I replayed the Dodgers every year from 1972 through 1985 before I finally burned out on the game. I kept detailed stats, by hand, and I still have all of the games and stats in binders in my closet. This is almost 40 years after I stopped playing! It is an awesome game!
Oh man what memories you rekindled! Back in the 70's, living in New Jersey, I used to take an annual pilgrimage to Millersville PA to buy the latest season set. We ran leagues in college along with play by mail leagues. I may need to reacquaint myself with this game!
Simply the best! It plays fast, it's quite realistic, and it's fun. It PLAYS closer to a real ball game than anything I've seen. That's because when you throw the dice you instantly get an easily memorized result. Thus the dice throw is equivalent to the batted ball. Throw the dice and you're immediately announcing, "There's a base hit to right," or "It's a long fly ball, caught by the center fielder." Unlike more complex games, you're not left checking or cross-checking charts and tables to finally get the result. Contrary to many people's thinking, baseball is a very fast game once the ball is batted. The ball rockets off the bat, and an infielder must make a play instantly. APBA's simplicity of play gives you the play result as quick as it happens in real life. (Because the charts can mostly be memorized after a few times playing.) No other game gives you the immediacy of baseball the way APBA does..
Played APBA throughout the 70s. I attribute my success in math to the hours of figuring out batting averages and earned run averages of the players throughout the seasons. Really enjoyed this game.
The baseball game of my youth. Dabbled in many others, but APBA was the one that hooked me. Now I only play on the PC and I've left APBA for Replay, but really enjoyed this video. Brought back so many memories of rolling those dice. The look of the game has changed so much, but I still could recall the results after your rolled. Some things just stick with you. Nice job Steve!
This was the first sports board game I ever played. My dad picked this up when he was a kid (in the 50s or 60s) and when he first introduced me to the game, he still had some of his old season sets. You can't beat the simplicity of APBA baseball, which does make it a great beginner's game (in fact, my own 8 year old son has his own copy and plays it often) but when you are ready to add complexity, try Dynasty League (my personal favorite) or Strat-o-Matic.
Good review Steve. APBA baseball was my introduction into tabletop gaming years ago. I still have a vintage edition of the basic game when the instructions were printed on 1 large board.
True to Life Baseball Thanks! APBA was the first for a lot of sports board gamers. It's amazing you still have that old set! Do you ever break it out to play?
Been playing since 1969. Extremely accurate statically for the most part. What makes it different from other baseball simulation board games is Apba has a very good game flow. Very playable, not too complicated. Once you play for a few days it becomes easy and addicting!! Roll them bones!
Wow, except for the cards, a lot has changed since I last saw this game in the early 80's. The box is HUGE, but I understand the intent (to store seasons of cards). And I must admit the dice shaker seems silly, but I know people like to use them. If I end up getting a copy for my collection, I'll probably search for a vintage copy... Anyway, great video Steve, thanks so much!!
You did a great job on this review. I have the old boards & the 50th Anniversary set along with the new playbook set. I favor the 50th Anniversary playbook over the others. I also favor the basic game version as well. I saw the master symbols & to me they looked like they didn't make any sense. If anything else, it looks like it'll make the game play longer. If I have any problems with the basic game version, its the dice. One is smaller than the other & this can cause em to get stuck in the dice shaker. lol And the other problem I have is they stopped including the lineup sheets. I know you can download em, but APBA needs to realize that not everyone has a computer. Not picking, but I don't see why they still cant include the lineup sheets. Cost is my guess, but it would still be nice if they still did. But other than that, I love the simple but basic game version. Its simple, its fast, & its realistic. Who could ask for more? I also have more season sets than I can count. I have so many, I actually have no more room in my home to store em. I have sets I have yet to even play. lol But all N all, you did a GREAT JOB!!! And I thank ya!!!
