innings- I expected a full 9 but after 9 and tired surely it was cool to pinch hit- relieve- guess not. Keys to winning- a catcher with an arm is a must (thus even a .132 average is worth stopping the non stop running game), the better teams are the ones who had (comparatively) best d up the middle- a lot of E-50's etc but the bad teams have 4-88's at SS and such - killer. There is more power than I thought-Wildfire Schulte- 21 dingers- I had no idea I thought the 1st 20 tater guy was later and named Ruth. The nicknames are just the best and deserve a separate thread. The history is awesome and anyone who has not read the 1911 review in the Replay section- it's a must- priceless info on how the SI of the times forecast the season.

Right now the guy who most has caught my attention is Highlander SP Russ Ford. He just bested Big Train 2-0 for me and in the review he's listed as a young rookie phenom is 1910 (something like 27-3) and they are speculating if he can keep it up in 1911- he did (22-11 2.27) not a bad 1rst 2 seasons and I have never heard his name once. I know a fair amount of history and read Glory of Their times - more obscure books and never heard of this guy nor what happened to him obviously not the HOF) He was basically Mark Prior of his time and I'll be researching his career soon.note: just looked him up on Baseball Reference.com and he pitched 2 additonal years- was mediocre (but better than league avg era) in 1912 and very good again in 1913 on a bad NY team that didn't win. He then went Federal League for it's 2 years and I'm guessing was banned from baseball for life. Wow a guy that maybe was a HOF'r and he signed the wrong contract. Similar pitcher for him was listed Gary Peters.