Take Me Out to the (Ball) Game

I started this post on Tuesday... which explains the oddball "Opening Day" reference.

Today is Opening Day... which, frankly, elicits a "so what?" from me, as I don't follow baseball. (I have, however, seen professional games in 6 different parks - baseball live is fun, baseball on TV is sleep-inducing.)

However, Erik Arneson reviewed Harry's Grand Slam Baseball yesterday on his website & that got me in a baseball boardgame kind of mood. Since I'm not a baseball fan, you may want to see what someone else has to say about the subject - you can check out:

• Erik's list of baseball games
• the BGG Geeklist entitled Baseball Boardgame Greats

OTOH, you can take my suggestions.

Single

Braeden & Collin's favorite baseball game is Sure Shot Baseball... which isn't so much a board game as an excercise in manual dexterity. The board is a molded plastic and has a scoop-shaped back wall. The pitching team drops a ball down the chute (which can be aimed a little bit) toward the bat, which the hitting teams "swings" using a knob. Hits only count if they go over the wall - and depending on where they cross the wall, they count as a single, double, triple or home run. The defense can get an out, however, by catching the ball in mid-air! A swing & a miss is an out, so innings are quick.

And that's it. Not a great game, but fun to play with the kids.

Double

Harry's Grand Slam Baseball is a quick-playing card game that manages to "feel" like a baseball game without having the tempo of the average baseball game. If you don't go into extra innings, a game is easily over in 15 minutes.

Interestingly, even with such a short playing time, the game includes stealing bases, balks, double plays, pinch hitting, relief pitching, and even the sacrifice fly. That's a lot to pack into a simple card game - and yet Grand Slam Baseball does it with class.

I'm a big fan - it makes a great "waiting for folks to show up for game night" filler. It would also be a nice game to play while watching a baseball game on TV.

Triple

Diceball! is, I'm sad to say, long OOP (out of print) and a bit difficult to find. That said, it's a really enjoyable dice-heavy baseball game that can (but doesn't have to) generate stats for a very realistic baseball game. But whether you're into the stats or not, the gameplay itself is a lot of fun, esp. using the advanced rules which allow for some oddball offensive plays (like the suicide squeeze and the hit & run). The teams are generic (blue & yellow, if my memory serves me correctly) but that doesn't stop the game from creating a story each time.

A short note about baseball & statistics: most of you are probably aware that many baseball junkies are obsessed with statistics. (All you need to do to figure this out is to listen to the color commentary on your average baseball game, where they drop stuff like "this is his second single on his first at bat in the last 12 games facing left-handed starting pitchers here at Wrigley Field." Sigh.) Baseball boardgamers tend toward this as well, which is why APBA & Dynasty League Baseball are the most beloved of baseball "simulations."

Home Run

My aside about stats brings us right to the best of the games I've listed: Dynasty League Baseball. This is truly the Holy Grail for those of you who want to replay seasons with truckloads of statistical accuracy & loads of "color" - the system goes so far as to take weather & time of year into account (as they affect, ever so slightly, the distance a ball carries after being hit.)

I was introduced to Dynasty League through the good graces of Warren Madden, who is a fan & did a spectacular job of keeping the game moving. I haven't been able to justify the price tag of the game (yet!) - but if my eldest son continues to enjoy baseball, it may find a place in my collection.

Pinch Hitter

I haven't yet played Pizza Box Baseball... but reports from folks who've seen a copy/played the game (including the Fresno Gamers own Hobiecat, Mike) have lots of nice things to say about it. I'll be giving it a try in the next couple of weeks & I'll let you know what I think.

Two Games Into the Season...

Well, not actually any season... but on Opening Day, I actually managed to play two of these games. Braeden & Collin beat me at Sure Shot Baseball (sigh) and I managed 11-10 bottom of the 9th win over Mike in Harry's Grand Slam.

May the Yolk Be With You

Nothing says "we're celebrating the birth of the risen Christ" like a Darth Vader easter egg.

Smoke & Mirrors?

Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there's no resurrection, there's no living Christ. And face it—if there's no resurrection for Christ, everything we've told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you've staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there's no resurrection.

If corpses can't be raised, then Christ wasn't, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren't raised, then all you're doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It's even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they're already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we're a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries...

If there's no chance of resurrection for a corpse, if God's power stops at the cemetery gates, why do we keep doing things that suggest he's going to clean the place out someday, pulling everyone up on their feet alive?

And why do you think I keep risking my neck in this dangerous work? I look death in the face practically every day I live. Do you think I'd do this if I wasn't convinced of your resurrection and mine as guaranteed by the resurrected Messiah Jesus? Do you think I was just trying to act heroic when I fought the wild beasts at Ephesus, hoping it wouldn't be the end of me? Not on your life! It's resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live. If there's no resurrection, "We eat, we drink, the next day we die," and that's all there is to it. But don't fool yourselves. Don't let yourselves be poisoned by this anti-resurrection loose talk. 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, 29-33 (The Message)

It's Easter Sunday... and resurrection is at the very heart of the Christian faith. Paul said it best - if this is all a con job, the whole thing is as stable (and as useful) as a house of cards.

OTOH... if it's real - yowsa. Nothing will ever be the same again.

Maybe you're reading this & have some real doubts about the veracity of the resurrection: I'd recommend 3 books for you to study/read:

• The Case for Christ (Lee Strobel)
• The Case for the Real Jesus (Lee Strobel)
• The Resurrection of the Son of God (N.T. Wright)

Collin's Prayer

"Thank you for Jesus & thank you for our food & thank you for playing games & thank you for watching movies. Amen."

Five & Dime 2007: Recap

I first began keeping track of the Five & Dime lists back in 1999... and here it is, 2008. Meaning I've been doing this for ten (10) years. Either I'm very thorough or completely anal. (You choose.)

Here's the all the links for the 2007 Five & Dime reports.

• How It All Started (actually from 2005)
• Most Played Games
• Dimes
• Nickels
• Fresh Faces
• Lo, How the Mighty Have Fallen
• Joining the "In" Crowd
• Decay Rates
• Time After Time

And here's the links for graphic 'over time' comparisons of the top games, which I call Wide Angle Lens:

• Ten Year Pix
• Nine Year Pix
• Eight Year Pix
• Seven Year Pix
• Six Year Pix
• Five Year Pix
• Four Year Pix

Cereal & Holy Week

Here's some stuff for you to chew on...

• Cinnamon Life is just about the best breakfast cereal/snack food in existence. I should know... I eat enough of it.
• Silly Rabbit, Easter's Not For Kids is the title of a pithy & challenging post on the scandal of the Cross over at the The Resurgence blog.
• My buddy, Steve "K-ban" Kurzban, asked me why Passover & Holy Week don't line up this year... I'm really ashamed to admit I don't know the answer to that one. So I found this article on Wikipedia.
• I've written (well, quoted) some thoughtful stuff about Easter before... check out Deeper Magic and He Is Risen Indeed!.

More Easter stuff as the day approaches...

Green Beer?

That's the best we can come up with to celebrate the life of St. Patrick?! Sigh.

For a thoughtful musing about St. Patrick & the missional church, check out Dan Kimball's blog, Vintage Faith - in particular, this post.

Post #500: "Easton International Airport"

It's wonderful how much fun the boys can have with styrofoam planes from the dollar store & a bunch of stickers. (You can't see it very well in these pictures, but Collin's plane probably has a pound of animal stickers on it.)

And that's post Numero 500... wow, I've been blogging for almost three years & still having fun. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Wall*E

I couldn't get a better birthday present than this movie opening on my birthday. (Thanks to Looking Closer for pointing out the new trailer!)

Five & Dime 2007: Time After Time

There's always been a bit of discussion (in my less charitable moods, I'd call it "whining") about the emphasis that the Five & Dime lists put on shorter games, particularly fillers. (Of course, one person's filler game is another person's "main dish" game - filler is in the eye of the beholder.) But there's been a lot more of it this year.

