APBA Football Club Podcast Network

Dan Prizzon and Alan Lipman are bringing back an #APBABaseball tournament to Toronto, where more than 30 years ago a tournament supported heavily by radio legend Bob McCown. Set for May 11, the tournament will be held in one of the community rooms at Alan's condo in the city center. Rules and other particulars remain TBD, so sign up to their event page on Facebook and stay tuned! 1st Annual Toronto APBA Baseball Classic page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/382191204256678 We can personally vouch for the beauty of Toronto and urge anyone who hasn't been to plan a longer visit.

Video version: https://youtu.be/fUMadZQDB0E

#APBAbaseball #toronto #apbafootballclub #tabletopsports

Mike VanDerGoore is the successor to the founders of one of the longest-running #tabletopfootball tournaments: The MDOR Strat-O-Matic Football league based in Bloomington, Illinois.

Mike shares the MDOR's founding, history, methods and future. Renowned SOM Footballer Mike Kane has dutifully kept the tournament's records for 25 years.

MDOR is named for late tournament founders/directors Ron Dickinson and Ron Brammer — otherwise known as Mad Dog and Oregon Ron. The annual MDOR event traces its lineage back to the Lyman Bostock tournament that ran from the 1970s to circa 2000. Watch action from the 2018 MDOR tournament: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBvZeICbRFI6Og66l4DNmppvsTTHtOYJ- Mike Kane talks SOM Football with Darin Hayes Pigskin Dispatch: https://pigskindispatch.com/home/Football-Fun-Facts/Football-Hobbies-and-Games/Strat-o-matic-Football

YouTube version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccf18yu0v4U

Grant Fines, creator of 49 Sports Games, traces his game design history back to creating playing cards for Gayle Sayers and Franco Harris. Now, he offers a handful of thoughtfully designed stats-based games including his On the Turf and Quick Decks football — the former a play-by-play game that takes about an hour per game. Grant discusses his game design philosophy and methodology — right down to the reasons behind his choice of dice. The 2022 NFL season for On the Turf Football is available for preorder now:

https://www.49sportsgames.com/products/49-on-the-turf-football-standard-game

Lords of Baseball, a Euro-style game of baseball franchise ownership and management, took father-and-son team Bob and Max Jamelli 12 years to refine and fund via Kickstarter. Max, a high school teacher and former football coach, walks us through the development of LoB, his thoughts on the future of gaming, and his work as national director of tabletop gaming for the Video Game Clubs of America (vgcusa.org). The seed of the idea for Lords of Baseball came to Max’s father after a trip to the World Boardgaming Championships; inspired by the Cold War game Twilight Struggle, Bob Jamelli began sketching out ideas for LoB. Now, after 50 revisions, nearly 90 iterations of the rule book and more than 1,500 playthroughs, LoB is ready to hit the market. Offering a complete picture of baseball team ownership, from stocking talent to winning games — even building a stadium — Lords of Baseball is a Euro-style take on the game of pro baseball. Jamelli recalls how he came to know key collaborator Jeff Horger, who took on the role of streamlining LoB’s mechanics, vowing to “tear (the game) apart and build it back up.” Max also discusses his take on tabletop football games Legends of Football, Pizza Box football and 1st and Goal from his perspective as a coach. In the last part of the interview, Max discusses the mission and methods of the VGCUSA, how he came to be involved, and how the organization fosters social and emotional learning for students in more than 800 schools in the U.S., Canada, Brazil and Europe. Helping kids socially through gaming is “the best thing I’ll ever do in education,” he says. Lords of Baseball is still available by Kickstarter late pledge at the time of posting this video; L4 Studios will be selling the game at conventions — and a retail option is likely. How to play Lords of Baseball: 01:56 Seed of the idea from the WBC: 19:50 Mechanics used in Lords of Baseball: 32:05 Playing SOM and Baseball Stars on Nintendo with his dad: 45:40 Coaching football and playing football games (Legends of Football, Pizza Box): 46:37 Sports on the field vs. on tabletop: 52:38 Funding Lords of Baseball and potential expansions: 56:50 Future of board games and accessibility to audiences: 1:02:35 Video Game Clubs of America and its mission: 1:09:22 Joining VGCUSA and creating a school game club: 1:13:54 Lords of Baseball on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lordsofbaseball/lords-of-baseball?amp;mc_cid=5cccc19d8c&mc_eid=73f5a6be1a Max’s BoardGameGeek profile: https://boardgamegeek.com/user/sigtaulefty Video Game Clubs of America: https://www.vgcusa.org/ Max’s review of Legends of Football: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/369071/old-time-football-meets-fantasy-football

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/2D0Cb-9Mn8E

How will the 2022 APBA Football set be carded? Listen in as three APBA Hall of Famers and one master modifier weigh in with more than 150 years of APBA Football experience in this first-ever APBA Football Super Bowl Pregame show. The road to Super Bowl 57 featured many fine performances — how will they be rendered in APBA Football's next season set? VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/JbVbVtQcRLQ (Published Feb. 12, 2023) #superbowl #superbowl57 #chiefs #eagles #mahomes #jalenhurts #apbafootball #apbagames #apbafootballclub #apbafootballhandbook

The finale of the 1976 Bucs' season. Original-issue APBA Football cards, 10-year project — fantastic results! Key stats from our 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers replay (original cards copyright 1977): 54:24 Thank you to S.T. Patrick and Jen Henson for the opportunity to include a summary of the Bicentennial Bucs' saga in Issue No. 11 (February 2023) of Sports Sim Magazine, available at this link: https://www.lulu.com/shop/mwn-publications/sports-sim-magazine-issue-11/paperback/product-ppre5n.html?q=sports+sim+magazine&page=1&pageSize=4

