I Like Your Board Game

I was a big fan of the board game All-Star Baseball as a kid.  My father introduced me to the game, and my older brother also played too.  It's does a pretty good job of replicating players' offensive performance, but there is no pitching element to the game.  It was the forerunner to games like Strat-O-Matic and APBA Baseball.  

I have been playing a couple games a week with my nine year old after I am done teaching, and he is done with his school work in the afternoon.  He has been going to baseball games for a few years and has played t-ball at the YMCA, but that has been the extent of his interest in the game.  Playing All-Star Baseball the last few weeks has taught him a lot more about the players and strategy.  

The game was originally manufactured by Cadaco, and while they are out of business, there are plenty of places online where you can still find the discs for the game board.  I have picked up a bunch of current players for him to use and learn about.  

He is really into power hitters and walks, sort of his own brand of Moneyball.  His line-ups can be something along the lines of a beer league softball team, but he is slowly picking up on how to mix his players.  Just today, he decided to jettison Paul DeJong's power hitting ability in favor of Jorge Polanco getting on base all the time in front of his parade of three outcome players.  

I do not own an Adam Dunn disc, but if I did he would be the third place hitter.   

At some point next week he is getting a few new players to use with the game that he learned about from reading the book Baseball Biographies for Kids.  If you have an elementary aged student in your house interested in baseball, this is a really good book.  

While searching out the discs on Ebay, I actually ran into an interesting older baseball card with a connection to the board game.  You have to read the small print at the bottom of the box.  Let me help with that......

The board game was created by former Major Leaguer Ethan Allen during the early 1940s.  Typing in "All-Star Baseball Board Game" on eBay gave me a whole bunch of listings for the board game and pieces, but also a few baseball cards of Ethan Allen mixed into the search results.  

One of the cards was an inexpensive copy of his 1933 Goudey card with the Cardinals.  The back of the card has some issues, but the front is in pretty good shape.  I liked the card, so I took the plunge.  

The corners are a little off, and there are some spots around the bottom of the card that are not supposed to be there.  You can see them clearly on his pants.  I have been looking at the card for awhile debating whether the marks were added by someone at some point, or if something happened with the print on the card.  It's something with the ink, but if you look at enough vintage baseball cards, you know people did all sorts of creative things to their cards long ago.  

Here is the back.  

You can see the ink splotches here too.  I think it actually from another sheet of paper that bled through the card stock.  The paper loss at the top did not scan very well, but there is an adhesive material that is surrounding those areas along the top of the card.  The adhesive did not show up well on the scan, but here is a picture I took with my phone. 

It's not the easiest thing to capture in a picture.  

The discoloration from the S in St. Louis to the top of the card is hardened adhesive, along with the discoloration running along the top of the card above the EN in Allen.  It's an almost 90 year card, so who knows everywhere this Ethan Allen has been, but I am guessing that someone glued this into a scrapbook.  It was a really common way to store and display baseball cards back in the day.  

Not a bad little find for something that popped up on Ebay while looking for pieces to an old board game.  

I leave you with some additional information on Ethan Allen from my factotum who assisted with the scans and pictures for this post.  After retiring from baseball in 1938, Ethan Allen took a job coaching the baseball team at Yale where he coached George H. Bush.  

Good night internet.