Simulation Football Leagues, Living in the Past, and Learning to Love Football Again

A few years ago I found myself on a plane to my Navy reserve duty and cracked open one of my many football books. Being an uber football nerd from the 1970s I have always loved playing computer football games; however, unless I was playing against someone in the same room, be it on an Odyssey 2, Game Cube, or  Play Station. Sadly, my childhood only saw one instance of me playing a table top football simulation in 1980, that being Sport's Illustrated "Paydirt."

Now mind you, I am involved in fantasy football every year usually, including this year when I got invited into my office's league [very disappointing season for me].  However, as I read Ted Kluck's wonderful book, Past Time, I knew I was really missing out on something special, that being a member of a simulation football league.  In essence, I had been missing out on being a member of not just a league, but a group of people that, like me, love the professional football of yesteryear.

SportsmasterSIM Presents "The Last Super Bowl"

Sports are universally beloved. Geographically, the athletic competitions take on various forms; the NFL, NBA, MLB are strong in America; NHL in Canada; Premier League in Europe; and Cricket in India.

But the now legendary George R. R. Martin wrote about the downfall of them all in “The Last Super Bowl,” a fantastically written short story in February 1975’s issue of Gallery Magazine, a men’s magazine.

The story is actually two tales, as he covers the last Super Bowl which takes place in January 2016 and interjects the depiction of that Super Bowl, between the Green Bay Packers and the Hoboken Jets, and the downfall of real sports. Real sports, in the 2016 of Martin’s fictional world, have been overtaken in popularity by simulated sports.

Robert Coover’s Dark Sports Fantasy

This article by Daniel Roberts originally appeared on September 8, 2017, in the Paris Review.

Robert Coover’s oft-forgotten 1968 baseball novel, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., opens in the middle of a game: “Bottom half of the seventh, Brock’s boy had made it through another inning unscratched, one! two! three! Twenty-one down and just six outs to go!” Brock is Brock Rutherford, retired star pitcher, and Brock’s “boy” is his son, the rookie pitcher Damon Rutherford.

But Brock doesn’t exist, Damon doesn’t exist, and the game isn’t real. It’s being played out with dice and a pencil by Coover’s protagonist, Henry Waugh, alone in his kitchen.

The Universal Baseball Association is a novel about fantasy baseball, though the word “fantasy” never once appears in the book.

Who Needs Players? Simulated Games Are the Future of Sports

From the array of Thanksgiving Classic football games to family-style Turkey Bowls and other sports played this holiday, the sports menu hasn’t changed much at all over the years. Yet technology could change everything here … and soon. In fact, it could change the way we play and watch sports altogether.

By Wired Opinion Editor: Sonal Chokshi @smc90

Imagine spending Thanksgiving on the couch, but instead of watching a live game we’re all watching a televised videogame. Sounds incredible. But in South Korea, videogames are already viewed as a spectator sport: They're televised nationally.

Imagine doing this in a real-life arena as well.

Football Manager Documentary

Simulated Football League Documentary

A Look in to the World of Simulation Football

Real Sports and Science Fiction

Lord Dunsany wrote a story about the devil and the game of cricket, so science fiction and sports go way back. In fact, general (non-science fiction) sports fiction – at least as it is known in America – has its roots in the exotic.

In the 1890s, modern organized sport was exclusive to preparatory schools and colleges, and even within those rare domains, actually participating in the sport was often explicitly fraternal – sometimes even with by-laws and official initiation rites. Pro baseball had been around for only thirty years, but the NFL was not even a notion. Basketball was not yet invented.

So, Tip Top Weekly, which touted itself as both “An ideal publication for the American Youth” and as having the “Largest Weekly Circulation in America” was very instrumental in creating the super heroic sports icon, with the introduction of Gilbert Patten’s (writing pseudonymously as Burt L. Standish) honest and happy (and aptly named) Frank Merriwell.

What if the Soviet Union Never Collapsed? Meet the Football Manager Fans Rewriting History

This article first appeared in Wired UK

Football Manager's data-driven realism has led to Brexit presentations in front of parliament – yet many use Football Manager to create their own footy science-fiction.

"The Last Super Bowl Game" by George R. R. Martin (Review)

Action PC Baseball .... Watch This to See Why This Game is Worth Every Cent !

The History of APBA Football

Evolution of APBA Football: The 2000s

 

Evolution of APBA Football: The 1990s

 

Evolution of APBA Football: The 1980s

 

Evolution of APBA Football: The 1970s

 

Evolution of APBA Football: The 1960s

 

Evolution of APBA Football: The 1950s

 

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Strat-O-Matic "STRAT-SCHOOL! featuring STRAT-O-MATIC

 

APBA Football Club-- Legends of the Game

How to Play APBA Football- Let's Learn and Play

 

State of APBA Football: Our Mission; Promotion, Evolution of the Game, and the Basic vs. Master Question

 

Strat-O-Matic: The Rise and Fall of America's Card Company

 

2021 Canadian Pro Football Kickoff

How to Play Action PC Hockey

 

How to Play Strat-O-Matic Computer Baseball

 

Strat-O-Matic Therapy

"How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Baseball’s Randomness”

By John LaRue at SB Nation

I was introduced to Strat-O-Matic Baseball at a young age, just like a lot of Gen X baseball dorks. My first purchase of the game in the summer of 1986 included cards from the 1982 season. I instantly pestered my folks into buying me the cards for the most recent season, 1985. If you’re familiar with Cardinals history, you know the significance of both of those seasons. Coupled with my mom using baseball box scores and game wrap-ups to teach me both reading and math when I was younger, I was on some sort of Calvinistic predestined path to play Strat-O-Matic. That’s John Calvin Schiraldi, of course, the French theologian and 80s World Series failure. 

The Simulated Football League- The Fans League

NBA Game Simulator in Excel Spreadsheet

PLAAY.com Canadian Cup '95 Kickback

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