So I finally caved... I used the same top 350 games (percentage of plays-wise) that I mentioned in the Decay post... the cut-off number ended up being an average of 2.0% or better over time. I then gave them each a playing time estimate in 15 min. increments. To get the "score" you see in the charts below, I multiplied the average percentage of plays by the number of minutes. The "average over time ranking" is their rank when not adjusted for time of play.

Game	time "score"	average over time ranking
Puerto Rico	34.66	2nd
Settlers of Catan	32.41	4th
Euphrat & Tigris	26.17	20th
Caylus	26.12	37th
Power Grid/Funkenschlag	22.06	25th
Carcassonne	21.79	3rd
Notre Dame	19.89	12th
Ticket To Ride	19.37	1st
Thurn and Taxis	16.06	9th
Goa	15.83	46th
Age of Steam	15.42	52nd
Bohnanza	14.85	14th
Union Pacific	14.41	55th
Ra	12.61	8th
Princes of Florence	12.26	30th
St Petersburg	11.99	10th
Settlers of Catan Card Game	11.72	70th
Shadows Over Camelot	11.71	49th
Lost Cities	10.46	5th
San Juan	10.43	6th
Ticket to Ride: Europe	10.06	29th
Tikal	9.65	88th
El Grande	9.47	90th
Amun-Re	8.97	56th
Lord of the Rings	8.86	81st
Liar's Dice/Bluff/Perudo	8.79	7th
Alhambra	8.48	22nd
Twilight Struggle	8.46	119th
Taj Mahal	8.27	75th
Agricola	8.05	109th
Ingenious	7.96	11th
Arkham Horror	7.88	174th
Titan	7.83	282nd
Tichu	7.82	48th
Through the Desert	7.66	28th
BattleLore	7.54	53rd
Formula De	7.43	86th
Blue Moon City	7.40	54th
Attika	7.32	31st
Web of Power/China	7.28	32nd
Ticket to Ride - Märklin	6.94	59th
War of the Ring	6.80	227th
Zooloretto	6.72	35th
Samurai	6.71	63rd
Transamerica/europa	6.65	17th
Coloretto	6.64	18th
10 Days/Europa Tour	6.57	19th
Elfenland	6.46	140th
Railroad Tycoon	6.39	143rd
Colosseum	6.22	150th

Here's the missing top 50 games (average over time) and where they placed when adjusted for time.

Game	time "score"	average over time ranking	time ranking
Yspahan	6.20	40th	51st
Wyatt Earp	6.17	41st	52nd
Citadels	6.14	42nd	53rd
Bang!	6.13	43rd	54th
Take 6	6.10	21st	55th
Race for the Galaxy	5.58	24th	61st
Crokinole	5.18	26th	62nd
Schotten-Totten/Battleline	6.22	27th	70th
Memoir '44	4.80	33rd	79th
Mamma Mia!/Sole Mio	4.28	38th	89th
Diamant/Incan Gold	3.92	13th	94th
To Court A King	3.86	50th	97th
Can't Stop	3.65	15th	104th
No Thanks/Geschenkt	3.33	16th	116th
For Sale	2.81	23rd	136th
Loopin' Louie	2.37	36th	162nd
Zirkus Flohcati	2.22	36th	170th
Take It Easy	2.00	44th	184th

Bits & Pieces

Things have been, well, hectic... we've had two major funerals at the church in the last 2 weeks, in addition to all of the "normal" insanity of church life. Shari left yesterday for Las Vegas to go hang out with her cousin for a few days, leaving the boys & I here to fend for ourselves. So, rather than a full-fledged blog post, here's some odds & ends from my travels through both the virtual & real worlds:

