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4th Street Baseball is a baseball simulation game using individual ratings to recreate big league baseball action. Ratings are printed in booklet format on perforated cardstock. They measure 3.5" x 2.5" (the same size as a bubble-gum card). Pitchers... The game starts with the pitcher. Each pitcher is rated for his ability to get the ball over the plate, the likelihood of him giving up the long ball, walk to strikeout ratio, hits allowed, etc. Hitters... Each hitter has been rated for average, extra-base potential, strikeouts and walks, base running, stealing, bunting, ability to work the count, and lefty-righty hitting. In addition, pitchers and hitters are rated for defensive range, error frequency, outfielder-catcher arms, and infielders ability to turn the double play. Playing the Game... Five dice are employed in 4th Street Baseball...one twenty-sided (d20), two ten-sided (d10), and two six-sided (d6). Play starts by determining the count. The two d10 are rolled and the count is determined by looking at the pitcher's count column. If the pitcher gets ahead in the count, his ratings, along with all of the defensive players behind him, increase. If he falls behind, then the increase is instead given to the hitter. The defense is allowed to position its players and selects a strategy card (fastball, breaking ball, pitchout, etc.). The offense, likewise, selects a strategy card (hit and run, steal, etc.). All five dice are rolled, the strategy cards are revealed, and the play continues by finding a "matchup" on the pitcher's card. Matchups vary from balls hit to a specific fielder, to batter-pitcher battles, to ballpark and defensive positioning effects. Once a matchup has been determined, the defender's rating is subtracted from the hitter's rating and the result is compared to the d20. If the result is less than or equal to the d20, the hitter wins the matchup and the final result of the play is read off the hitter by adding the two d6 and referring to the appropriate column. If the d20 result is higher, then the play result is found similarly on the defensive player. Let's run through a quick example between Joe Pitcher, a left-handed pitcher, and Joe Hitter, a left-handed batter. Here is our Cy Young Award-winning pitcher, Joe Pitcher:
We roll our two d10 (one green, one white) to determine the count. The dice are combined, so if we roll a green 4 and a white 5, the result would be read as "45". Looking under the "Count" column on the pitcher we notice that rolls 44-47 yield a 1-0 (1 ball, 0 strikes) count (rolls "00" through "08" are a 0-0 count, rolls "09" through "26" are an 0-1 count, etc.). This means that the pitcher has fallen behind the hitter, and we'll increase all of the hitter's ratings by 1 (1 ball minus 0 strikes = 1). We now choose our strategies. No one is on base, and we see on our pitcher that against "LHB" (left-handed batters) he has a very high rating with the fastball (10)...a little higher than with the breaking pitch (8). Let's throw a fastball! The offense decides that they'll sit on a fastball, too. Both strategy cards are revealed, indicating that the hitter has "guessed correctly" on the type of pitch thrown. He receives an additional bonus of 1 point to all of his ratings. All 5 dice are now thrown, with a d20 roll of 13, a green d10 roll of 6, and a white d10 roll of 3. The d6 total is 8. First, we find the matchup. The two d10 help us determine this...we have a combination of "63". Looking down the "Match" column on the pitcher, we see that results 46-93 are "vsP", meaning vs. the pitcher. There is a good chance that the result will either be a strikeout or a walk.
The hitter's rating vs. a LHP (left-handed pitcher) under the "P" (pitcher) column is "16". But remember, the hitter is ahead in the count AND guessed correctly on the pitch selection, so he receives a bonus of 2 points to his rating, and now sits at "18". The pitcher has a fastball rating of "10" against left-handed batters. We subtract the defensive rating (10) from the offensive rating (18) and get a result of "8". The d20 roll was a 13, so the pitcher wins the matchup, despite falling behind in the count. Looking under the "Fst" (fastball) column "vs LHB" on the pitcher's card, and across from the d6 total of 8, we see the result is "43"...a STRIKEOUT! Let's play the "what-if" game for a minute. What if the d20 roll had been a 4 instead of 13? The d20 roll is less than or equal to the matchup result calculated above (8), so the batter would have won the matchup. The d6 total of 8 would yield a result of "44" instead of the "43". A "44" is a walk. While batter-pitcher matchups quite frequently yield walks and strikeouts, batter-infielder matchups will typically wind up giving singles or groundouts. Batter-outfielder matchups will produce extra base hits or flyouts. Power (Pwr) matchups will give homeruns or fly balls. And finally, "Prk" matchups could yield almost anything...have a cozy right-field porch and a left-handed pull hitter up? Better watch out...could be a cheap homerun! Or maybe the ball will bounce off the outfield fence and only produce a single. Maybe the infielders will be positioned to prevent the late-inning double, only to instead give up a cheap single which bleeds through a vacated area. The possibilities are endless! The entire instruction manual can be viewed by clicking here. |
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