The SHERCO Grand Slam Baseball STORY

By Steven V LeShay

Baseball fans and tabletop board game players get ready for a treat. 

For over half a century, SherCo Grand Slam has been a beloved pastime, earning the

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hallard Press LLC
• Release date: May 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9781962326322

Book preview

The SHERCO Grand Slam Baseball Game STORY, Book 1

The SHERCO Grand Slam Baseball Game STORY, Book 1

Grand Slam Baseball

Book 1

Steven V. LeShay

Hallard Press

The SHERCO Grand Slam Baseball Game STORY, Book 1

Copyright © 2024 by Steven V. LeShay, Ph.D.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Published by Hallard Press LLC.

www.HallardPress.com 352.460.6099

ISBN: 978-1-962326-31-5 (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-962326-32-2 (Ebook)

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Volume One: May - December 2017

1. Vol. 1, No. 1 – May 2017 – SherCo treasures uncovered, including early testimonials

2. Vol. 1, No. 2 – Jun. 2017 – SherCo stock certificates; ‘56 player cards; MS-DOS ratings

3. Vol. 1, No. 3 – Jul. 2017 – Old Tyme Baseball Rules; A call for new variant playtesters

4. Vol. 1, No. 4 – Aug. 2017 – Why SherCo wasn’t computerized; A fan’s dice-less invention

5. Vol. 1, No. 5 – Sep. 2017 – Geezers of Summer: Rules and risks of playing senior softball

The ‘Geezers’ of (Perpetual) Floridian Summer

Skill and mental gaps

Slow-pitch 55+ softball rules

Injuries occur

Celebrity ball players

My stats

6. Vol. 1, No, 6 – Oct. 2017 – Base-36 SherCo variant status report; SherCo All-Century Team

Base-36 Variant Playtesting to Begin Soon

The 2017 Season Will Be Available in January

Team of the 20th Century Freebie

7. Vol. 1, No. 7 – Nov. 2017 – Top five 2017 World Series Stars and their stats

Who Would Have Thunk It?

8. Vol. 1, No. 8 – Dec. 2017 – Home field advantage: What it is and how to use it in SherCo

Can It Be Used in SherCo Grand Slam Baseball?

Sports Handicappers Say It’s a Good Bet

Hidden Influences of Home Team Advantage

What Home Team Advantage Is Not

Blame It on the Ump!

Tighter the Game = More Bias

Proposed SherCo Baseball CPU Advantages

Feedback Invited and Always Welcomed

Volume Two: January - December 2018

9. Vol. 2, No. 1 – Jan. 2018 – SherCo’s Golden 50th Anniversary: A look back and forward

It’s Here – SherCo’s Golden 50th Anniversary!

10. Vol. 2, No. 2 – Feb. 2018 – A visit (and trouncing) from the inventor of Extra Innings

The Day Extra Innings Baseball Game Inventor Jack Kavanagh Beat Me at My Own Game, SherCo Baseball – Twice!

11. Vol. 2, No. 3 – Mar. 2018 – How to score SherCo Grand Slam with BallStat

How To Score SherCo Grand Slam Baseball

Hundreds of Features in BallStat/BallScore

Free SherCo Scoresheet on the Next Page

Some Baseball Trivia: The Decline of the Starter

12. Vol. 2, No. 4 – Apr./May 2018 – SherCo Plus becomes available on the SherCo website

FREE GIFT: Classic and Plus 1968 Season!

13. Vol. 2, No. 5 – Jun. 2018 – Biggest ROSTER issue: Hobbyists, 3-D parks, miniatures

Our Biggest Issue Yet!

14. Vol. 2, No. 6 – Jul. 2018 – First of a three-part interview: Down SherCo’s Memory Lane

Down SherCo’s Memory Lane (Part 1 of 3)

And now, for the promised tidbit item of interest….

15. Vol. 2, No. 7 – Aug. 2018 – Hall of Famers; Part 2 of Memory Lane; Simpson’s Paradox

Down SherCo’s Memory Lane (Part 2 of 3)

Questions from the Grand Stand, Answers from the Dugout

Simpson’s Paradox: Who was better – Jeter or Justice?