Nice review Steve! Always good to see reviews of these sports simulation table top cards and dice games. Thank you for bringing this hobby into the 21st century through the use of You Tube! Many thanks to you for taking the time towards contributing to this niche hobby! Cheers!
Steve, I'm glad you finally did a video on APBA Baseball. It has always been my go-to baseball game. I have others....Replay and HMB, but in my opinion APBA is the game for a pure simulation of baseball. HMB to me is more board games. The pregame rituals and the umpires and clubhouse stuff is fun but makes that game feel less of a simulation. Replay baseball may be a more accurate simulation but not so much h more that it is worth the extra time it takes to make all the rolls necessary to figure out an at-bat. APBA is perfect in game length and recreates believable stats for anything you want to track. I can knock off a 3 game series in the same time it takes me to play a single game of Replay or HMB. The boards for the basic game are easy to memorize. I knew exactly what your rolls were producing while watching your game before you looked them up. I also really like the quality of the player cards. Add in the master rules and you can make it more statistically accurate at the expense of slightly longer play times. My intent is not to bash those other games as they are good games for what they do. But neither hits it out of the park the way APBA does for me. Ed
Nice comments Ed. Another perk with APBA is that, over the years, very little tweaking done to the main game (expansion of strikeout and walk ratings for pitchers and the 42 play result for hit batters being the exception). I can use the current play result boards book and play with cards produced in the 1960's that I have and they are compatible. Some of the newer games out there seem to be a work in progress with seemingly new charts or rules every few years.
Steve, Thank you so much for making this video of APBA baseball. I have not played this game or any APBA product. I have been a long time Strat baseball player and like that very much but I wanted to try APBA for a while since it so popular. Your video has given me the look see at APBA and I will be giving it a whirl.
APBA was dead after the disastrous deal that was made after Seitz's death in 1992 and remained dead until John Herson revived it and moved the company to Atlanta.
Good video. I'm trying to learn about APBA and keeping an open mind during the process. I see comments from time to time about how direct/simple APBA is. I'm not really a Strat guy, but I fail to see how reading a result directly off the player card isn't the most simple. I do get it that once you memorize the APBA result numbers it amounts to about the same thing.
Steve, Nice review,but imho nothing beats Strat-o-matic! The results are right on the cards and Pitchers actually HAVE cards as opposed to a rating. All that chart flipping in APBA would drive me nuts but I guess you get used to it.
Another great review, Steve. Have you tried any of the other APBA games? If so, I'd be very interested to know what you think of their football, basketball, and (especially) hockey games.
Good to know David. Thanks for the info. I've heard good things about Action! PC hockey, but there isn't a ton of info out there on "analog" hockey simulations.
It drives me crazy that the player cards provide no team details or even what season the stats are for. And do pitchers have any personality or individual traits? It seems all 'A' pitchers are the same, etc.
nice review and well explained. The only time I purchased this game and tried to play it I found about four at bats in that the book that came with the game was missing a page and it put a real damper for my enthusiasm for the game. But after this tutorial I must say Strat-o-matic is much more to my liking. Much more detailed to the individual players abilities. The quality of the APBA cards though is far superior to Strat's cards. Better stock and finish. Strat's are pretty cheaply made by comparison. Wish they had the quality of APBA.
Which one would you recommend, if I want to run a league style play of my own? Statis Pro Baseball, APBA Baseball or Replay Baseball? I would like one that can give me all the stats and stuff, without taking too long to play a game... Thanks
Steve. Awesome review. I am new to baseball board games but have purchased replay baseball and payoff pitch baseball after seeing your videos. I will be purchasing APBA as well. Do you have any plans to review Strat-o-matic baseball? Thanks, David
DavidA5205 Thanks David! I may look into doing a Strat review at some point but not sure when that would be. Look at Al Wilson's review on his Hands-On Games channel.
