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Thursday, November 19, 2009
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Negro Leagues board game is creator’s payback to
baseball
sports
Faith
by Charles Hallman
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 11/18/2009
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Strat-O-Matic board game
Credit: Strat-O-Matic
Hal Richman invented his first baseball board game as an 11-year-old New Yorker
in 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson broke major league baseball’s almost centurylong color line. Now the inventor has paid tribute to those baseball players whose
only reason for not being major leaguers was simple racism.
Richman’s invention, Strat-O-Matic, which he later produced as a popular game, is
now the first-ever baseball board game featuring Negro Leaguers. “This part of history is very important,” says
Richman of the Strat-O-Matic Negro League All-Stars. Speaking by phone from his New York home, he points
out that the Negro Leagues players “were great players and should be represented on an equal basis with the
White players. That’s what I tried to do.”
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As a youngster, Richman invented Strat-O-Matic in his bedroom mainly because he was disappointed with
existing board games. He created a game using baseball stats and dice that, in his opinion, offered the random
unpredictability and realism he sought.
Also known as Strato, Richman produced his game in 1961 with a $5,000 loan from his father. Almost 50 years
later, the game still is popular among baseball fanatics. It’s a favorite among sportscasters and sports
journalists such as Bryant Gumbel. Spike Lee also featured Strato in his film Crooklyn.
“I was just hoping to make a living, send my kids to college and have a house,” the inventor admits. “I’m very
thankful.”
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Strat-O-Matic Negro League All-Stars is designed similar to Richman’s earlier game versions: It features dice,
righty-lefty splits, fielding data and ballpark tendencies. It has 103 Negro Leagues players, using statistics from
the player’s prime five to seven career years.
Participants now can match up Josh Gibson, Ray Dandridge and Buck O’Neil against others of their era, or drop
them onto big league rosters to simulate what might have been, or should have been, if baseball had been fully
integrated in the 20th century’s first four decades.
According to Richman, he and Scott Simkus of Chicago began working on the new game 10 years ago. Simkus
had started collecting Negro Leagues game box scores from various Black newspapers dating back as far as
1909 to the late 1940s, when the Negro Leagues were slowly dying.
“He [Simkus] found over 3,000 Negro Leagues box scores,” says Richman. This in itself sets this Strato version
apart from the others because extensive research was involved to find actual Black baseball stats.
Richman said he also closely read game stories published in Black newspapers for obtaining player information.
Strat-O-Matic continues to hold its own among today’s high-tech, interactive sports-related games, but Richman
quickly admits it’s not easy. Nonetheless, Strato also can be found in both traditional format and as “a computer
baseball game, a fantasy game and an Internet game,” he adds. It is considered the top-selling sports board
game. The company publishes baseball, football, basketball and hockey ga mes as well, and is in a partnership
with both Sports Illustrated Kids and The Sporting News in producing fantasy/simulation games.
Still, its inventor stands behind his original product. If it hadn’t caught on, Richman would’ve been working for
his father — that was the terms of the loan upon which he borrowed the start-up funds.
“The baseball board game is a terrific game and has such an advantage over computers,” continues Richman.
“It’s really something about [using] the dice.
You feel like you have control and [are] more involved.” Strat-O-Matic Negro League All-Stars is available on
both CD and as a traditional Strato game, and can be purchased in game stores or on-line (www.Strat-o-matic.
com).
The Strato Negro Leagues game is his final gift to baseball, says Richman. “I don’t know what more I can do
with baseball. I am 73 years old — I think this will be my final game.
“The Negro Leagues [game] will be the culmination of my career,” he concludes.
“Baseball has been very good to me, and I am trying to pay it back a bit.”
Lynx lines — Gillom still unsigned
Minnesota Lynx Head Coach Jennifer Gillom nearly led the team to a playoff spot in her first year after getting
the coaching job just a few days before the season started. Yet, almost three months after the season’s end,
Gillom still remains unsigned for next season.
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“The process is ongoing,” claims Lynx Executive Vice President Roger Griffith.
When asked does he have a timetable for completing that process, he responded, “No I don’t.”
Just in case you haven’t heard, Minnesota has the first and fourth overall picks in the 2010 WNBA Draft next
spring. Hopefully, Gillom will be involved in those selections. She deserves it.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to [email protected].
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