16. Vol. 2, No. 8 – Sep. 2018 – Memory Lane; Optional rules; ‘35, ‘54, ‘69, ‘77 seasons

A Blast from the Past: Down SherCo’s Memory Lane (Part 3 of 3)

Some Testimonial Excerpts (from Roland’s Emails)

Another Example of Simpson’s Paradox

SherCo Offers Three New Optional Rules

17. Vol. 2, No. 9 – Oct. 2018 – Pete Rose visits hometown; 54-card Baseball Game

First of Five Gifts: Rules for 54-Card Solitaire Baseball

RULES FOR 54-Card Solitaire Baseball Game

18. Vol. 2, No. 10 – Nov. 2018 – Boston’s amazing 2018 season; 54-card Basketball Game

A Giant Loss - Willie McCovey

Do You Need 20/20 Vision to Hit a Fast Ball?

Meet the Madison-based Rocket City Trash Pandas

Second of 5 Gifts: A 54-Card Solitaire Basketball Game

RULES FOR 54-Card Solitaire Basketball Game

Special Rules for Resting Players and Using Substitutes

Strategy Plays During the Game

19. Vol. 2, No. 11 – Dec. 2018 – Snell, deGrom win Cy Young; 54-card Boxing Game

Christmas Sale!

All SherCo Products 15% Off Until End of Month!

Mets’ deGrom Gets Cy Young with Record-Low 10 Wins; Snell Takes AL Award

Third of 5 Gifts for You:

Rules for 54-Card Solitaire Heavyweight Boxing Game

Great Heavyweight Boxer Profiles

Volume Three: January - December 2019

20. Vol. 3, No. 1 – Jan. 2019 – Frequently Asked Questions; 54-card Golf Game

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About SherCo

dSchrensky asked about Bunt Special Events:

Glen Perau wanted to know:

Grognard raised a question about the Pick-Off Chart error:

CelticSoul1 inquired about this unusual play:

David Ray wanted an answer to this question:

John Cardi gave an example of a close play and asked:

Eggducky wondered:

Baseball Loses 15 Memorable Stars in 2018

Fourth of 5 Gifts: 54-Card Solitaire Golf Game

RULES FOR 54-Card Solitaire Golf Game

21. Vol. 3, No. 2 – Feb. 2019 – Four Hall-of-Famers inducted; 54-card Horse Racing Game

First 2 Games of 2019 Will Be in The Big Egg

Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo Grand Slam

Doug Bender writes:

SHEEBA111 asks:

SherCo Salutes Four New Hall of Fame Members

Rivera, Halladay, Martinez, and Mussina Inducted

Here’s Fifth Gift: 54-Card Solitaire Horse Racing

22. Vol. 3, No. 3 – Mar. 2019 – 1960 Player Cards; 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings

Four New Classic and Plus Seasons Coming This Month!

Introducing the latest innovation for SherCo fans:

Season-Long Tribute Planned For 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings

Remembering Two of the Game’s Greatest

Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo Grand Slam

SHEBAAA!!! wants to know:

Gene Jensen asks:

DaveP makes this inquiry:

dshrensky is puzzled by this result:

Duckjensen writes:

23. Vol. 3, No. 4 – Apr. 2019 – Predictions; Foul balls; MLB rule changes and oddities

My Predictions for the 2019 MLB Season

Survey Results Favor Plus Player Cards by 3-1 Margin

1960, ’61, ’63, and 2018 Seasons Now Available

Babe Ruth’s Last Surviving Daughter Dies

Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo Grand Slam

David Ray writes:

Duckjensen wants to know:

John Cardi writes:

pcrumley9 asks a question about SherCo Classic:

Dshrensky poses an interesting question about resting pitchers:

Foul Balls: The Problem Nobody’s Talking About

MLB Rule Changes; How They Affect Playing SherCo

Baseball Is Full of Statistical Oddities

$222,220 Per At Bat Isn’t Enough…Or Is It?

24. Vol. 3, No. 5 – May 2019 – MLB milestones within reach; More baseball oddities

Baseball Milestones Within Reach This Season

Here Are Some More Interesting Baseball Oddities

Reliever Finally Gets an Out; Brings ERA Below Infinity

Orioles’ Davis Sets New MLB Record for Hitless PAs

Darvish Beans Three with One Pitch

No More Active Players from the 20th Century

Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo

John Cardi asks these two questions:

David Ray wants to know:

Jondanclan1 asks:

25. Vol. 3, No. 6 – Jun. 2019 – More milestones; Decline of the starter

1960 - 1969 Classic and Plus Seasons Now Available!

The Last Team Without a No-Hitter

And here are a few other ‘milestones’ …

The Decline of the Starter

Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo Grand Slam

Dave Ray asks this:

26. Vol. 3, No. 7 – Jul. 2019 – London Series; SherCo’s oldest fan; Instant replay rule

2019 MLB London Series–A SherCo Replay Just Waiting to Happen?

John Cardi Recalls 41 Years of July 4, SherCo, and Barbecue

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) From SherCo Fans

Home Runs Galore!