There is a growing community of us APBA enthusiasts on Facebook. Here is where you will find us: facebook.com/groups/17354586764/ Also, there are several APBA message boards. The most popular being Between the Lines: forums.delphiforums.com/n/main.asp?webtag=apbabtl&nav=start&prettyurl=%2Fapbabtl%2Fstart
I noticed in the video that a couple of results listed in the book had two strikes or two balls. Does the advanced version of this go to one die roll per pitch instead of one die roll per batter?
That's still part of the basic game. There are just a few play results that say ball or strike. Sometimes the control factor of a pitcher can turn it into a walk. Apba basic is a great game and the boards are filled with subtle things that can affect the outcome.
I realize you asked this a year ago but I’m just seeing it now, figured I’d answer in case anyone else was wondering the same thing. The master game doesn’t do pitch by pitch, the basics of rolling the dice and checking the batter’s chart are exactly the same. It just gets more detailed from there on you have your result number. Pitchers have numerical ratings instead of just A/B/C/D. Fielding 1/2/3 is determined by a fielding check roll using the specific player’s rating instead of the entire team. The automatic steals and runner advancements are replaced by rolls using the fielder’s arm rating, runner speed, etc. Those sorts of things. The 2 strikes / 2 balls thing is just so that if you were to get a 14 twice in a row on a ZZ pitcher, it would still be a walk. Or you could end up with a strikeout if you rolled a few strikes in a row. But actually getting to a walk or a strikeout based on the count is pretty rare.
I'm a Strat-O-Matic guy, but I haven't played APBA, so I can't really compare them. I will say that I prefer APBA's component quality, and overall look much better.
I played both, I prefer Strat-O-Matic. Strat has several charts too, but most results are on the player's card without referring to a chart for every result. The APBA I had didn't differentiate between left vs. right hander (similar to this video). Conversely, Strat's advanced version does differentiate them. (The advanced game is on the reverse side of the cards, so you get the basic and advanced together.)
Great video. I think baseball does very well as a table top board game - perhaps the best of all the sports. I don't own APBA Baseball, but it looks pretty fun. I still think I would enjoy my Statis-Pro Baseball better. What do you think is the best baseball sim out there (especially if time or complexity or cost are not factors)?
John McGuinness Thanks John. Baseball is my favorite game to play out on my tabletop. I really enjoy playing fictional teams more than doing season long replays of historical seasons, so I really can't say which engine creates the best sim results. Each game has its own quirks and it's really a matter of what exactly you're looking for; quick game play, a game that recreates stats similar to the historical season, etc. Take a look at the other games I've reviewed (Replay, History Maker Baseball, Payoff Pitch) and you can see the great variety there is in games. Steve
Good review but I won't be getting APBA anytime soon as their shipping to Canada is insane. Honestly it is bleeping ridiculous. It costs 1/3 more than the game itself.
Being in Canada if I wanted to get the game I would be paying $32 US for the game which isn't horrible but the shipping would be $48.45 US which is absolute idiotic. Hard to justify buying that when I can get PDF versions of baseball sim games and print them off myself for far less cost.
Holmeed... there is a bit more to it than that. There are also strikeout and control ratings for pitchers. Plus the grades have a huge affect depending on the ability of the hitter. As far as defense goes, there is a very simple option in the instructions that personalizes the fielder. Apba really is a great game. It contains so many subtle things that you learn the more you play.
I replayed the Dodgers every year from 1972 through 1985 before I finally burned out on the game. I kept detailed stats, by hand, and I still have all of the games and stats in binders in my closet. This is almost 40 years after I stopped playing!
It is an awesome game!
Oh man what memories you rekindled! Back in the 70's, living in New Jersey, I used to take an annual pilgrimage to Millersville PA to buy the latest season set. We ran leagues in college along with play by mail leagues. I may need to reacquaint myself with this game!
JPFalcononor I'm sure you'd still enjoy it today (maybe even more so.) There's lots of great sports games out today, welcome back into the hobby!
