Sports Illustrated Baseball

Should this hit the table?

Quick read before the metadata.

The game has a moderate level of direct confrontation and strategic depth. Players need to frequently pay attention to each other's actions. However, there is minimal emphasis on cooperation.

Teach 2.3

Teaching signal

Replay 4.0

High replayability

Interaction 3.6

Highly interactive

Scaling 4.0

Scales well

Strategy 4.5

Deep strategy

Control 2.8

Luck-sensitive

Table feel

The game has a moderate level of direct confrontation and strategic depth. Players need to frequently pay attention to each other's actions. However, there is minimal emphasis on cooperation.

Replay value

The final replayability score indicates that Sports Illustrated Baseball offers a high level of variability, strategic depth, and scalability. While the easiness to learn score is relatively low, the game compensates with its engaging gameplay and potential for improvement over time.

Luck profile

The final luck score for Sports Illustrated Baseball is 5.67, indicating a moderate influence of luck in the game. Random elements have a notable but not exclusive impact on the game outcome. Players have substantial ability to mitigate randomness through strategic decisions and planning. The game outcome is primarily determined by player strategy and decisions, with luck playing a minor role.

Overview

What ABG knows about this game

Tabletop baseball simulation game. In 1971, Time Inc (owner of Sports Illustrated magazine) published their first baseball game, titled Sports Illustrated Major League Baseball. It included 20 players on each at-that-time current (1970 season) baseball team, presented on tri-fold color charts. The following two years, they released new editions to cover the most recent season. For 1972, they switched to teams of 25 players each, on double-sided color charts without folds. In 1973, The game title was changed to Pennant Race and the team roster size was reduced to 19 or 20 players per team. The team charts were replaced by individual player cards on perforated sheets, with no color coding. Also in 1972, Time released a set of 16 All-Time All-Star Team Charts (in the same style as that year's edition), for each of the original American League and National League franchises, each with the 25 "best" players from that team's long history. In 1973, the same All-Time charts were released in a separate All-Time All-Star Baseball game. This product was popular among tabletop managers. The All-Time All-Star game was then changed to an individual card format and retitled as Superstar Baseball. This was later transferred to The Avalon Hill Game Co when they picked up the entire line of sports games from Time. This also granted The Avalon Hill Game Co the right to use the words "A Sports Illustrated Game" on any The Avalon Hill Game Co sports product, even if it wasn't part of the original Time, Inc line of games, which led to some confusion for titles such as Baseball Strategy, Football Strategy, and Pro Golf. Special dice with results ranging from 10 through 39 (often called 10-39 Dice, see How to make a set of SIBB dice -- A Tutorial) were required to play this game, and sister games in the original Sports Illustrated sports simulation line.

Mechanism

1

Dice Rolling

Family

3

Series: Sports Illustrated Games (Avalon Hill) Series: Sports Illustrated Line (Time, Inc) Sports: Baseball

Media

Images and visual references

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