Statis Pro Baseball - Basic Gameplay

Basic Gameplay

Much like a real game, a game of Statis Pro Baseball would begin by choosing teams, pitchers, and line-ups. This could be done with two players, each managing a different team, or with one player managing both. In order to simulate a real season, each player card indicated which positions a players was allowed to play, and for how many games during a full season (e.g., a card might indicate a player could play 100 games at shortstop, 30 games at third base, and 10 games at catcher; similarly, a pitcher might indicate 10 games as a starter, and 25 as a reliever).

Each at-bat was simulated the same way. First, a Fast Action Card (FAC) would be drawn to determine a PB number, from 2 to 12. This would be compared to the PB rating on the pitcher's card, which ranged from 2–5 for bad pitchers to 2–9 for great pitchers. If the PB number was "in range", a new FAC would be drawn, and the random number would be compared to the pitcher's card to determine the result of the at-bat. If the PB number was "out of range", the resulting random number would be compared to the batter's card to determine the result.

For example, suppose a PB 2–9 pitcher is in the game, and that the PB number drawn is 6. This is "in range" (that is, between 2 and 9). Next, a random number is drawn—assume that number is 41. Looking at the hypothetical pitcher's card, we see that 41 is a strikeout. Thus, the at-bat is complete. If, however, the original PB number drawn was 10, it would be "out of range" and the random number would be compared to the batter's card. For this hypothetical batter, 41 is a home run. Using this example, it can be seen that the results depend a lot on whether the PB is "in" or "out" of range—simulating whether the pitcher or the batter controls that at-bat. Thus, 2–9 pitchers will be more effective because they control more at-bats than 2–5 pitchers.

Most of the results of any given PB and Random Number draw will be obvious to those who know baseball—1B, 2B, 3B, HR, K, BB are all familiar from boxscores. If, however, the random number falls into the Out range on either the batter or pitcher card, another FAC must be drawn to determine the type of out. Matching the CHT code with the FAC, the type of out could be determined. The outs used standard baseball scorekeeping (1=Pitcher, 2=Catcher ... 9=Right fielder), matched with codes unique to Statis Pro. These codes were then matched with the out charts to determine the exact result, based on number and position of the runners on base. The codes were as follows (using shortshop as an example):

• F6 = Fly ball out to Shortstop (runners hold)
• L6 = Line-drive out to shortstop (runners hold)
• G6 = Groundball out to shortstop (double play, if applicable)
• Gx6 = Groundball out to shortstop (lead runner forced out, if applicable)
• G6A = Groundball out to shortstop (runners advance)

Finally, if the code had an asterisk next to it, a final FAC would be drawn to check for error. This was done by comparing the error range on the FAC to the error rating of the fielder. For example, if the fielder's error rating was E2 and the error rating on the FAC was F8 to F10, then there would be no error.