Simply the best! It plays fast, it's quite realistic, and it's fun. It PLAYS closer to a real ball game than anything I've seen. That's because when you throw the dice you instantly get an easily memorized result. Thus the dice throw is equivalent to the batted ball. Throw the dice and you're immediately announcing, "There's a base hit to right," or "It's a long fly ball, caught by the center fielder." Unlike more complex games, you're not left checking or cross-checking charts and tables to finally get the result. Contrary to many people's thinking, baseball is a very fast game once the ball is batted. The ball rockets off the bat, and an infielder must make a play instantly. APBA's simplicity of play gives you the play result as quick as it happens in real life. (Because the charts can mostly be memorized after a few times playing.) No other game gives you the immediacy of baseball the way APBA does..
Played APBA throughout the 70s. I attribute my success in math to the hours of figuring out batting averages and earned run averages of the players throughout the seasons. Really enjoyed this game.
The baseball game of my youth. Dabbled in many others, but APBA was the one that hooked me. Now I only play on the PC and I've left APBA for Replay, but really enjoyed this video. Brought back so many memories of rolling those dice. The look of the game has changed so much, but I still could recall the results after your rolled. Some things just stick with you. Nice job Steve!
This was the first sports board game I ever played. My dad picked this up when he was a kid (in the 50s or 60s) and when he first introduced me to the game, he still had some of his old season sets. You can't beat the simplicity of APBA baseball, which does make it a great beginner's game (in fact, my own 8 year old son has his own copy and plays it often) but when you are ready to add complexity, try Dynasty League (my personal favorite) or Strat-o-Matic.
Good review Steve. APBA baseball was my introduction into tabletop gaming years ago. I still have a vintage edition of the basic game when the instructions were printed on 1 large board.
True to Life Baseball Thanks! APBA was the first for a lot of sports board gamers. It's amazing you still have that old set! Do you ever break it out to play?
I occasionally dust if off to play a few games from the 79 season. I generally use a '66' version of the game I picked up later on.
Been playing since 1969. Extremely accurate statically for the most part. What makes it different from other baseball simulation board games is Apba has a very good game flow. Very playable, not too complicated. Once you play for a few days it becomes easy and addicting!!
Roll them bones!
Your reviews are all excellent, man! Keep up the great reviews!
Wow, except for the cards, a lot has changed since I last saw this game in the early 80's. The box is HUGE, but I understand the intent (to store seasons of cards). And I must admit the dice shaker seems silly, but I know people like to use them. If I end up getting a copy for my collection, I'll probably search for a vintage copy... Anyway, great video Steve, thanks so much!!
You did a great job on this review. I have the old boards & the 50th Anniversary set along with the new playbook set. I favor the 50th Anniversary playbook over the others. I also favor the basic game version as well. I saw the master symbols & to me they looked like they didn't make any sense. If anything else, it looks like it'll make the game play longer. If I have any problems with the basic game version, its the dice. One is smaller than the other & this can cause em to get stuck in the dice shaker. lol And the other problem I have is they stopped including the lineup sheets. I know you can download em, but APBA needs to realize that not everyone has a computer. Not picking, but I don't see why they still cant include the lineup sheets. Cost is my guess, but it would still be nice if they still did. But other than that, I love the simple but basic game version. Its simple, its fast, & its realistic. Who could ask for more? I also have more season sets than I can count. I have so many, I actually have no more room in my home to store em. I have sets I have yet to even play. lol But all N all, you did a GREAT JOB!!! And I thank ya!!!
Nice review Steve! Always good to see reviews of these sports simulation table top cards and dice games. Thank you for bringing this hobby into the 21st century through the use of You Tube! Many thanks to you for taking the time towards contributing to this niche hobby! Cheers!
Steve,
I'm glad you finally did a video on APBA Baseball. It has always been my go-to baseball game. I have others....Replay and HMB, but in my opinion APBA is the game for a pure simulation of baseball. HMB to me is more board games. The pregame rituals and the umpires and clubhouse stuff is fun but makes that game feel less of a simulation. Replay baseball may be a more accurate simulation but not so much h more that it is worth the extra time it takes to make all the rolls necessary to figure out an at-bat.