Speaking about surrendering home runs…

So, what team is hitting the most HRs?

Season Predictions: Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

27. Vol. 3, No. 8 – Aug. 2019 – Six new Hall-of-Famers; 24 still waiting

Hi, Baseball Fans:

SherCo Plus Career Ratings for Latest HOF Inductees

Other Best MLB Players Not in the Hall of Fame…Yet

Interesting Baseball Facts and Oddities

Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo

New! - Instant Replay Rule for SherCo Baseball

When and How to Use Instant Replay-Review for SherCo Plus

28. Vol. 3, No. 9 – Sep. 2019 – New way to determine Effective Innings; 1966 W.S. replay

A SherCo Fan Shares New Dimension to Effective Innings

1966 LA Dodgers Win Pennant in SherCo Plus Replay

Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo Grand Slam

24 New Features in SherCo Plus Grand Slam Baseball

29. Vol. 3, No. 10 – Oct. 2019 – Dugout thoughts; Analysis of ’66 W.S. SherCo replay

A Dozen Thoughts from the Dugout

Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo Grand Slam

Analysis and Commentary on the ’66 Dodgers Replay

30. Vol. 3, No. 11 – Nov. 2019 – MLB’s smallest player; SherCo Fickle Finger of Fate Chart

Why Houston Should Have Won: ‘Proof’ Was in the Numbers

More Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo Game Rules

No. 1/8, Little Eddie Gaedel – SherCo Rating: G (66-n)

Sneak Peek: Plus Version of SLOBS’ Fickle Finger of Fate

31. Vol 3., No. 12 – Dec. 2019 – The best players from each state

20% Off for Entire Cyber Week on All SherCo Products!

Sneak Peek of 2019 SherCo Ratings for Award Winners:

Astros; Verlander, Mets’ DeGrom Win Cy Young Awards

Frequently Asked Questions About SherCo Game Rules

The Best Baseball Players of All-Time from Each State

About the Author

Dedication

First and foremost, this book is dedicated to all of my SherCo Baseball Game customers and fans.

From 1968 to now, they have supported me in growing SherCo Baseball into a sophisticated and statistically accurate game recognized as the tabletop baseball board game that is Most fun to play! Countless customer testimonies, feedback, questions, answers, and suggestions for new rules and ideas allowed me to be responsive and grow my product to meet their needs.

Many names appear in the ROSTER Newsletters in this first book of The SHERCO STORY. Some names from frequent contributors appear more than once. More new names will occur in other books in this chronology. Hopefully, you all will find your name and realize your importance to the history of SherCo.

Secondly, I want to acknowledge some of the modern pioneers of baseball board gaming.

More than 1,600 baseball board games have been marketed since Francis C. Sebring’s Parlor Base-Ball in 1868, one hundred years before the SherCo Grand Slam Baseball Game. (See photos on pages 9 and 10).

APBA Baseball, Big League Manager, Baseball Strategy, Strat-O-Matic, and All-Star Baseball were five forerunners who appeared shortly before the SherCo Baseball Game 1968 debut.

Extra Innings and Statis-Pro came out in 1970, and many newcomers to the tabletop (and computerized) baseball gaming world have followed up until today.

Here is a brief history and a description of seven contributions to the community SherCo became a part of in 1968.

1951 – J. Richard Zeitz created APBA (pronounced APP-pah) Baseball, based on the game National Pastime, invented and patented by Clifford Van Beek in 1925 and published once in 1931. APBA is considered the granddaddy of modern-day tabletop baseball games. The acronym stands for American Professional Baseball Association, and the APBA Baseball Game was the company’s first offering that year. Still in business, the mail-order company uses individual player cards, two dice, and charts. By 1984, APBA had entered the computerized sports game market.

1954 – This was the first season rated by Big League Manager, who produced a baseball game with two large charts and a 100-number spinner. The Company, run by the Henrickson brothers, morphed into Nemadgi and switched to Negamco in 1959. The Ne is Nemadgi, gam is Game, and co is Company, a similar thought process as to how SherCo got its name.

