Timothy Burke’s home raided by feds

[Guy_Incognito]

Tim Burke was the single most dominant player in 1987 Stratomatic baseball. Not rookie McGwire. Not Andre Dawson. Not Clemens. Tim Burke. He was 7-0, 1.19 ERA. Very good in real life. In Strato? Impossible to hit. On his card you couldn't get a hit. Nor did his card allow a walk. So if the roll of the dice led to his card you were screwed as an opponent. It was infuriating! My cousin always seemed to end up with him and we got into hours-long arguments about his use of Burke. He'd bring him for three-inning saves though 30 years later he still denies this. But it happened. And he'd use him to save five straight games if necessary. Like, wouldn't he need a break after multiple multiple-inning saves? But my cousin just kept trotting him out there, utterly unhittable. Bitter text messages are still exchanged about this.

Didn't he have a possible hr? Maybe 1-4, flyout rest of the way?

 

[Small Town Guy]

Didn't he have a possible hr? Maybe 1-4, flyout rest of the way?

Made my cousin dig out his Strat-O cards to see what was actually on Burke's. My 30 years of rage had me misrepresenting his in that you could actually get a hit on his card; I just never forking did. But it's still a ludicrous card. We always played the advanced game with the back of the card but here's both versions, advanced and basic with the front.

Next week is the memorial of my friend who died in November. He too was a Strat-O nut with the 1987 cards. His favorite player was McGwire and his 49 dingers. But he had a bizarre love of Jack Clark and Clark's ability to draw walks. He would be gleeful and gloating every time he drew one. I told my cousin we should put Jack's card on top of a pic of our friend next week at his service.

And just to honor my friend one more time, Big Mac's card. One night at Long John Silver's, over fish, chicken and hushpuppies, I received like 12 players in a trade all so my buddy could get McGwire. He later blamed the LJS batter.

 

[YMCA B-Baller]

I was a Pursue The Pennant guy, but Strat is legit too, and for all of PTP's bluster about having a wider array of outcomes (you use three 10-sided die to get a 0-999 result), the percentages are basically the same between the two games. Wish I still had my 1987 PTP set. I could check Burke's PTP card against Strat. I also recall him being tough.

I still get a huge thrill out of playing these games, but will only play PC card-and-dice games with a manual dice option or what's the point? OOTP is cool and you can do a lot of neat shirt with it, but without a dice option, it just doesn't have the same vibe. It's just a computer simulation. Card-and-dice has the simple truth of having an outcome you know why you reached.

Strat PC baseball does have the manual dice option, but rosters are very expensive. There's a cheapo version of the old SI baseball game called Dombrov that isn't bad, which has a manual dice roll option. The PTP successor, Dynasty League Baseball, doesn't have a manual dice option for its PC version, so as much as I do love that game, it's just not the same without it.

I am actively playing Strat football on PC now. There's a manual dice option (I use a computer dice roller) so it still has the same roll-it-and-see-what-happens feel. No way I'd want to play Strat football with cards, it would take forever, but the game itself is fun as heck and "feels" like football.

Card-and-dice is my jam.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Do you really think every DoJ indictment crosses his desk for approval or are you truly just batshirt crazy?

Dude, you've been here a while. You know the answer to this.

I hit the "Show ignored content" button and saw exactly what I expected to see.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

Made my cousin dig out his Strat-O cards to see what was actually on Burke's. My 30 years of rage had me misrepresenting his in that you could actually get a hit on his card; I just never forking did. But it's still a ludicrous card. We always played the advanced game with the back of the card but here's both versions, advanced and basic with the front.

View attachment 17207 View attachment 17208


Next week is the memorial of my friend who died in November. He too was a Strat-O nut with the 1987 cards. His favorite player was McGwire and his 49 dingers. But he had a bizarre love of Jack Clark and Clark's ability to draw walks. He would be gleeful and gloating every time he drew one. I told my cousin we should put Jack's card on top of a pic of our friend next week at his service.

View attachment 17209

And just to honor my friend one more time, Big Mac's card. One night at Long John Silver's, over fish, chicken and hushpuppies, I received like 12 players in a trade all so my buddy could get McGwire. He latter blamed the LJS batter.

View attachment 17210

Wow! I stand corrected. I think I was mixing him up with the equally insane Mark Eichhorn card, but there have been a bunch like that (Rod Scurry, Kent Tekulve, Rollie Fingers, later Chad Green & Joey Devine).
My "Jack Clark"s - the cards that loaded up on walks with real power (these all had, in Basic, full 2 columns and tons of walks in the 3) in the extreme was Eric Davis, who was also a AA, but lesser versions included Jason Thompson and Duane Walker.

 

[Small Town Guy]

Wow! I stand corrected. I think I was mixing him up with the equally insane Mark Eichhorn card, but there have been a bunch like that (Rod Scurry, Kent Tekulve, Rollie Fingers, later Chad Green & Joey Devine).
My "Jack Clark"s - the cards that loaded up on walks with real power (these all had, in Basic, full 2 columns and tons of walks in the 3) in the extreme was Eric Davis, who was also a AA, but lesser versions included Jason Thompson and Duane Walker.

Each of us in our Strat-O group had "our guys" with the 1987 cards. Players we always hoped to get in the blind draft (put all the cards down, conduct a 50-round draft) or through trades. My aforementioned buddy had Clark and Mac. Another friend had, bizarrely, Devon White, whose card wasn't that great. I had Nolan Ryan (so many strikeouts on his card, so satisfying to tell an opponent to sit down after another K) and Strawberry. And my cousin had Eric Davis. Loved the man but loved Strat-O Eric even more. The power, speed, etc.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

I want you all to know that I appreciate this Strat-O-Jack.