Game Review: Baseball Card GM

In the mid-1980s, the baseball trading card industry saw an upsurge in popularity that peaked between 1987 and 1989. This had every kid ranging in age from 12 to 45 running out and buying packs and boxes of packs of cards. This also fed the rise of other trading cards, such as football, basketball, Garbage Patch Kids (these were some of my favorites), and wrestling. Around this time, my uncle introduced me to a baseball game called Status Pro Baseball.  While I love this game and others like it, they all tend to have the same major drawback: they tend to have long, drawn-out rules that complicate the game.  

Enter Baseball Card GM.  Designed by seven-year-old Garrett Weaver (now nine), and published by Weaver Media Group, Baseball Card GM takes advantage of all those 1980s baseball cards you have sitting in your closet or attic that your spouse has been threatening to throw out for years.  Start by picking 9 batters from your collection of cards. For each card, choose a year’s stat line to use.  You will then roll a pair of dice and apply the result to a chart, which will have you looking at the batter’s stat line to determine the result of the at-bat. 

The mat that you keep track of your team’s batting order, score, and inning on also has spaces for placing your cards for batting order and bases after they get hits or walks.  If you want a little more advanced version of the game, you can pick a pitcher out that the lineup goes against.  This can change the outcome of the at-bat. The game can be played one-on-one with each side creating a line-up, or solo with you playing both sides.  

In terms of gameplay, this game is quick and simple.  The game doesn’t include a lot of choices during the actual gameplay. You choose your lineup and begin rolling dice. After that, your choices are limited to whether you try to steal a base or not. In the advanced gameplay, your choice is whether to replace your starting pitcher with a relief pitcher or not.  Actual game-play time is less than 30 minutes (unless you’re like me and you do play-by-play like your favorite radio/TV personality, mine is Ernie Harwell). 

The game component quality is extremely high, assuming your cards weren’t stored in a moldy basement. The board is a thick neoprene mat that rolls up easily for storage. Additionally, the game comes with four clear glass beads that you can use to track score, inning, and outs.  Lastly, the game comes with a small magnifying glass for those of us with less than perfect eyesight (we all can’t be Tony Gwynn at the plate).  

If you are a baseball fan or if you have a young baseball fan at home, and you want a quick tabletop version to play, Baseball Card GM is excellent.  I can see this game filling a niche as a gateway game for those heavier (i.e., long rulebook) games like Status Pro and Stratomatic Baseball.  If you don’t go into the heavier games, you still come away with a great little game to play with your kids while getting to relive your childhood by looking over your old baseball cards. How your spouse feels about you keeping the cards, well, that’s a different matter.   

Today’s review is written by friend to the channel Hank W, guest columnist. Hank enjoys long walks off of short piers, 9 innings/9 hotdogs challenges at work, organizing 2 car parades and writing how-to instructions for making ice cubes. A legend in his own mind, he lives by the Yogi Berra quote: “You can observe a lot just by watching”. Thank you for your insight Hank!