Strat-O-Matic Baseball goes by the numbers

By Scott Benjamin

NEWINGTON – Depending on the numbers on the cards, the managers at Table 32 might bench Shohei Ohtani - $700 million contract, two Most Valuable Player awards and all - for career .252 hitter Christian Arroyo before they roll the dice in the ninth inning of a tie game.

If Dave Roberts did that the shouts from the section near Sandy K’s seat would be so loud they would soar beyond the canyon at Chavez Ravine past the Whisky a Go Go to the bat rack outside Ichiro’s Seattle mansion.

Dodgers minority owner Magic Johnson would initiate impeachment proceedings.

“In Major League Baseball Ohtani never gets pinch-hit for,” said Brian Favereaux of Cromwell, who has been playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball since he was 12 years old.

He coordinates the club in Connecticut that was organized last summer and is playing at Table 32 of the Tabletop Gaming Center.

Favereaux explained, “In Strat-O-Matic you are not putting the [high-profile] best guys out there, you’re putting out the best by the numbers. It is based on chances on a card. It is all based on math.”

Perhaps it is like the Federal Reserve Board: Decisions should be based on economics, not politics.

Maybe that explains how Strat-O-Matic Baseball manager Ben Bernanke rose to become chairman of the Fed.

Each player is represented by a card with ratings that correspond with the numbers on the dice roll.

Jeff Edelstein of The Trentonian in New Jersey wrote: “The idea is simple: You roll dice, you glance at the player cards, whatever happens, happens, and you manage your way around it.”

Hal Richman, then a math major at Bucknell University, invented Start-O-Matic in 1961 and still operates the business out of Glen Head, Long Island. It sells board, online and app games for baseball, football, basketball and hockey.

There are Hall of Fame sets and retro sets. You can play the 1975 Big Red Machine against 1998 Bronx Bombers.

Through the years Favereaux, an information technology manager, has asked his employers for one guaranteed day off: Opening day for Strat-O-Matic Baseball, which this year will be on Friday, February 16.

He said he usually arrives during the morning rush hour. When the office opens at noon the annual crowd numbers 250

Said Favereaux, who was introduced to Strat-O-Matic baseball by his step-father, “You are anxious to see the cards in the new set. There is even a guy who flies in from California to buy a bunch of sets.”

The late sportscaster Bob Wolff once wrote that the human mind would rather be entertained than informed.

Strat-O-Matic does both.

Strat-O-Matic Baseball manager Carl Pitney of Windsor Locks said his baseball coach, John Scirillo, who also was a Math teacher at East Granby High School, coordinated a club.

“He used it to prove that statistics could be used to play a very cool game,” said Pitney.

Favereaux remarked, “You’re not taking all the hits that the hitter had or strikeouts that the pitcher had, but [also] how many times he grounded out. How many times did he ground out into a double play. How many times he grounded out and advanced the runner. How many times did he ground out into a fielders’ choice.”

“You’re going to do more hit and run and bunting in Strat-O-Matic than they do in Major League Baseball,” Favereaux explained. “You do a lot of things that a real manager wouldn’t do, such as put in defensive replacements earlier.”

Said Strat-O-Matic Baseball manager Joe Runde of Hartford, “I’ve shuffled the Red Sox [2004] line-up enough so that they sweep the Yankees instead of losing the first three games [in the American League Championship Series].”

Look at the cards and there appears to be a disconnection between how Corey Seager is viewed by the managers and coaches, who select the Gold Glove awards, and by Strat-O-Matic.

Remarked Favereaux, “He is an average [defensive] shortstop. He always has been an average shortstop, but In Major League Baseball he is a Gold Glove finalist. Strat-O-Matic made him three [with one being the highest grade] even though he was a Gold Glove finalist.”

What about the Clay Holmes? We know that he isn’t going to make the Yankees Bleacher Creatures ring the cow bell as often as they did for Mariana Rivera, but he has been the team’s closer for almost two full seasons and has an All-Star Game selection.

Favereaux said, “In Strat-O-Matic baseball he’s one of those guys who can get right-handed hitters out but can’t handle left-handed hitters. Nobody used him as a closer in Strat-O-Matic baseball.”

Has the heightened importance of middle relief over the last 25 years changed how Strat-O-Matic is played?

