Dumping Statis Pro Baseballs SR, RR, and POE Pitcher Ratings When Avalon Hill (AH) bought the rights to Statis Pro baseball from Jim Baines, and first published it as 2nd Edition, they used the original Starting Rating (SR) and Relief Ratting (RR) formulas as a way to determine when a pitcher gets fatigued and should be removed from the game. In later versions of the 2nd Edition rules offered an advanced formula known as the 'Points Of Effectiveness' (POE) rules which used a different formula to determine when a pitcher became fatigued during the game.  The first system, SR and RR ratings was easy enough, but often a pitcher could get blown out in a single inning or two which was not exactly realistic, and over time I felt led to poor results. The POE system has merit, but is clunky and gets bogged down in minutiae real quick when you have to factor in points for consecutive hits and other factors. To be honest it was easier to use the SR and RR ratings, and I did for many ...

I have been an active Statis Pro baseball player since I was in high school. That is to say, I started playing this game in 1978, the first year it was produced by Avalon Hill after the rights to the game had been purchased by Jim Barnes. As produced, my best friend and I played this game for hours, but the one weakness of the game for two players was the single ‘Fast Action Card’ (FAC) deck. The FAC however was one of its greatest aspects for the single gamer, which is why I believe the game has stood the test of time and has a moderate following as a solo game. After playing for some weeks Barry also purchased a copy of the game and we began to play with two FAC decks. In this instance, the defensive manager would flip the first card to determine the PB number, the offensive manager would flip a card from his deck to determine the result of the play. Then the defensive manager would flip a card from his deck as necessary to determine if there was an error on the play. Or if there h...

When Statis Pro baseball was first published, it was unique in that it used a deck of 98 cards known as ‘Fast Action Cards (FAC)’ rather than using dice. Each card was further divided into four sections (2 on the front and 2 on the back) for a total of 392 individual cards (minus three blanks for 389 possible results). Each FAC contained all the information you needed to play the game, and the system worked really well. The concept was relatively simple, you flip a card, look at the appropriate label or description and get the play result. Now, keep in mind that in most instances, you had to flip several cards to get the complete result of the play, but the system was generally quick and easy to learn. In my opinion, there are drawbacks or disadvantages to this system. First, fast action cards get lost, just ask anyone who owns one of these classic games, it happens. Second, the cards need to be shuffled, rather often during a game, and because they are simple card stock, they tear, an...