1960 – Avalon Hill Game Company’s Baseball Strategy, designed by Don Greenwood and Thomas N. Shaw, came on the scene. It was a unique game without relying on random dice or spinner. Instead, game players drafted identical nameless players from a pool of chits. Then, they matched pitch cards against batting cards to get the results. I traveled to the Company’s headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, in the late ’60s to show Tom Shaw some of my game inventions to see if AH would be interested. I also interfaced with Don Greenwood several times when I attended the New York Toy Fair and World Board Gaming Championships in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

1961 – Hal Richman started selling the Strat-O-Matic Baseball Game as a Bucknell University mathematics student. Initially, Richman faced financial challenges, but in 1963, he released a game that offered a card for each player in Major League Baseball. (SherCo has always rated every player, even if they only batted or pitched once, and provided its rating formulae to customers so they could do their teams themselves).

1966 – Cadaco launched All-Star Baseball, as developed by Yale coach Ethan Allen, who played outfield on five Major League teams from 1926 to 1938. The game used player discs placed on a spinner to get results. (This is similar to the 28-number spinner I used for my SherCo prototype in the late 1950s to get the one square in 784 to where a ball was hit.

1968 – The first SherCo Baseball Game sold nationally via a one-page ad in Baseball Digest.

1968 – The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., by Robert Coover was published. The book delved into philosophical issues, including creationism, as the protagonist lived in a fantasy world of players, managers, and the fickleness of dice in the alternative baseball game and league he invented. The novel is my favorite. It inspired me to create SLOBS, SherCo Leagues of Baseball Simulation, a 40-plus page guide on how to set up and play short-season SherCo leagues using real or fictional baseball players.

1970 – Jack Kavanaugh created Extra Innings, a baseball simulation board game played by rolling three six-sided dice, thus generating 216 results. It was a straightforward, basic baseball simulation game. Jack joined the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) in 1973, becoming the first member in Rhode Island. In the 1990s, he became President of that organization. In the interim, we talked a lot, sharing ideas over the phone about our baseball games. We became good friends, and he visited me as an overnight guest. (See the issues of the ROSTER, Vol. 1, August 2017, and Vol. 2, February 2018).

1970 – Statis Pro Baseball, created by James A. Barnes, was named after a daily newspaper column he wrote for an Iowa morning newspaper. In 1974, it was published under the banner of Midwest Research, Inc. A deck of 98 cards with four random numbers (11-88) on each card was used instead of dice for 64 possibilities. They were called Fast Action Cards (FACs).

Jim and I corresponded over the years. He was kind in his unsolicited review of SherCo. After playing 60 games, he wrote: [SherCo] is well devised and certainly an escape from general statistical games. Parks with wind make a difference…much fun.

I had a chance to meet him personally at a gaming convention in 1973. He was dressed in his racing car driving outfit, standing next to a racing car, peddling his United States Auto Club Racing Game (a recreation of the 1972 Indianapolis 500), produced by his company, Statis Pro. In 1978, the game was remarketed by Avalon Hill - Midwest Research - Sports Illustrated.

Many other baseball games came after…Replay Baseball, Sports Illustrated Super Star Baseball, Pennant Race (by Avalon Hill-Sports Illustrated), Pursue the Pennant, et al. I chose only to acknowledge the games that were prevalent in my lifetime before SherCo’s birth in 1968 and the game inventors (and author) with whom I felt a special relationship.

Finally, I want to especially thank seven people who have enabled SherCo to be reborn.

Roland Chapdelaine – I met the 17-year-old SherCo Baseball fan at his grandmother’s home in the Bronx when I visited in the Summer of 1975. We played SherCo, and then I hired him to rate SherCo’s 77 Greatest Teams of Yesteryear, 20 All-time Franchise Teams, and Hall of Famers. Many years later, Roland proofread and edited the 42-page guidebook for SLOBS Plus and inspired the SherCo Plus Optional Tiant Rule for pitchers who bat as D or less. He is a frequent contributor to the ROSTER Newsletter.

Robert Gregorio – Rob and I became friends when he was an accounting student at the first university where I taught in 1984-95. We lived near each other in Southern New Jersey, competed in tennis, and were avid gamers. He now works as an accountant at a casino in Philadelphia, is married to a wonderful woman, and has two grown boys. While my wife and I lived and worked in Europe for six years, Rob rated the American League and National League baseball seasons. We stay in touch, and periodically, he contributes to the ROSTER.