• With Shari (my wife) and Kate (Steve's wife) both being gone this week, we've created a Fresno Gamers Mini-Con: five consecutive nights of gaming. To keep track of what we've played, you can check out the Mini-Con Geeklist.
• Ah, the wonders of Wikipedia... I discovered earlier today that the Muppet classic, "Mah Na Mah Na", debuted (sans Muppets) in a Swedish soft-porn film.
• Lots of bytes being used by homeschoolers concerned (and rightly so) about the ruling last week in Los Angeles. If you want to know more, here's a few links to check out: Christianity Today, HSLDA, and GetReligion.org. A couple of you have e-mailed me with concern for our personal situation - Shari & I have some unusual circumstances that will keep us from having much trouble - she's a credentialed K-12 teacher (in TN) and I have a masters degree in education (OK, religious education).
• I'm on Facebook. If that has meaning for you, come & be my friend. If not, run the other way! You don't want to be sucked in to this incredible time-waster! Fly, you fools!
• And finally, no day is complete without the Swedish Chef.

Five & Dime 2007: Decay Rates

This is a new way for me to analyze some of these numbers - I'm not sure my work here is statistically sound but it's interesting. (That's your cue to smile & grin knowingly.)

Anyway, what I did was to take the top 350 games (percentage of plays-wise) from the last ten years - the cut-off number ended up being an average of 2.0% or better over time. (You'll see this subset of games for the next 2 or 3 Five & Dime reports. It allows me to work with games that really registered statistically and lessens the workload at the same time.)

For this particular exercise in determining decay rates of games, I then set aside games with 4 or less years on the list... leaving me with 230 games. To do the decay calculation, I:

1. Took the largest percentage played number from each game.
2. Compared it to the current (2007) percentage played number for each game.
3. Divided that amount by the number of years since it had first appeared on the Five & Dime Lists.

Only three games showed no rate of decay whatsoever - they have appeared on the list for 5+ years (weirdly enough, all three of them showed up 6 years ago) and their highest percentage played is in 2007:

• Downfall of Pompeii
• Hive
• Uno

Now that's what I call "strange bedfellows". (Connect 4, btw, was very close to joining this illustrious group - 0.06% decay over time.)

Here's the chart with the rest of the top 20 games... that is, the games that showed the least decay over 5+ years time. (There's actually 22 games on this chart, as the final 3 games were very close in percentage.)

Game	years on list	percentage decay
Cloud 9	8	-0.20%
Hamsterrolle	7	-0.30%
Gang of Four	7	-0.31%
Wizard	10	-0.33%
Cafe Internationa	9	-0.34%
Midnight Party	7	-0.35%
Loot/Korsar/Pirat	6	-0.37%
Set	8	-0.39%
Rummikub	8	-0.46%
RoboRally	10	-0.47%
Viva Pamplona	9	-0.47%
Meuterer	7	-0.48%
Shark	7	-0.48%
Quoridor	9	-0.50%
Amazing Labyrinth	10	-0.50%
Magic: The Gathering	10	-0.52%
Time's Up/Celebrities	10	-0.52%
Rage	7	-0.53%

And here's a chart with the 20 games who've shown the highest rates of decay. (Note - to show a high rate of decay, you have to start from a high position.)

Game	years on list	percentage decay
Puerto Rico	7	-10.12%
Attika	7	-8.48%
Euphrat & Tigris	10	-6.30%
Balloon Cup	7	-6.23%
Bohnanza	10	-6.01%
Carcassonne	7	-5.58%
Mamma Mia!/Sole Mio	8	-5.55%
King's Breakfast	7	-5.55%
Lost Cities	9	-5.44%
Battle Cry (AH)	8	-5.13%
Settlers of Catan	10	-5.08%
Wyatt Earp	7	-5.05%
Transamerica/europa	10	-4.94%
Through the Desert	10	-4.89%
Coloretto	7	-4.69%
Guillotine	10	-4.67%
Web of Power/China	8	-4.51%
Clans	6	-4.49%
Amun-Re	7	-4.43%
Paris Paris	7	-4.41%

I'm not sure I'm really qualified to comment beyond the statistics... you need to know that the average decay rate of these games was 6.91% over their lifespan (1.94% per year) and that the average lifespan was just over 8 years. Make of that what you will.

A Couple More Quotes To Argue About...

...or, in my case, giggle about.