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/_6FdhXO-aOk

Catching up with APBA Hall of Famers Ray Dunlap (Class of 2016), Roy Langhans (2001) and Jim Sce (2008) between the fast-paced competition at the first-ever tabletop sports gaming tournament at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Ray gives an update on his 2022 Yankees and Aaron Judge, Roy on his 1905 Giants and Christy Mathewson. Dunlap began playing APBA in 1964, wrote for the APBA Journal for many years, co-created the Suncoast Football League in Tampa in 1979 and served as the Tampa Bay Bucs' official statistician for most of the 1980s. Ray's APBA Football matchup system is a milestone for more fully utilizing all the player cards. Langhans began playing APBA in 1957 and among his myriad achievements played in the baseball and football tournaments at the first-ever APBA convention in Philadelphia in 1973. His Game of the Day thread on the Delphi forum Between the Lines is still going strong after he kicked it off on Aug. 23, 2000. (Roy's GOTD thread: https://forums.delphiforums.com/apbabtl/messages/?msg=3870.1) Sce was a key part of APBA"s coach's program, in which APBA ambassadors spread the word about APBA games to potential players.

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/iO4QZEels3o

Imagine my surprise learning that Sean Culnan — who ran the demos of Plaay's Second Season on Friday, July 28, at Plaay Dot Con 23 in Denver — is also a third-year coach in the National Card Football League. The NCFL dates back to 1981 in Ohio and has been using APBA Football since then. Sean made the NCFL Super Bowl last year and has also completed two full-season replays, 1980 and 1984, using Second Season. He shares a few thoughts regarding league play, tabletop coaching and more.

National Card Football League site:

https://jzajack.wixsite.com/ncfl

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/RxFXzr3oOuk

Native New Yorker turned South Floridian Frank Fumai is turning his retirement passion of attending as many APBA tournaments as possible into a new outlet: APBA At Sea, one of the newest regional APBA Baseball tournaments. Fumai, a veteran of APBA tournaments from Chicagoland to Chattanooga and Las Vegas (he's also planning to attend the Kansas City event), initially sought to create a tournament tied to spring training in Florida. When that proved a bit costly, he turned to another passion of his — and the APBA baseball cruise was born. The four-day cruise will feature a one-day tournament. The theme is any third place team between 1980 and 1999, and competitors can choose one player who played on the team 20 years prior (for instance, the 1995 White Sox can include a player from the 1975 team). Team selection will likely begin just before Labor Day, and Fumai will pick last. Veterans and rookies are welcome, and single attendees are eligible to be paired with others to share a room and keep their costs down. The itinerary starts in Fort Lauderdale; Key West is the destination on Day 2, and Day 3 will feature the competition from roughly 8 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. On Day 4, cruisers will spend time in Nassau, Bahamas, before heading home. veterans and newbies welcome — and Frank can supply a team for anyone who needs one. Costs are all inclusive; there is no separate fee to play in the tournament. And there are plenty of things for nonplaying family and friends to do on competition day. The chosen ship is the Celebrity Silhouette :https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-ships/celebrity-silhouette For more information and to reserve your spot, call cruise coordinator Aidy Alonzo at 954-377-6424. Deposits are refundable if your travel plans change.

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/UooZdyxoJ_E

On the occasion of the seventh Strat-O-Matic football tournament held at CincyCon this year, we talked with tournament director Meredith Adkins about the competition rules, as well how he runs his face-to-face league, the GMVFL. He also discusses two other SOM football tournaments: the Bushwhacker tournament in May and the MDOR in September; both have been running for more than 20 years, he noted. Adkins shares insights into everything from home-brewed rules to how to keep a league running, as well as the custom roll-up mats they had created to expand on the basic SOM game board. The 2023 CincyCon tourmament fielded 10 teams: 1983 WAS 1984 SF 1984 MIA 1985 CHI 1998 DEN 2004 NE 2004 IND 2010 PIT 2019 BAL 2020 KC In a wild 20-19 finish, the 2004 Patriots snuck past the 1985 Bears. Meredith limits participating teams to those from 1983 to the present to aid in recruiting efforts. APBA Baseball and APBA Football figured into his early gaming career, when he saw a testimonial for the baseball game from a wargaming source. 10:08: The Lyman Bostock tournament. GMVFL page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1003156216549923 CincyCon announcement and rules on SOM's website: https://www.strat-o-matic.com/announcements/som-football-and-baseball-tournaments-cincycon/ Reach Meredith by email at baoman2004@cs.com. Strat-O-Matic football leagues listed on SOM registry: https://bit.ly/41vEBlP

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/CTmZ2K3dH0E

Some important things to know about the tabletop football game APBA Football — for newcomers and returnees alike. 00:39 No. 1 01:39 No. 2 04:11 No. 3 05:49 No. 4 07:42 No. 5 09:17 No. 6 APBA Football Stadium Shop: https://apba.stores.yahoo.net/apbafootball.html

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/JcMp4nU3J8E

Game designer Mark Bates (Infinite Pi Games) discusses how he transformed the game World Cup! from creator Shaun Derrick’s original version into an all-card version. World Cup! lets users run an “association” of four teams by playing various soccer actions from a deck that lets managers attack, score and defend. Play the entire World Cup in two to three hours. Watch the World Cup! playthrough video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKu49tAh3LQ Buy World Cup! from Infinite Pi Games: https://www.infinitepigames.com/Sovereign Chess:https://mark-bates.squarespace.com/ *** Use discount code APBA for $20 off the World Cup! Champion Package, which includes all three expansions: Laws of the Game, EURO 2020 and QATAR 2022: https://www.infinitepigames.com/store/p/world-cup-world-cup-champion-pre-order The original version of World Cup by Shaun Derrick/Games for the World: https://boardgames.com/boardgame/the-world-cup-game

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/bxvEJmAgmGw

Commercial designer John Sparti began building custom dice rolling stadiums as an offshoot of his work designing labels for products like Turtle Wax and Simoniz. Since building his first stadium, a replica of Fenway, he has created 265 stadiums for eager gamers (as of June 4, 2023, the date this interview originally posted).