“The point of weakness for the starting pitchers has gone down, down, down,” commented Favereaux. “Most of the Hall of Famers, you can’t even get them tired until the ninth inning unless you hit them up for five runs. . . Last year we had one seven-inning pitcher and that was [Miami’s] Sandy Alcantara. I don’t think there is a single, seven-inning pitcher this year. So, in the tournaments you need to have those middle relievers.”

Pitney commented, “In some ways Strat-O-Matic was ahead of analytics because we were looking at the stats closely with less emphasis on the eye test than your old-time baseball guy was.”

“A lot of these guys [playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball] may know baseball, but they know numbers better,” Favereaux added regarding the members in his club. “A lot of these guys have advanced degrees. We have one guy that we played with who has two doctorates and he can see numbers and can determine who is the best player to bring in.”

Strat-O-Matic Chief Content Officer John Garcia, who lives in Avon, commented, “I think that is the beauty of Strat-O-Matic. We’re not taking one metric. We really try to hammer down how that player performs.”

“We think of ourselves as a research institution,” Garcia remarked. “It is a months-long process to get that picture of a player. You use 10 to 15 metrics per player.”

Actually, Start-O-Matic has been a minor league system for the analytics departments.

“In ‘The Numbers Game,’ author Alan Schwarz cites his poll of fifty baseball executives in 2002 where he found that ‘exactly half learned the game in large part playing Strat-O-Matic as kids. That portion will only grow.”

Favereaux cautioned that unlike Major League Baseball, Strat-O-Matic managers are strictly considering numbers and not the human condition.

“I think you make a lot of different decisions as a Strat-O-Matic manager, particularly over the course of a year,” he said.

Runde said in Strat-O-Matic, “I don’t have to account for the players’ psychology. The cards don’t get tired. You can create rules on player usage.”

Which major league manager most utilizes Strat-O-Matic strategy?

“Kevin Cash” [of the Tampa Bay Rays],” Favereaux replies. “He does openers, brings in a lot of relievers and does match-ups.”

Said Favereaux: “I don’t think he goes by the personalities of the players. He has little regard for the superstar player. If that superstar doesn’t hit well against a particular pitcher, he will sit him down.”

The managers at Table 32 have their cards wrapped in foil sleeves with dice tumbling out of a small cardboard tower. Favereaux, a Red Sox fan wearing a Steve Pearce T-shirt, has a small model of Fenway Park next to him.

USA Today has reported that in a typical major league game the ball is only in play for six minutes per nine innings.

However, Strat-O-Matic Baseball is crisp, clean, quick.

Favereaux said a Basic game can be completed in 20 minutes and with Super Advanced the managers “play four, five, six games in six hours.”

“Strat is trying to get more of the younger kids, and that is why they started these Strat clubs,” he said. “They want to have 10 people and go to a game store or to Dunkin Donuts where is it visible. People will hopefully ask questions and it will generate more players.”

“I’m not sure that going to game stores is the best way of doing it,” Favereaux said. “I’ve gotten more off of Facebook than anywhere else.”

Jerry Milani, a public relations consultant for Strat-O-Matic, said that during the height of the pandemic from March to late July 2020 there was a huge increase in families that started playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball.

“I get e-mails every day,” he added.

Forty years ago, Strat-O-Matic Baseball manager Kevin Kelsey of East Granby brought his cards to West Palm Beach for two weeks as he watched the Montreal Expos and Atlanta Braves at spring training.

He still plays with the ones autographed by Buddy Bell, Terry Francona, Jesse Orosco and Tim Raines.

He even has one with Rusty Staub, who didn’t sign baseball cards.

Said Kelsey, “When I handed it to him, he said, ‘This is not a baseball card. Oh, all right, I will sign."'

Resources:

Interview with Brian Favereaux, Patch.com, on Sunday, January 14, 2024.

Interview with Brian Favereaux, Patch.com, on Saturday, January 27, 2024.

Interviews with Kevin Kelsey, Carl Pitney and Joe Runde, Patch.com, on Saturday, January 27, 2024

Phone interview with Brian Favereaux, Patch.com, Saturday, January 20, 2024.

Phone interview with John Garcia and Jerry Milani, Patch.com, Tuesday, January 23, 2024.

Glenn Guzzo, “Strat-O-Matic Fanatics, ACTA Sports, 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strat-O-Matic#History.

https://www.trentonian.com/202...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strat-O-Matic

Bob Wolff’s Complete Guide to Sportscasting, Skyhorse Publishing, 2011.