Stephen B. Patrick, Esq. – Alpha Steve is a lawyer, contributor of ideas to (and playtester of) early SherCo, a good friend, and SherCo’s Advisor Emeritus. Among many contributions, his letter to the MLBPA exonerated SherCo from paying royalties for using players’ names in my game. Together, we playtested SherCo Classic by replaying the 1927 Yankee season. Later, inspired by the Coover book mentioned earlier, we played 17-1/2 seasons of SherCo using SLOBS (with the rules Stephen created). In what grew to be the two-division, 12-team, 20-24-game team schedule Northfield, New Jersey League, Stephen piloted the Superbas (with the star player, Ruth Ruth, daughter of the Babe) and was commissioner of the league. (I still have a 500-page typewritten volume with all the player stats, photos, and narratives he created). I managed the Pioneers, the fantasy team with all the players featured in Coover’s book.

Brien Martin – In the Summer of 2016, Hot Stove Games (aka Brien K. Martin) was granted a licensing agreement to reproduce, produce, sell, and distribute SherCo’s Grand Slam Baseball Game and its components. Brien and I have never met face-to-face. Yet, the DeKalb, Illinois native (and a SherCo fan since his teenage years) agreed to collaborate with me and give rebirth to my game. Brien is a game inventor in his own right: He has six sports games listed on our distributor (ASGgames) website. His design, computer, Excel skills, sports board gaming, and distributor connections resulted in a new look and opportunities for SherCo products.

George and Mary Ann Gerney – The two principles of ASGgames, in West End, North Carolina, prepare the computer PDF downloads and printed copies of more than 200 SherCo Baseball Game products to ensure timely and accurate delivery to our customers. They also handle sports games from 18 companies, including Hot Stove Games. George first dabbled in board games in the ‘70s with ASG Basketball and ASG Baseball. A self-described golf hacker, he also developed the ultimate ASG Golf Game with the help of the board gaming community, the USGA Library, and Google Earth. His game shows each course’s tree, water hazard, sand trap, and coastline. Having ASGgames as SherCo’s distributor enabled me to move my production distribution hub out of my kitchen, garage, and storage trailer, which I used for over 50 years to fulfill orders. Thanks, George and Mary Ann!

Maxine LeShay – My wife, muse, playtester, idea-generator, proofreader, and manager of The Psychodynamics, a team made up of psychiatrist and psychologist ballplayers in the Northfield, New Jersey SLOBS League. (Think Eight Stage Erikson, Mad Dog Padlov, and F. G. Perls, to name a few). Max and I have been married since 1982 and are both avid board game players, although she wins two-thirds (or more) of the time.

Preface

By Steven V. LeShay, Ph.D.

Thank you for reading this book.

There are three things that I’d like you to know about me:

I like to write.

I enjoy inventing and playing tabletop board games.

I love to watch and play baseball!

Why I Like to Write

When I was eight, I wrote my first story, The Adventures of Andrew Bunning, about a young boy pirate. I sold the two-page hand-scrawled printed copy to my minister for a penny. Ever since then, I’ve been inspired to put words (my creative thoughts) on paper.

When I was eleven, I won an essay contest sponsored by a local Women’s Club for my entry entitled What America Means to Me. It was good enough to get a letter of congratulations from the Superintendent of Schools and an article in two local daily newspapers, along with a photograph of me receiving the first-place award – a copy of Edna Ferber’s Johnny Tremain –at my school assembly.

In seventh grade, I researched, wrote, typed, and illustrated a longer book, Maylo of the Plain, about an Apache boy who goes on a buffalo hunt with his father and the rest of his tribe. I was, and still am, fascinated by the Native American culture. My teacher was so impressed that she forwarded my book to the Hartford, Connecticut, Director of Secondary Education, who congratulated me.

He wrote: "Your book is interesting, expressed with feeling, at times almost poetic. You have an excellent imagination and quite a wealth of background for a boy your age. A person who can both write and illustrate can do much in this world." 

The director encouraged me to Continue the good work…continue writing. And, so I have.

I have continued to write…and write…and write – throughout my life. Most recently, I wrote three books: my autobiography Tales from an Asylum: A Memoir Unlike Any Other; a read-aloud picture for children ages 3-6, Sssnake on a Ssskate?; and The SHERCO Grand Slam Baseball Game STORY as recounted in this first book in a chronology of the 80+ monthly newsletters for SherCo customers, fans of tabletop baseball games, and sports enthusiasts.

Why I Enjoy Inventing and Playing Board Games

I invent tabletop board games and play them ... a lot! It all began in 1952. The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers for their fourth consecutive World Series. I recreated the final game in my head while sitting at the magnificent rolltop desk in the dimly lit basement of my grandparents’ house. I was nine years old. I had just become interested in baseball and chose the Yankees to be my favorite team because they were number one, and their star pitcher, Allie Reynolds, was a real, live Native American.