John credits his wife for suggesting he sell his creations on eBay. and his portfolio has expanded from there. He has since sold that first stadium, preferring it be in the hands of a grateful customer. One of the most difficult stadiums he has created is the Polo Grounds, which required significant research before he settled on re-creating one of the venue's many iterations. Check out John's stadiums and contact him with your ideal project through his website:

https://spartidesign.myportfolio.com/mini-dice-stadiums-1

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/Q3_QiD-URH0

In 1983, at age 24, Richard Sarkisian decided to replay the history of baseball with a few friends. Almost 40 years later, his PANJ Table Baseball League has replayed every MLB season from 1903 to 2002. And on Sept. 9, he and his 22-team league will meet in King Of Prussia not only to conduct their draft for the next season project but to replay the concluding season's World Series. Not only does Sarkisian, an accounting professor, run the league — in which each team plays a 72-game schedule over five months — but he created the game the league plays. Sarkisian has crafted his version of a statistics-based game that refines the batter-pitcher duel, and he finds the process of creating cards year after year a rather "zen" exercise. PA/NJ Baseball League site: https://panjbaseballleague.blogspot.com/ PA/NJ Baseball League featured in The Berlin Sun: https://thesunpapers.com/2019/05/13/local-tabletop-baseball-league-a-throwback-in-a-digital-age/

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/gBmTWUo59Zc

Spent the weekend of July 28-30 Rocky Mountain way at Plaay Dot Con 23. First time, unforgettable time — and definitely not the last time. A few thoughts about the great folks and moments from my day--and-a-half there. Guitar in intro is my #Gibson #J200.

Check out further recaps from Tabletop SportsCast and Plaay's blog: 10 headlines from Plaay Dot Con 23: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/james-cast35/episodes/Episode-126-Top-10-Headlines-of-Plaay-Dot-Con-e27jon3/a-aa6huac 11 observations from Plaay Dot Con 23: https://plaay.com/blog/eleven-quick-observations-from-plaay-dot-con-23

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/IZ8tNkIVwY4

#plaaydotcon23 #plaaygames #tabletopsports #fantasyfootball

Edwin Zack is revered in the APBA community for his exhaustive APBA Baseball handbook. After a five-year illness, Zack passed on Aug. 8, 2023. His longtime friend Dan Armstrong notified his closest friends in the APBA community, and the news — and tributes and remembrances — spread quickly. 

I interviewed Ed Zack and his collaborator Dan Armstrong in 2012 — the 20th anniversary of the first edition of the Zack handbook. While I published my interview with Ed on our original Facebook page, my interview with Dan is unpublished as yet. Here, I read my complete article detailing my interview with Ed and the first part of the transcript of my conversation with Dan. I also read Ed’s introduction letter from an original first-edition of his baseball handbook, published in 1992. 

Not long after initiating an APBA Baseball tournament inside the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown for April 1, 2023, I asked Ed if he would be willing and able to speak to the attendees in a surprise hourlong Zoom session to cap the milestone occasion. His words, excerpted from the longer conversation I recorded, open and close this podcast. 

No matter what game you play, Ed’s work stands as a testament to the power of the tabletop sports game hobby to capture the imagination and fuel a limitless appreciation for the craft of creating these games. 

Read Edwin Zack’s “The Ultimate Handbook for APBA Baseball Cards” at www.zackapbahandbook.org.

Longtime tabletop sports gamer and collector Giorgio Salvadego gives us a rundown on the state of gaming in Italy from his home region of Veneto (think Venice). He has played in numerous leagues, including the Happy Gilmore Golf Association with APBA luminaries Steve Kanehl, Royce Sleighter, George Gerney and John Wright, as well as the APBA International Bowling League. He's even traveled to the U.S. and Canada to play, first visiting Long Island, New York, in 1987 to play in his Strat-O-Matic hockey league; he also attended SOM's 40th anniversary event in Akron Ohio. He visited Vancouver in 1998 to play his bowling finals face to face with Wright. When he's not gaming, Giorgio contributes to the hobby in other ways: He has written a chapter on tabletop sports for a Roberto Chiavini book, as well as designed a Swiss course for Plaay's Red, White & Blue Racin'. With a collection of 300 to 350 games, one of Giorgio's passions is soccer games; he has 15, including Dice United 2, which he playtested for Gary Brown. National Pro Hockey by Canada’s Sports Action Game Company is another favorite of his. Here, Giorgio tells us about how he became interested in games, played in leagues internationally, and how he stays in touch with a group of about 20 gamers using WhatsApp. We even touch on his favorite cricket games and the football game Raymond Burr used to think through solving crimes in the "Ironside" series that ran from 1967 to 1975. Oh, and being Italians, of course we can't help but talk food! Interview conducted May 25, 2023 Happy Gilmore Golf Association Page: https://cs4001.tripod.com/hgga.htm Giorgio's main Tabletop Sports site: https://cs4001.tripod.com/index.htm

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/2xkkSa3MDyE

Former New York City radio personality turned highly successful game designer Mike Fitzgerald has dozens of credits to his name — including the smash Baseball Highlights 2045, as well as Football Highlights 2052, the Mystery Rummy series, and many, many more winners. His latest — and likely last — sports offering, Crunch Time, brings pro basketball to the tabletop in a compact and fun way. He's also working on a new "build a band" game. Our interview runs the gamut from how overcoming his stutter as a youth helped him begin his stellar radio career, how he began designing games at age 8 and playing APBA Baseball at age 11, and entering the professional game design world in the early 1990s. Here, he details his mechanics, playtesting, milestones and navigating the world of game publishing. Mike Fitzgerald's credits at Board Game Geek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/77/mike-fitzgerald/linkeditems/boardgamedesigner Mike Fitzgerald guest post on Board Game Geek: https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/50319/solo-gaming-game-designer-guest-post-mike-fitzgera