Here's Richard Dawkins, "an outspoken antireligionist, atheist, secular humanist & sceptic" (according to Wikipedia) from his 1998 book, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder:

By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.

Here's Steve Taylor, "an American singer, songwriter, record producer & film director" (again, according to Wikipedia) who is a decidedly evangelical Christian, from his 1983 song "Whatcha Gonna Do (When Your Number's Up?)":

You're so open-minded that your brains leaked out

Things that make you go hmmmm...

A Quote To Argue About

The ultimate goal of American Christianity should not be to make us good citizens, but to make us revolutionaries in the cause of Jesus Christ. Erwin McManus, The Origins Experience 2004

The Collective Mind is, well, OK

Yesterday I posted about the collective mind of the "Birdbath" predicting the results for the Oscars... so, here's the results.

There are 24 categories... and we got 15 of them right! (For the record, Chris Newcomb won my annual Oscar Pool/"Birdbath" with 18 correct.) The ones we missed were:

• Actress: we picked Ellen Page (rather than Marion Cotillard - in fact, only the winner, Chris, managed to get this one right)
• Supporting Actress: we picked Cate Blanchett (rather than Tilda Swinton - who I can't get the picture of her as the White Witch of Narnia out of my head, no matter how many Oscars she wins)
• Cinematography: we picked No Country for Old Men (rather than There Will Be Blood - and don't you think that a multi-million dollar actress would work on pronouncing the word correctly before she got out there?)
• Makeup: we picked Pirates of the Carribean 3 (rather than La Vie en Rose)
• Sound Editing & Sound Mixing: we picked Transformers (rather than The Bourne Ultimatum)
• Visual Effects: we picked Transformers (rather than The Golden Compass)
• Documentary Feature: we picked Sicko (rather than Taxi to the Dark Side - ah, exposing torture is more important to the folks in Hollywood than fixing our health care system OR giving Michael Moore more camera time to pontificate with)
• Documentary Short: we picked Sari's Mother (rather than Freeheld)

Not as good as last year... but still decent

And speaking of not-bad performances, I was pleasantly surprised by how watchable the Oscar broadcast was this year. Some highlights:

• Jon Stewart, who managed to take shots at both sides politically (both McCain's age & the liability that is Bill Clinton got mentioned) as well as a very funny joke about Yom Kippur...
• a delightful performance of "Falling Slowly" (and all of the other nominated songs)
• having the good sense to allow the young lady who co-wrote "Falling Slowly" to come back on stage after she got cut off
• the opportunity to figure out that I've only seen 33 of 80 Best Picture winners - I've got some watchin' to do!

As for the actual awards, I (like my buddy, Stven Carlberg), find myself wanting to see the nominated films - for once, the show got me more rather than less interested.

The Collective Mind of the "Birdbath" Predicts the Oscars - 2008

Each year since 2000, I've hosted what I jokingly call "Mark's Oscar Birdbath"... it's just not right to call it an Oscar Pool when there's no money involved. I invite folks from throughout my life (past & present churches, high school friends, family, gamer buddies, etc.) to participate. (Don't be miffed if you weren't asked to join - what with the compiling of the Five & Dime reports and life in general, I don't want to get too big a crowd playing.)

So far, 31 folks are participating in this go-round (with 18 hours left until the deadline)... and here's what THEY think will be the winners this year. (This is based on their entries - when the voting is tight, I'm listing multiple entries.)

• BEST PICTURE: No Country For Old Men
• BEST DIRECTOR: Joel & Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men
• BEST ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
• BEST ACTRESS: Ellen Page, Juno
• BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Javier Bardern, No Country For Old Men
• BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There (but this one is very close)
• ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Juno
• ADAPATED SCREENPLAY: No Country For Old Men
• CINEMATOGRAPHY: No Country For Old Men
• FILM EDITING: The Bourne Ultimatum
• ART DIRECTION: Sweeney Todd
• COSTUME DESIGN: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
• ACHIEVEMENT IN ORIGINAL MUSIC: Atonement/Ratatouille
• BEST ORIGINAL SONG: “Falling Slowly", Once
• ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP: Pirates of the Carribean 3
• ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING: Transformers
• ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING: Transformers
• ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS: Transformers
• BEST ANIMNATED FEATURE: Ratatouille
• BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: The Counterfeiters (Austria)
• BEST DOCUMENTARY: Sicko
• BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT: Sari's Mother
• BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT: Le Mozart des Pickpockets
• BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM: Peter & the Wolf

Last year, we went 19 for 24 - which is pretty impressive. Come back on Monday & see how the collective mind of "my friends" did this time around... and find out who won the Birdbath!