Yep! Born in a small town in Oklahoma, the winner of the 4-2 championship game was a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Reynolds also had just completed his greatest single season ever. He won 20 games for the first (and only) time in his career and led the American League in Earned Run Average (2.08), strikeouts (160), and shutouts (six). Before coming to New York, the All-Star pitcher pitched five years for the Cleveland Indians. His nickname was Super Chief.

I penciled in the starting lineups for both teams, called Play Ball, and then imagined and narrated each pitch and result as they unfolded in my mind. A lot of games went on in my mind.

In my lifetime, I have researched, invented, and produced tabletop board game prototypes for the amusement and pleasure of my family, friends, and myself. These games include:

Airline Ol.i.gop.o.ly (2-4 players build and run major airlines on a map of the USA),

Amazing Space Venture (clever tile placement; successfully marketed in 2007-12).

Antediluvian World of Atlantis (board is painted on a dining table; hundreds of cards),

ARRGH! The Caribbean Booty-ful Pirate Game (based on real pirates and pirate ships),

ARRGH! The Barbary Coast Booty-ful Pirate Game (a spinoff of my pirate game above)

Boom! (satirical atomic war card game of the 1950s),

California Gold Rush (based on the historic gold rush of 1848-1863),

Campaign Countdown (close presidential elections inspired by the 1968 election),

Day at Belmont (horse racing and betting on a replica of the well-known race track),

Devil’s Graveyard (discover worldwide vortices),

End of the Caliphate (the final days of ISIS in Syria and Iraq in 2014),

Game of Gods (create Greek islands with tiles and add and treasures),

Secrets of Lemuria (explore an ancient continent, a spinoff of World of Atlantis game),

Secrets of Gondwana (explore another primordial continent, also a spinoff of Atlantis),

The Mob Game (gambling comes to Atlantic City, based on numerous books),

The 12 Labors of Heracles (based on the epic poem, three separate game boards),

Struggle for the Middle East (use military, politics, money to control oil, Suez Canal),

WWII: Europe (strategic conflict: Allies vs. Axis),

WWII: Pacific Conflict (land, sea, air war vs. Japan, spinoff of WWII: Europe),

WWII: Western Conflict (abstract war in Europe, spinor of WWII: Europe and Pacific).

Note: All of my games above are listed in chapter 40 of my autobiography, Tales from an Asylum. The games in boldface are discussed in greater detail in other chapters of that book,

In the mid-1950s, I invented my first real board game, which belongs on the above list. It was a baseball game using a wooden spinner with 28 numbers and a 28 x 28-inch playing board with 784 squares. Ball players were rated for their batting averages and home run power. I refined the game by playing it with my neighbor. I brought it with me when I went into the Navy, and then I further playtested it in college with my roommates. I named it SherCo (after my first wife, Sherry) Baseball Simulation and brought it to market in 1968. You can learn about SherCo’s evolution in this book – especially the three-part interviews in volume 2, numbers 6-8 of my monthly game newsletter, the ROSTER. The same interview is in Appendix A of my autobiography, Tales from an Asylum.

Today, in retirement, a board game is always open on the dining room table. There, I vicariously live new lives.

I imagine that I am an influential prince during the 15th-century Italian Renaissance as I build towns, villages, and monasteries to grow my region into a flourishing domain around The Castles of Tuscany™;

I pretend to discover an uncharted island where I lead expeditions to explore the secrets of a vanished civilization in the Lost Ruins of Arnak™.

I become a 1930s pulp-genre adventure character trying to escape from Nazis, mobsters, and other villains and survive deadly cliffhangers in Fortune and Glory™.

I visualize myself as a cinematographer, traversing rivers, plains, rocks, and jungles to film indigenous animals – lions, leopards, crocodiles, elephants, wildebeests, giraffes, zebras, gazelles, etc. – to get the perfect wildlife footage in the Wild Serengeti™.

And so it goes. Many lives, many exciting experiences, and lots of fun! That’s what the SherCo Grand Slam Baseball Game also is all about.

Why I Absolutely LOVE Baseball!

I used to play a physical baseball game (that I invented) with a boy who lived about a dozen houses away on a double lot with a wide, grassy backyard bordered by pine trees on two sides.

Our game required one person to bat a baseball while the other player tried to catch it. If the fielder didn’t catch the ball on the fly, it was a single, double, triple, or home run, depending on how far the ball was hit. If the batted ball was a grounder,