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/FLTrCZ4iRo0

The legions of electric football fans have a real treat in store Jan. 9 through March 3 at “Art of the Buzz: The Art of Electric Football” exhibit at Columbia State Pryor Art Gallery in Tennessee. Curated by Chris LeMay founder of the National Electric Football Game Museum in Spring Hill, the event will be held every weekday and by special weekend appointment by contacting LeMay through his website, nefgm.org. From an original 1949 board to various boards and figures, the exhibit also features a competition and presentations by well-known electric footballers like Ron Mango. Tudor Games has also donated a deluxe edition of the game for a tournament winner.   

LeMay began his love of electric football with a 1967 Jets-Chiefs AFL set and rekindled his interest in 1997 when he received a newer game as a gift. Now with more than 200 boards in his collection, LeMay also paints and sells custom figures.  Here, he walks us through everything from electric football strategy (solitaire and head to head) to the best players and biggest names in the world of “tweaking” the figures and bases — and even how board games like APBA Football find their way into usage on their buzzing counterparts.  

Art of the Buzz exhibit website: https://www.visitcolumbiatn.com/event/art-of-the-buzz%3a-the-art-of-electric-football/2555/#overview   

Exhibit details: https://www.columbiastate.edu/news/details/2022/12/art_of_the_buzz_pryor_art_gallery_exhibit.html

Columbia State Pryor Art Gallery page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColumbiaStatePAG/?ref=page_internal

National Electric Football Game Museum website: nefgm.org  

NEFGM page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NEFGM

Video version: https://youtu.be/StkmRZUq7iQ

Sports game designer John Gardiner gives us a U.K. player’s view of the wealth of options on the market — including some of his favorites from Lambourne Games. John’s credits include Replay World of Athletics, Replay World of International Swimming, Replay World of Ice Skating, Triathlon — and even beach volleyball.

His personal website “Replay Field of Dreams” is a repository of decades of sports game experience and perspective. His bottom line for a good sports game: Something that is fun but primarily that is believable.   

He also discussed the challenges of designing a good golf game. He even gives some clips on classic U.K. sports games to look out for, including the horse racing game Totopoly. He also shares some of the challenges of the one-man game design shop (shipping costs, etc.) As for his team? Tottenham Hotspur — since 1959.  

John Gardiner’s website: http://sportsreplays.net

Lambourne Games website: https://www.owzatgames.com/c

Longtime gamer Ronnie Wyatt, inspired by first by PC boxing games Lance Haffner TKO and Title Bout II, and later by Roberto Chiavini’s complete Olympics boxing set and his more recent Noble Arts boxing game, has created a new contender in the boxing game realm.   

As Wyatt played Chiavini’s game, he wanted to add more “meat to the bone." He remembered that Anthony Crooks, creator of Glory Days Boxing and fellow member of the Title Bout computer championship game forum, created a series of pre-match charts for injuries and outside-the-ring events. Ronnie thought of adding such mechanics to Chiavini’s game and crafted a set of home brew charts. “The more homebrews I had … I realized i wasn’t playing the (same) game any more.”  

Interviewed July 29, 2022, Wyatt discussed the finer points of his new project, called Fictional Boxing Universe before he rebranded it in September to Pro Boxing Universe Dice Game. PBU tackles multiple historic eras of the sweet science. On Nov. 20, he launched the PBU website, where users can access game files and try their hand at anything from bareknuckle or Marquess of Queensbury rules to the present day.  

Pro Boxing Universe website:
https://pbudicegame.webador.com

PBU’s Facebook group:
https://bit.ly/3LMRgtH

Craig Muder, director of communications for the Baseball of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, previews for us the big events coming up for 2023 (one of which will be the first-ever tabletop sports gaming event, courtesy of the APBA Football Club and our organizing committee).

Our conversation ranges from the unlikeliest baseball hero to the nine legends who could start today and win a World Series, plus some of the museum’s most important artifacts — and how in a newspaper, every night is election night for the sports crew. Plus, insider tips for the first-time visitor to Cooperstown and the value of Sabermetrics.   

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum: baseballhall.org

Society for American Baseball Research: https://sabr.org

American football Italian style comes to Toledo, Ohio, on Fourth of July weekend when the 42nd Italian Bowl kicks off — the first time the Italian football championship will be held outside Europe.   

American football kicked off in 1980 when the Italian Federation of American Football was charged with promoting the game in Italy. Since then, about 100 flag and tackle teams comprising male and female athletes play American football throughout the country.  

Key to bringing the game to Toledo’s Glass Bowl is Michigan-born developer and former Italian Football League quarterback and DB Nick Eyde, who played six years in the IFL for the Rome Ducks, Reggio Emilia Hogs and Bolzano Giants in the 2000s. In 2006, his “Ave Maria” pass with 35 seconds left against the Bergamo Lions lifted Bolzano to a 20-14 upset — a scene that inspired a key part of John Grisham’s novel “Playing for Pizza.”  

The 42nd Italian Bowl will be accompanied by an Italian-themed restaurant week, a punt-pass-kick competition among regional mayors and a July 4th fireworks show. Calvin “Megatron” Johnson will lead Italian players through a tour of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Up-and-coming opera singer Mariam Battistelli will perform the Italian and U.S. national anthems.  

