Strat-o-Matic is a baseball simulation that began as a cards and dice game in the early 1960s before entering the computer age.
These featured games on Shoestring Catches are part of season replays or tournaments played with cards and dice with a few exhibitions thrown in for fun.
Today’s game matches two teams from the Old Timers Set the 1919 Chicago White Sox and the 1961 New York Yankees. This is an example of a great team having one of its best days, while another historic squad was playing one of its worst.
WHITE SOX BLAST YANKEES IN OFFENSIVE SHOW
NEW YORK — The Chicago White Sox pounded out 27 hits as they routed New York 16-4 in Yankee Stadium.
Every player for the White Sox has at least two hits as Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver and Nemo Leibold led the way with four each. Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg and Ray Schalk added three hits apiece.
The White Sox grabbed an early lead with Jackson knocking in a run in the first and starting pitcher Dickey Kerr adding a RBI single in the second. Happy Felsch had a run-scoring double in the third.
Tony Kubek closed the gap for the Yankees in the bottom of the third with a RBI single.
The Chicago offense then began to wear out New York starter Ralph Terry by the sixth inning when he left the mound with one out. Terry was charged with 10 runs on 14 hits with a pair of walks. His last batter was Jackson, who sent him to the showers with a homer.
The White Sox didn’t stop there as they added a run in the seventh and four more in the ninth.
Mickey Mantle provided the offensive highlight for the Yankees with a two-run homer in the fifth inning.
Kerr tossed a complete game for the White Sox as he allowed all four runs on nine hits with four strikeouts.
IN REAL LIFE: An interesting note about both of these teams was that they played the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. The White Sox lost to Cincinnati, while the Yankees defeated the Reds.
Dickey Kerr eventually joined his “Black Sox” teammates on the permanently banned list after the 1921 season for participating in exhibition games with the suspended players, which violated the reserve clause in his contract.
In 1919, Kerr was a rookie and he finished 13-7 with a 2.88 ERA. The following year he was 21-9, while ended 19-17 in his third year. By 1925, Kerr was reinstated by Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis. He was 0-1 as he attempted to comeback as he finished his career with a 53-34 mark.
Of the eight banned players, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Happy Felsch, Chick Gandil and Swede Risberg were in this contest. Eddie Cicotte, Lefty Williams and Fred McMullin were not a part of this game.
Two of the White Sox players made it to the Hall of Fame. Eddie Collins, who had 3,315 hits in his 25-year career, was inducted in 1939. Ray Schalk was elected to the shrine in 1955.
For the Yankees in 1961, it was all about Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. Maris broke Babe Ruth’s home run record with 61 long balls to earn the American League Most Valuable Player honor for the second straight year. A 1974 Hall of Fame inductee, Mantle hit 54 of his 536 career homers in 1961.
Ralph Terry finished 1961 with a 16-3 record. The best season of his 12-year career was in 1962 when he was 23-12 and made the all-star team. He was 0-1 in the 1961 World Series. However in the 1962 World Series, Terry earned some redemption against the San Francisco Giants as he was 2-1 and earned the MVP Award.