APBA is perfect in game length and recreates believable stats for anything you want to track. I can knock off a 3 game series in the same time it takes me to play a single game of Replay or HMB. The boards for the basic game are easy to memorize. I knew exactly what your rolls were producing while watching your game before you looked them up. I also really like the quality of the player cards. Add in the master rules and you can make it more statistically accurate at the expense of slightly longer play times.
My intent is not to bash those other games as they are good games for what they do. But neither hits it out of the park the way APBA does for me.
Ed
Nice comments Ed. Another perk with APBA is that, over the years, very little tweaking done to the main game (expansion of strikeout and walk ratings for pitchers and the 42 play result for hit batters being the exception). I can use the current play result boards book and play with cards produced in the 1960's that I have and they are compatible. Some of the newer games out there seem to be a work in progress with seemingly new charts or rules every few years.
Steve, Thank you so much for making this video of APBA baseball. I have not played this game or any APBA product. I have been a long time Strat baseball player and like that very much but I wanted to try APBA for a while since it so popular. Your video has given me the look see at APBA and I will be giving it a whirl.
Thank you for the vid on this one Steve. I just found a 1995 limited edition at Savers for $4.99 😊
APBA was dead after the disastrous deal that was made after Seitz's death in 1992 and remained dead until John Herson revived it and moved the company to Atlanta.
Good video. I'm trying to learn about APBA and keeping an open mind during the process. I see comments from time to time about how direct/simple APBA is. I'm not really a Strat guy, but I fail to see how reading a result directly off the player card isn't the most simple. I do get it that once you memorize the APBA result numbers it amounts to about the same thing.
Steve,
Nice review,but imho nothing beats Strat-o-matic! The results are right on the cards and Pitchers actually HAVE cards as opposed to a rating. All that chart flipping in APBA would drive me nuts but I guess you get used to it.
jimmags
Another great review, Steve. Have you tried any of the other APBA games? If so, I'd be very interested to know what you think of their football, basketball, and (especially) hockey games.
Thanks Richard. The only other APBA game I've played is their soccer game, you can check out my review on the channel.
Good to know David. Thanks for the info. I've heard good things about Action! PC hockey, but there isn't a ton of info out there on "analog" hockey simulations.
Football is ok. Golf was ok. The rest suck. Baseball is the best simulation baseball board game ever
Good job Steve. Having played Strat, Replay and History Maker I was wondering how APBA was played. Good overview.
Craig, give it a shot. It's a fantastic game and a lot of fun.
Great job Steve!
It drives me crazy that the player cards provide no team details or even what season the stats are for. And do pitchers have any personality or individual traits? It seems all 'A' pitchers are the same, etc.
nice review and well explained. The only time I purchased this game and tried to play it I found about four at bats in that the book that came with the game was missing a page and it put a real damper for my enthusiasm for the game. But after this tutorial I must say Strat-o-matic is much more to my liking. Much more detailed to the individual players abilities. The quality of the APBA cards though is far superior to Strat's cards. Better stock and finish. Strat's are pretty cheaply made by comparison. Wish they had the quality of APBA.
Which one would you recommend, if I want to run a league style play of my own? Statis Pro Baseball, APBA Baseball or Replay Baseball?
I would like one that can give me all the stats and stuff, without taking too long to play a game...
Thanks
Apba baseball
GREAT STUFF STEVE!!!!
Steve. Awesome review. I am new to baseball board games but have purchased replay baseball and payoff pitch baseball after seeing your videos. I will be purchasing APBA as well. Do you have any plans to review Strat-o-matic baseball? Thanks, David
DavidA5205 Thanks David! I may look into doing a Strat review at some point but not sure when that would be. Look at Al Wilson's review on his Hands-On Games channel.