Register for tickets and stay up to date at italianbowlusa.com  

Italian Federation of American Football: https://www.fidaf.org

Italian football leagues fielding NFL-caliber players: https://orderisda.org/culture/sports/american-football-leagues-in-italy-producing-nfl-caliber-players

Feature on 2023 draft prospect Habakkuk Baldonado:
https://americadomani.com/sports/college-football-star-habakkuk-baldonado-who-was-born-and-raised-in-italy-is-ready-for-the-nfl

Italian TV interview featuring Nick Eyde:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9eczeJVTDQ

The Professional Football Researchers Association, launched in 1979 in Canton, Ohio, is renowned for the depth, breadth and quality of its knowledge base of American football throughout the decades and around the world. President George Bozeka provides an overview of the organization and its member benefits, and also previews the special events planned for the PFRA's annual convention July 27-30 in Pittsburgh.  

Join the PFRA ($35 annual): http://profootballresearchers.org/join.html

PFRA podcast: https://theofficialpfrapodcast.sportshistorynetwork.com

Video version: https://youtu.be/tuh-s6QSIts

Straddling the line between pure arcade fun and statistics-based simulation, PSF’s latest iteration, released Sept. 8, features a wealth of new features and aesthetics. Designer Kerry Batts takes us behind his thought process, the many community contributions to PSF 2023, and some of the key new features he’s cooking up for ’24.  

Like many great endeavors, Pro Strategy Football by Batts, a computer programmer, began as a quest to produce something to meet a personal desire — namely a game that he and his brother, Kenneth, could play long distance. Having played wargames with his brother, Kerry visited him one fateful day in 1975 — the day the Cowboys downed the Vikings in Minnesota with the legendary Hail Mary pass that moved Dallas a step closer to Super Bowl X. Kerry, a veteran of Paydirt and Strat-O-Matic, has been a Cowboy fan since that day and created a game in the early ‘90s that he eventually shopped to a company that suggested a collaboration with none other than Tom Landry. PSF 2023 is the latest version derived from those early days and boasts a highly active community of contributors and modders; there are plenty of tutorials and game play videos on YouTube.  

Buy PSF on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1935910/Pro_Strategy_Football_2023

PSF group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prostrategyfootball

Video version: https://youtu.be/mNnTJilJiHE

Mark "Xcommish2" DerGarabedian has been a fixture in the APBA modding community for years. He started playing APBA baseball at a friend’s house in Fresno, California, and has stayed hooked since. He's even rolled a few games with his 18-year-old son.   

Whether playing football, baseball or golf, he's always juggling multiple projects of various lengths — and employing a wealth of home-brewed tweaks for playability and realism. At the time of this interview — July 24, 2022 — his projects included:  

• 1981 Forty Niners
• 1982 MLB tournament (in which low seeds were bouncing high seeds with some frequency)
• A Ben Hogan ATG tour
• The 1994 US Open playoff (Els, Roberts, Mongtomery)  

Since then, he's as conceived about a dozen other potential refinements to APBA Football, from a prevent defense chart to key and blitz charts for solo play. He's also a communications chief at Costco, hence the question within the first minute or two.  

Check out some of his work at the Between the Lines forum under his Xcommish2 handle, as well as on various APBA-related Facebook groups.

Video version: https://youtu.be/KjYvVV7gL5I

Anthony Giacobbe Jr. spent a good deal of time writing for the APBA Journal during a pivotal period for the company — the 1990s — and reviewing version 1's and version 2's of PC games. He also worked on the '90s revamp of the basketball game. He even created a Greek Olympics game, pieces and all, for a fourth-grade history class, and later crafted an early computer basketball game — in the era before hard drives on home PCs were common.   

Here, we run the gamut, from weighing the differences in face-to-face versus solo gaming, cards and drive versus PC, and what constitutes the "perfect" game. Anthony also remembers two friends — and the legendary “Turkey Mike” — whose influence on his gaming life endures.  

Interview conducted July 30, 2022

Video version: https://youtu.be/CjUreBizHl4

We tabletop football gamers use Pro Football Reference with startling frequency, either to prepare for replay projects or get ideas for them. Alex Bonilla is one of the football minds behind PFR.

He joined the Sports Reference family of data brands in March 2018. Since then he's parsed more data than many, and he's got some great tips on how to use the site.  

Discount code: Use APBA20 to receive 20% off an annual subscription to Stathead advanced sports research tools.
Register here: https://bit.ly/3TMvklY  

Pro Football Reference: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/  
Stathead Football: stathead.com/football

Video version: https://youtu.be/BoURIrIW-OI

Interview conducted Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022.

Board game designer and educator/coach Joe Slack has worked with more than 4,000 game designers to take the ideas in their heads and turn them into reality. Whether helping games by others off the ground or launching his own titles under the Crazy Like A Box brand, Joe is keen to help game designers hone their vision and game play through a variety of course offerings. His book “The Board Game Designer’s Guide” is a No. 1 best-seller, and he’s got plenty of new work on the immediate horizon:  

• In September, he is relaunching his Creation Publication Program to mentor game designers through all phases from concept to market.  

• He has a Kickstarter coming in October called 14 Frantic Minutes, which in his words “is a tension-filled puzzle-y co-operative game. You all win … or lose … together. Escape this evil genius and his high-tech lab by working together, using your wits and circuit pieces, making your way through a series of rooms, each more challenging than the last."  

• He’ll cohost Protospiel North, an in-person game design weekend, in November.   

• His Board Game Design Virtual Summit returns for a third year, engaging game designers, publishers, rule book creators and others in the gaming industry in in-depth discussions of their craft.  

Joe shares some of his key tips for getting a game off the ground, as well as some of his favorite game mechanics like action selection — and even lists his five “desert island games.”  

