Strat-O-Matic Baseball: Day 2, the basic rules
You can read about day one here.
The sixteen page manual was a bit intimidating as evident by the few weeks gap between posts. Nonetheless I got through it and the basic game doesn’t seem as complicated as originally thought.
To start you and your opponent (or yourself) fill out the starting line up for each team and decide on the starting pitcher.
I will use the above photo as the example for the situations described.
As you can see in the photo the batting team’s player rolled the two red and one white dice, he/she rolled a white two and red two and three.
The white die tells you what card to look at when you look at the red dice.
Because a two was rolled you would read the hitters card. In the Strat-O-Matic rule book they say one would describe this roll as 2-5 batter. If the white die was a four, five or six it would be a 4-5 pitcher, meaning you would read the pitchers card.
With this roll being 2-5 batter, we look in the second column of the batter card to see what the result is going to be. In this case it is a flyball to the right fielder.
Notice there is a letter after the result in this case it is a “B” flyball. In this case it doesn’t effect the game because there are no runners on base, but if there were an “A” means all runners advance, “B” is a possible sacrifice fly, “C” the runners never advance and “X” where you have to roll and look on the fielding chart.
There is now one out in the first inning.
Next up is shortstop Everth Cabrera.
The roll is 2-5 batter. In the second column of Cabrera’s card next to the number five are two different outcomes with two asterisk next to them. This is where the 20-sided die comes into play.
When there are multiple outcomes (on either the batters or pitchers card) the 20-sided die is used to see which of the two outcomes happens.
In this case the two potential outcomes are either a double or single. The numbers below the two outcomes are the range of numbers that can be rolled to have that be the result.
With this roll Cabrera will either have a single or double as his result. For the result to be a double a one would have to be rolled and for a single any number between two and 20. After rolling the 20-sided die the number was “3” meaning the result is a single.
For those asterisks next to the results. If there is one asterisk it means the other batters on base advance automatically advance one base, two asterisk indicates an automatic two base advance.
Now David Eckstein is up for the Padres with Cabrera on first.
The roll is 6-4 pitcher.
Looking on Chad Billingsley’s card in the “6” column we see the result is a flyball to centerfield with a “X” after it.
I mentioned the situation of the flyball earlier, for groundball results there are also subcategories, “A” potential double play, “B” potential fielders choice, “C” runners can advance, “A++” single** if the infield is in.
When you roll a groundball or flyball you will need the “Basic Fielding Chart.” Find the defensive rating of the player that is playing the position located in the upper right hand of the hitting card.
Take that number (between 1-5) find the position of the player it was hit to roll the 20-sided die and look down the column to find the result.
There are now two outs in the top of the first with a runner on first.
Say you want Cabrera, the runner on first, to steal second base. You would look on his card to see his stealing rating “B” then you would look on the “Basic Strategy Chart” roll the 20-sided die and see what the result is.
The roll was a “16.” Which means he is out and the top half of the inning is over.
For a sacrifice or hit and run roll the red dice and follow the directions on the strategy chart.
That is an abridged version of how to play the basic game of Strat-O-Matic. I didn’t describe any defensive stragiety, but I will get to that in my next post where I will be playing out the entire Padres vs. Dodgers game.
t