A couple of "I'd like to thank the Academy"-ish kind of things to close this post out:

• Thanks to Steve Stigler & his buddies from high school (especially Chris Newcomb, who's actually playing in the Birdbath this year!), who first introduced me to Oscar Pools and the musical stylings of Stephen Sondheim when we were students together at Baylor University
• Thanks to Matt Baldwin, whose website, Defective Yeti, is the one who makes it so darn easy for me to maintain the Birdbath

ER & the search for answers

I like Ed Stetzer's blog a lot. Especially today. (Follow the link already, people - and watch the video clip.)

Jump Cuts

1. Sorry that I haven't finished up all the Five & Dime stats... work has begun on the final 5 posts, but they probably won't start publishing until Monday.
2. The NFL got muscled by some politicians - and now it's OK for churches to have Super Bowl parties. Man, I still don't get why it took this long to get straightened out. (Here's a post from on it from last year.)
3. Speaking of churches, there's a church in Tampa that's doing a 30 day Sex Challenge. They're urging single folks to not engage in sexual activity for 30 days - and for married folks to "engage" for 30 days. (I'm guessing the 2nd one causes more interesting discussions... want to know more about what I think about sex? Check out this post... and this one... and this one.)
4. The Fresno Gamers are moving to Tuesday nights for the month of March to see if that will work better for more of our members. If you're in Fresno (or just drop by for a visit), come & join us!
5. Finally, speaking about jump cuts: I wish I could find CD versions of Prodigal's three albums - Prodigal, Electric Eye & Just Like Real Life (Jump Cut). Wait a minute! I should check iTunes!

Happy May 22nd to Me...

Watch the Trailer on Yahoo! Movies

Yeah, I'm being a shill for them... but who cares? Shut up & watch the trailer.

Five & Dime 2007: Joining The "In" Crowd

These are games that have appeared on the Five & Dime lists before... and have risen in overall playing percentages.

Game	percentage gain from 2006
Yspahan	+20.64%
Qwirkle	+11.03%
BattleLore	+9.62%
Taluva	+9.61%
Thebes/Jenseits von Theben	+9.51%
Pillars of the Earth	+8.08%
Tumblin' Dice	+7.93%
Factory Fun	+7.53%
R-Eco	+6.46%
Fairy Tale	+6.61%
On the Underground	+6.15%
Mr. Jack	+6.06%
Hive	+5.56%
Lost Cities	+5.58%
Nexus Ops	+4.57%

There are two main reasons that games appear on this list:

1. They were reprinted and/or had another game added to their franchise this year (Thebes, Fairy Tale).
2. They were "Essen" games... they were released late in 2006 and were only played 5+ times by a couple of folks in 2006 (Yspahan, BattleLore, Taluva, Pillars of the Earth, Factory Fun, R-Eco, On the Underground, Mr. Jack).

As always, the interesting games here are the ones that can not be explained by these reasons:

• Qwirkle, which is the first "adult" game design that just seems to connect so well with gamers & non-gamers.
• Nexus Ops, which got some extra gaming love from being remaindered - which gave a lot of folks time to appreciate what a nice design is hidden all that glow-in-the-dark plastic.
• And I don't have any way to explain the sudden surge in interest in Tumblin' Dice (my $5 copy found at an AmVet thrift store notwithstanding), Hive (I really don't understand that one - but that's my problem, not yours) and Lost Cities (which is enjoying a resurgence - was there a new printing this year?!)