Joe’s board game design course: https://boardgamedesigncourse.com
Joe’s board game design brand: https://www.crazylikeabox.com
Sign up for Joe’s Creation to Publication program: https://jslack.lpages.co/creation-to-publication-program-waitlist/

Video version: https://youtu.be/4gglNZgWy38

APBA Hall of Famer, former APBA Journal writer and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers statistician Ray Dunlap presents his  league-building tips on Aug. 24, 2013, at the APBA Football Club's inaugural tournament at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.   

Dunlap, co-founder of the Suncoast Football League in Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1979, lays out a wealth of knowledge — from the ideal number of teams in the league to how to keep members active.

Video version: https://youtu.be/MwYLCE6H0pE

For decades, 86-year-old Ange Coniglio has been perhaps the foremost authority on and advocate for the achievements and legacy of the American Football League. The lifelong Buffalo Bills fan created his AFL website (remembertheafl.com) as an exhaustive repository for all manner of knowledge regarding the league — from the all-time AFL roster and a photo gallery of his personal AFL Hall of Fame to an AFL reading list, a memorabilia gallery, team histories, stats and more. Other AFL researchers point to Ange as the “godfather” of AFL history for his efforts — which have ranged from sending color film of the AFL to Sports Illustrated when the magazine would only run black-and-white AFL images, to writing letters to AFL legends including Lamar Hunt and Ralph C. Wilson. W

With the passing of iconic Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson at age 87 today, honoring the legacy of the AFL is especially important.

In our interview, three days before his Aug. 21 birthday, Ange paints a colorful portrait of the men of that innovative league and their legendary exploits.

Remember the AFL: remembertheafl.com

Tales from the AFL (Todd Tobias): https://talesfromtheamericanfootballleague.com/

Remember the AFL Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/297706681489

AFL 1959-70 Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/442714232814494

AFL Anthology Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/AFLAnthology

High-level stats and a flair for the flavor of the game — that's the way designer Brian Haferkamp addresses big-league sports in his baseball, basketball and football games.  

Brian, a web developer who grew up in the video era and counts Out of the Park baseball among his inspirations, just released his latest game, Uptempo Basketball, this summer. Beginning with 1985-86 NBA season, he quickly added 1982-83 and 1989-90.   

However, despite recapturing those classic NBA seasons, Brian cautions that there was no "golden age" for many contemporary sports fans — and sports game designers — and that perspective likely will fuel the development of more experience-driven sports sims.  

Previously unavailable stats are another major influence on sports designers like Brian. Sabermetrics are at the core of his On Base Baseball game, released in April 2021; more granular data also figures in to his upcoming football game, aptly titled Advanced Stats Football.  

"Technology is not the enemy," he asserts, as VR and AR are poised to dramatically alter the way sports games are designed and used. Couple technology with the waning appeal of nostalgia among contemporary sports fans, and major changes are on the horizon, he added. Underpinning this new vision of sports game design is a highly "open source" mindset of collaboration and transparency between designer and player.  

Brian played football as a youth in Texas. As athletics took a less prominent role in his life during his 20s, he turned to sports sims — ultimately favoring the franchise and GM modes built in to video sims beginning in the '90s.   

Fueled by those experiences, Brian offers dramatically different games covering baseball, basketball and American football, providing short-, medium- and long-playing games.   

On Base Baseball (16:04) comes in three flavors: Basic, advanced and quick play. The advanced version is particularly notable in that it is a pitch-by-pitch sim based on Statcast data, taking players throughout an entire on-bat point by point, from pitch selection to other variables. While it might take three or even seven rolls to resolve the at-bat, a game might be finished in about an hour and 15 minutes. However, Brian notes he is creating primarily World Series and All-Star teams — roughly 75 player cards vs. the 900 required to card the entire league. He also has another baseball game, Dog Days Baseball, in the works.  

Advanced Stats Football (22:47) , still in development, is driven by contemporary stats like run or pass tendencies by play direction. Brian likens the experience to the "special boost" scoring runs of a game like Super Mario Carts on Nintendo 64.  

Uptempo Basketball (25:16), his most recent creation, will soon see the addition of some NCAA teams. First up: 1990 UNLV and Loyola Marymount and 1992 Duke.  

Buy Uptempo Basketball: https://uptempobasketballgame.com/

Try On Base Baseball with a free demo kit: https://onbasebaseball.com/b/PmGB

Advanced Stats Football downloadable demo and tutorial videos: https://brianhaferkamp.github.io/tabletopfootballgame/

Brian’s 2021 On Baseball livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRBLUGeHJDs&ab_channel=BrianHaferkamp

Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/5JsD-Hwv-ZM

Join us at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Canton, Ohio, for the second APBA Football Club football-exclusive tournament. Rebooting our first event, held in the legendary APBA summer of 2013, we want to raise the bar on that inaugural event.  

Format (tentative thoughts): 1:10
Rules: 8:35
Why the HoF and why in August: 13:18
Cost (tentative): 15:15
Origins of the event: 17:40

APBA Football Club on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/apbafootballcluboriginal

AFC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apbafootballclub/

APBA Football Handbook on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APBAfootballhandbook  

** I misspoke about the 1981 Chargers at Dolphins being double OT — but it sure felt like two OTs if you remember watching it as it happened. In any case, quite uncanny that the 1971 and 1981 Dolphins figured in two of the most epic games in NFL history.

Russell R. Wren is the latest representative of a significant group that is the future of tabletop sports gaming: retirees who return to the games that fueled their youth.  

Wren, who grew up not far from APBA’s original headquarters in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, retired as athletic director of the Great Valley School District (the Patriots) before the pandemic. The many players he has coached include NFL pros Nasir Adderley and Matt Schaub.

He has returned to APBA Football and baseball, and even has hit 24-year-old son interested in playing.