There is a growing community of us APBA enthusiasts on Facebook. Here is where you will find us: facebook.com/groups/17354586764/ Also, there are several APBA message boards. The most popular being Between the Lines: forums.delphiforums.com/n/main.asp?webtag=apbabtl&nav=start&prettyurl=%2Fapbabtl%2Fstart
Yee American blokes gawt me ploying baseball!!! No more cricket fer me!!!!!!
I noticed in the video that a couple of results listed in the book had two strikes or two balls. Does the advanced version of this go to one die roll per pitch instead of one die roll per batter?
That's still part of the basic game. There are just a few play results that say ball or strike. Sometimes the control factor of a pitcher can turn it into a walk. Apba basic is a great game and the boards are filled with subtle things that can affect the outcome.
I realize you asked this a year ago but I’m just seeing it now, figured I’d answer in case anyone else was wondering the same thing. The master game doesn’t do pitch by pitch, the basics of rolling the dice and checking the batter’s chart are exactly the same. It just gets more detailed from there on you have your result number. Pitchers have numerical ratings instead of just A/B/C/D. Fielding 1/2/3 is determined by a fielding check roll using the specific player’s rating instead of the entire team. The automatic steals and runner advancements are replaced by rolls using the fielder’s arm rating, runner speed, etc. Those sorts of things.
The 2 strikes / 2 balls thing is just so that if you were to get a 14 twice in a row on a ZZ pitcher, it would still be a walk. Or you could end up with a strikeout if you rolled a few strikes in a row. But actually getting to a walk or a strikeout based on the count is pretty rare.
MY #1 GAME!!
I'm a Strat-O-Matic guy, but I haven't played APBA, so I can't really compare them. I will say that I prefer APBA's component quality, and overall look much better.
I played both, I prefer Strat-O-Matic. Strat has several charts too, but most results are on the player's card without referring to a chart for every result. The APBA I had didn't differentiate between left vs. right hander (similar to this video). Conversely, Strat's advanced version does differentiate them. (The advanced game is on the reverse side of the cards, so you get the basic and advanced together.)
i encourage trying HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL.
Great video. I think baseball does very well as a table top board game - perhaps the best of all the sports. I don't own APBA Baseball, but it looks pretty fun. I still think I would enjoy my Statis-Pro Baseball better. What do you think is the best baseball sim out there (especially if time or complexity or cost are not factors)?
John McGuinness Thanks John. Baseball is my favorite game to play out on my tabletop. I really enjoy playing fictional teams more than doing season long replays of historical seasons, so I really can't say which engine creates the best sim results. Each game has its own quirks and it's really a matter of what exactly you're looking for; quick game play, a game that recreates stats similar to the historical season, etc. Take a look at the other games I've reviewed (Replay, History Maker Baseball, Payoff Pitch) and you can see the great variety there is in games.
Steve
John, give APBA baseball a try. It's a blast to play. If you don't want to do cards and dice there is also a computer version.
Good review but I won't be getting APBA anytime soon as their shipping to Canada is insane. Honestly it is bleeping ridiculous. It costs 1/3 more than the game itself.
Great job!
Seamus Courts
Aliyah Heights
Madalyn Islands
any baseball is good but my opion cant beat strat-o-matic
Game is expensive.
Being in Canada if I wanted to get the game I would be paying $32 US for the game which isn't horrible but the shipping would be $48.45 US which is absolute idiotic. Hard to justify buying that when I can get PDF versions of baseball sim games and print them off myself for far less cost.
the pitching 'grades' are awful, only 3 fielding ratings, so many better bb sims than this one.
Holmeed... there is a bit more to it than that. There are also strikeout and control ratings for pitchers. Plus the grades have a huge affect depending on the ability of the hitter. As far as defense goes, there is a very simple option in the instructions that personalizes the fielder. Apba really is a great game. It contains so many subtle things that you learn the more you play.
Much ore playable. Better game flow than most other games