I asked for, and received, Baseball Strat-o-Matic for my birthday/Christmas. This will be a running commentary, updated day by day, as I jump into what looks to be the very interesting world of Strat-o-Matic.

I took the plastic wrap off, opened the box and rifled through the contents, just getting a feel for what I was getting myself into. When I asked for the game, I knew it was pretty detailed and tedious, but it seemed to be just the thing for my slightly obsessive love of baseball.

But then, when I was looking at the items in the box, I knew I was in trouble; the “How to Play Strat-O-Matic Baseball” manual is 16 pages long.

And this is regular 8x11 sheet of paper with the body copy, and about 12 point font throughout the entire manual.

As my sister pointed out, “the rule book has an index!”

Right then, I knew this was going to be a lot harder and more in-depth than I thought.

So, on to day one of my little experiment.

Box has been opened and the contents have been examined.

First thing I do is separate what seems like a million player cards from six different teams (the cards that came in the box were from the 2007 season).

As I was doing that, I noticed a coupon that said if you went on their website you could get the cards for six current teams for free.

Score!

I Went online and ordered the 2010 San Diego Padres (obviously), the Los Angeles Dodgers (Beat LA anyone?), the Philadelphia Phillies (one of the better teams, good blend of offense and pitching), the New York Yankees (again, one of the better teams), the Tampa Bay Rays (because of the group of young guys), and the Texas Rangers (can’t forget the World Champions).

So it is now almost 1 a.m., and really the only thing left to do is dive into the Gone With the Wind length guide book.

I will read the introduction tonight, and try to get the basic idea for game play, then pick up where I left off tomorrow.