Counting APBA Hall of Famers Ted Knorr and Skeet Carr among his longtime friends, he recalls being in a football league with then during his gaming life. Beginning college near 1001 Millersville Road, he went on to hold a range of coaching jobs, including as football coach at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Video version: https://youtu.be/VF20xYLsyfw

Tim Plum and Peter Donis met on a school bus in seventh grade in 1978 and have been friends and collaborators ever since. Peter introduced Tim to Dungeons and Dragons, and a lifelong friendship and game design partnership was born. Tim, a member of a Statis Pro football league for 28 years, eventually introduced his idea for a football game to Peter. (Tim also played hundreds of Statis Pro baseball games, including ’83 and ’87 Dodger replays).   

From their original Hockey Bones and Football Bones franchises has evolved the current portfolio of PT Games offerings, including a basketball game covering NBA, WNBA and NCAA hoops and the latest version of Hockey Bones.

But football is Tim’s baby, available in head-to-head or solo iterations. And coming perhaps in time for Christmas is a potential game-changer — a PC version created as a full-blown career sim.   

In their first-ever interview, Tim and Peter share a wealth of insights into their design and data-crunching strategies, and how they address age-old questions of increasing playability while also bringing a “world-building” aspect of the game.  

Video version: https://youtu.be/FtDKWDWq8rQ

PT Games website:  http://sports.ptgamesinc.com

PT Games store at DriveThru Cards: https://www.drivethrucards.com/browse/pub/493/PT-Games-Inc?src=browse493

Tim's PT Games update from May 20, 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRxaWQPNnu4&ab_channel=Sports.PTGames

Ron Pisarz Jr., like so many of us, fell in love with the classic Sports Illustrated football game Paydirt. It wasn’t until about two decades later that, while honing his chops as a software engineer, he revisited that “gateway game” as an exercise in converting it to digital form — and Data-Driven Football was born.   

He began circa 2006-07 by calculating the 2005 and 2006 NFL seasons using play-by-play data. Given the abundance of NFL data these days, he took his analyses “to the nth degree,” writing software to parse that data to hone the simulation’s realism and balancing his three primary concerns: playing time, realism and fun.  

So diligent is Ron that he spends about an hour watching condensed versions of each NFL game every week; he later spends about four hours per team refining that data into the final play sheets. So loyal and attentive are his fans that they will text him during games to ask how a particular play is likely to be reflected in those team charts.  

In this interview from Sept. 27, 2021, Ron shares his thoughts on:  

• Achieving statistical accuracy
• How his eight-man league functions to ensure competitiveness
• The preference for the board vs. PC  
• Preserving the magic of tabletop sports sims  

Buy at the Data-Driven Football website: http://datadrivenfootball.com/index.htm

Video version: https://youtu.be/Ipt3rs2m9Z0

Meet your Chicagoland APBA tournament director Rob Spatz. Taking over the reins of the pack-leading competition from Doug Schuyler not long after it was created during that legendary APBA Summer of 2013, Rob has refined the tournament rules and location as he plays host to folks from 11 states. That's a far from from the original five participants of the inaugural Chicagoland event on July 27, 2013 — and Rob has room to grow the tournament.

Rob graciously shared his tips and tricks for running and sustaining a tournament.  

Learn about the theme of the 2023 Chicagoland tournament, to be held July 22, on the event's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1049389555762918 

Video version: https://youtu.be/w-CMzOoSCag

Our original report about the APBA Summer of 2013:  

The summer of APBA: Grass-roots tourneys spread love of the game  

By Geoff Giordano
© 2013 APBA Football Club  
JULY 29, 2013 — From Chicago to Central Florida, APBA fans have been quite busy this year bringing homegrown competitions to their communities.   

In the wake of the official APBA tournament June 21-23 in Alpharetta, Ga., the summer of 2013 has seen a proliferation of events engage more “sultans of the 66” around the country.   

First of these was the Florida APBA Day on July 19 in Groveland, between Tampa and Orlando. The event drew six participants, said co-organizer Mike Sparks, one of whom had never played the game before.A larger event the next day in the Philadelphia suburb of Willow Grove, Pa., simultaneously paid tribute to iconic APBA historian and APBA Journal columnist Robert Henry while further encouraging the interest of the young players of the Bridesburg APBA League. According to Steve Skoff, who’d just defended his APBA title outside Atlanta, Randy Coryer took the title at the Robert Henry Memorial Tournament by using the 1910 Philadelphia A’s, while Steven Suarez of the Bridesburg Boys and Girls Club won the trophy for the best record among the club’s 14 young players.   

Last but not least, the inaugural Chicagoland APBA World Series Tournament produced its first winner, noted spokesperson Doug Schuyler. Curt Bartel of Oconomowoc, Wis., whose 1977 Kansas City Royals bested the 1983 Chi Sox 2-1 in the finals of the one-day tournament July 27 at the Woodstock Public Library in Woodstock, Ill. The event drew five participants and, like the Bridesburg event, generated enthusiasm for future gatherings.   

Hall of Famer Jim Sce, who was instrumental in expanding the game’s appeal through his demonstrations under the APBA Coaches program, indicated he approached a youth club in Burbank, Calif., a year ago to pique their interest in APBA. In a recent interview with us, he noted his interest in fostering more regional contests.   

Next up is the APBA Football Club’s inaugural two-day event Aug. 24-25 at the newly renovated Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. All told, that makes four first-time APBA events in the span of five weeks.   

Meantime, APBA wasted no time setting up next year's official tourney June 20-22, 2014, at the Hilton Gardens Inn Atlanta North/Alpharetta. Cost: $110 per person. The event is slated to feature the first home-run derby. Visit the tournament website and download the rules.

