I’m sitting in a hotel room in Baltimore, hours away from attending tonight’s Orioles/Twins tilt at Camden Yards. I’m pretty excited for any number of reasons. It’s my first visit to Camden Yards, which opened just about in time for me to move to Southern California for a long time. Also, I’m heading to the game with an old friend, someone who has a tertiary connection to Prospectus.
I grew up with Alex. We played Little League baseball together (me a little better than him) and then Strat-O-Matic (him a little better than me). I would like to tell you how we came to be close friends, but I don’t know; those two connections were the primary ones, and in a neighborhood that divided pretty strongly from block to block-you were “Park Terrace” or “204th St.” or what have you-we didn’t have geography in common.
Alex was one of the founding members of the Inwood Table Baseball League, a group that later also included BP’s Derek Jacques. It was through playing in the ITBL, playing all that Strat with my friends, that I learned so much about the math of baseball. Eventually, another friend in the league showed me the 1988 Baseball Abstract, and…here I am today. It’s not quite so simple, but I think had I not known Alex, maybe the ITBL doesn’t happen, maybe Eddie Kneafsey never lends me that book, and I’m a mid-level editor at Penguin today.
The ITBL was more than just a group of guys playing Strat, although we did a lot of that. Most of us played stickball or baseball or basketball together, and even though we all went to different high schools, the league survived for a year into our college lives, when geography snapped it. For me, the ITBL was what I did instead of doing some of the other things teenagers in Inwood did in the 1980s. I can remember hanging out with these guys, either playing games or talking trades, or just sitting on a stoop deep into the night, then having to defend my late hours to my mother by saying, “We’re just playing Strat.” It seemed like it should have been more acceptable. I mean, Alex and I spent our youths representing “Joyce’s Bar” and “Fort Knox Social Club,” members of a Little League in which more than half of the sponsors were places where you could get hops-based beverages, and the preferred nighttime activities of many of my peers, even at 16 and 17, involved elbow-bending. I played Strat in no small part to stay away from that, to stay away from a life I most certainly did not want.
Twenty years later, I’m in Baltimore, which itself is another connection back to the ITBL. (Many of you have heard me tell this story. You can skip ahead.) Camden Yards is where our friend Miguel Jimenez, who also played in the ITBL, made his major-league debut back in 1993. Alex and some other guys from the neighborhood went down to Baltimore and cheered him like crazy when he entered a Sunday afternoon game for the A’s. Paul White of Baseball Weekly noticed and ended up giving over his column that week to the story, which was an incredible moment given that Baseball Weekly was our bible back in those days.
At its best, this is what baseball does. It’s where little boys form friendships, ones that lead to other friendships that lead to knowledge that aids in personal development…and eventually back to the game as two men who can still laugh at the words “Cory Snyder” said with just the right cadence or tell stories about their old coaches or just sit in the stands and watch some baseball.
I’m excited to finally see Camden Yards tonight. I’m excited to see my old friend tonight. And I’m very thankful for the role baseball has played in bringing me to this point in my life.
Joe, would love to hear your thoughts on Camden tomorrow. A lot of the newer stadiums have more amenities (like open concourses, which are awesome) but they had the luxury of Camden Yards as a blueprint. To me, no better place to watch the game, provided I'm not surrounded by 30,000 Sox/Yanks fans.
I was there for the Opening Day CC beat-down, with an actual O's-partisan crowd, and the atmosphere was unreal... shame it'll just be you and 10,000 others tonight.
I'll be there also. Hope you enjoy your first visit. Camden Yards will one day be considered a baseball cathedral like Wrigley, Fenway, and Old Yankee Stadium.
This is the same Miguel Jimenez who pitched for Licey (he's from Dominican parents) and lost a tie-break game against the Azucareros back in january of 1993?
Thanks for the great Strat story. I played Earl Weaver baseball before discovering -- and then getting completely addicted to -- Strat. I would love to see an article which analyzes the Strat rating system and ways to improve the great game.
Enjoy Camden -- it really is a beautiful stadium. I would be curious to hear your thoughts as how it compares to other similar ballparks which followed.
It's definitely important to have a group of like-minded individuals around you. As a third grader, I tried starting up fantasy baseball leagues using the old APBA game for the Apple II but couldn't find anyone who could stick with it.
That is a very nice story Joe. I'm a huge yankee fan and have been to over 15 MLB parks. Camden yards is by far my favorite, including Yankee Stadium. It has a certain feel, the brick, the warehouse, eutaw street...its a great park to watch a ballgame at. Enjoy.
1988 set: John Franco vs. Pete O' Brien: 3-11. :-)
Someone really needs to do a documentary about Star Tournaments. We've had Scrabble, and heck, even the Pillbury Bake Offs, get their moment in the sun, why not us? We're easily comparable in quirkiness.
Thanks for the mention of Miguel Jimenez. He lived across the hall from me our senior year at Fordham and I got a chance to watch him dominate the Patriot League in 1991. I never knew he was such a Strat guy!
Little pieces like this are why I subscribe to BP. I remember more of these from my first days as a subscriber, but in recent times seem to remember seeing more rants than raves about this precious sport. Maybe it's just my age showing when I say that, but if I am correct I'd love to recommend more joy and less acrimony in the overall mix at BP. That said, thank you so much for a beautiful little piece.
Love to hear Strat-o-Matic mentioned. I am 46 and have every baseball season cards and computer discs. Why, because Bill Hoynes and I played it back in the mid seventies. I won our old timer team league with a Bill Nicholson pinch hit home run in the bottom of the 9th,my 50 Phillies beating his 65 Dodgers for the league title.
There's no doubt that many of the kids who grew up playing Strato or APBA or Statis Pro baseball are now readers of Baseball Prospectus. It's a natural evolution! Nice to hear about your journey, Joe - I agree with Calkid above who wouldn't mind seeing a little analysis done on that game now - maybe an article about which strategies play well in the game and real life and which don't quite translate as well using real people.
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Joe, would love to hear your thoughts on Camden tomorrow. A lot of the newer stadiums have more amenities (like open concourses, which are awesome) but they had the luxury of Camden Yards as a blueprint. To me, no better place to watch the game, provided I'm not surrounded by 30,000 Sox/Yanks fans.
I was there for the Opening Day CC beat-down, with an actual O's-partisan crowd, and the atmosphere was unreal... shame it'll just be you and 10,000 others tonight.