Phillip Schwarzmsnn is a Euro-game expert whose time in Finland working for Nokia gave him a deeply immersive experience in the mechanics of those games. But he’s also a former Strat and Statis player who keeps one foot firmly in the world of sports sims (he began playing Out of the Park version 3 in the early 2000s). He’s aiming to bridge the gap between classic sports sims and contemporary games — whose themes run the gamut from the Alhambra to Taverns of Tiefenthal to Wingspan. His concept, Sandlot Stars, immerses players in a colorful, card-driven baseball-themed game for three rounds — the seventh, eighth and ninth innings — with elements of ballpark effects and Yahtzee-style dice probabilities in the mix.   

We talk through Phillip’s 10 ways to bring sports simulations into the modern world. He also offers insights into a handful of great new sports games including Baseball Highlights 2045, Bat Flip, Bottom of the 9th, Dice Realms and Envelopes of Cash, a game about college football recruiting.   

Phillip also runs the San Francisco Board Game Designers group with cofounder Jim McCollum, and they’re  working on a football game.  

Stay tuned to the end for his explanation of Finland’s answer to baseball, pesäpallo.

Sandlot Stars is tentatively on scheduled for a print-and-play release by summer’s end.

Check out Phillip’s Facebook group for the game at sandlotstarsgame.com.

1. Audience Targeting (7:48)
2. Theme and realism (13:07)
3. Game play (16:40)
4. Drafting (20:00)
5. Solo Play (30:59)
6. Dice manipulation and the push-your-luck mechanic (38:15)
7. Multiplayer (46:57)
8. Visuals (50:02)
9. Odds/gambling (53:40)
10. What makes baseball great (1:01:30)

Jack Dolan didn't become a baseball fan until his mid-30s, but his APBA life began in the early '80s during his time stationed in Germany. On Sept. 10,  he will host the first Shoeless Joe APBA Baseball Tournament at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C.

The event cost includes tickets to the minor league Greenville Drive game against the Asheville Tourists that night as well as a tour of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum. The field is notable for its Fenway Park specs — complete with Green Monster. Jack, who has run APBA's official soccer tournament and attended the Chicagoland regional event, shares his thoughts behind this latest entry into the APBA regional competition portfolio and what attendees can expect — and why the 1927 Yankees are exempt.  

33:12: What folks should bring and how to approach the Aug. 1 draft.  

Shoeless Joe tournament page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/8488212887871585/

Shoeless Joe tournament rules: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LmXsoIhWC5az7B13ltMjpN84Lewiu35g/edit?fbclid=IwAR02IxeT6JY_EhJCPBbDDtvn_jCbvDAngOFtyoXEJHfxb1BbDFj5jiGmZbM

Video version: https://youtu.be/z-4bx5gQRjo

Bryan Aldrich, creator of 4th Street Software, shares his thoughts on navigating the ins and outs of creating realistic but playable games. His board and computer creations include iterations of football, baseball, basketball and hockey — and he's put some thought into creating a racing game.   

At the time we spoke (September 2021*), preorders for the v3 version of 4th Street's hockey game had just gone live. Bryan was also working on numerous projects, including the 1985 football season and 1983 baseball season.   

As of July 2022, the company's new computer basketball game is available. But, with five games in four sports, Bryan notes, continued maintenance of all platforms is a must. The wildly entertaining 2021 football season is next on deck, with '85 perhaps to follow, along with a "major" update to the computer program.  

4th Street Software: https://4th-street-software.com/

Bryan's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL9fujXNrhI2-KDe2HGVeyA

* Technical difficulties mean some audio has dropped out or is garbled here and there, but enough of it stands as a for-the-record document of our first interview. For the video version, visit our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/lMUr_6ziFAQ

Widely experienced tabletop sports savant Mark Miller, aka Jerry Cuan, shares his varied tastes and takes on a slew of cards-and-dice football, baseball, golf and bowling games. Known for his significant work expanding the experience of Al Wilson’s Fast Drive Football, Mark also has a history of helping Pete Ventura enhance Replay Baseball.

Mark’s creativity in terms of conceiving wild replay projects, as well as his tireless work creating score-allocation charts for FDF, have earned him great respect among the tabletop sports sim community.

Inspired by APBA’s out-of-print bowling game, he also created his own bowling game called In The Pocket, in tabletop and PC versions.

Mark offers insights into:  
• the mechanics of a variety of games
• how he approaches his tweaks
• enjoying the narrative a game offers
• the practice and value of normalization
• his evolution as a gamer
• why there is no “perfect” game
• showing good sportsmanship with other gamers  

Interview conducted September 2021.   

Download Mark’s charts for Fast Drive Football including:

• custom scoresheet
• yardage finders
• TD and non-TD scorer allocators  

https://www.fastdrivefootball.com/community-content
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LAMwhDsDlPQbqOLrEXI-05evYrkOZmw3

Download Mark's bowling game In The Pocket for free: https://www.ballstat.com/markmiller/InThePocketGame.zip

Pre-eminent football historian Ken Crippen speaks with us about the most important players and eras in American football, as well as the mission of his Football Learning Academy.

The FLA offers online classes, videos and a blog that illuminates football history and the impact the game on society. "Giving back to retired players in need" is the FLA's mission, and football fans can help by signing up for classes and generally giving them good traffic.   

We even got in a little chat about Don Hutson's impact (and the APBA asterisk on his 1941 Packers Great Teams of the Past card) starting at 20:47.  

Football Learning Academy website: https://www.football-learning-academy.com/

Football Learning Academy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/footballlearningacademy/

Professional Football Researchers Association: https://profootballresearchers.org/

Ken's personal website: http://kencrippen.com/

Ken's scouting report on Don Hutson:  http://www.kencrippen.com/Scouting-Reports/Hutson_Don.pdf  

The 1941 Packers Great Team of the Past description and meaning of the APBA asterisk: https://www.facebook.com/apbafootballcluboriginal/photos/pcb.136367951957132/136367901957137/