2003 MLB SHOWDOWN STEVE TRACHSEL
This is the 2003 Steve Trachsel MLB Showdown card. This card is based off of Trachsel’s 2002 pitching performance. The game used a 20 sided dice, player cards, and strategy cards to allow a team to be drafted and a game to be played. There were base cards and there were also special foil cards for star players. In the later editions of the set, Hall of Fame player “superseason” and Rookie-of-the-Year cards were produced.
This card shows that Trachsel was a ground ball pitcher; you know this because from the 16 possible outs which this card could produce, seven of them were ground balls. The other possible nine outcomes were one chance for a pop out, three chances for a strike out, and five chances for a fly out. This card also shows that he had three chances to give up a walk and a chance to give up a single.
If you used the strategy cards (such as “dialed in”, “ducks on a pounds”, “second look”, and “wheelhouse”), you could add additional outcomes to a game event. For instance, when using these strategy cards, Trachsel had an additional chance to give up a single, two chances to give up a double, and a chance to give up a home run.
Batters, also had cards. Whereas a pitcher card focused on producing outs, batter cards, focused on producing hits. You rolled a dice to see if you drew an outcome from either the pitcher or the batter.
This card shows that he was a starting pitcher and could throw an average of six innings. He had a control factor of “+3″. After Trachel threw six innings, his control would begin to diminish. His point value was 320. A team was allowed 5,000 total points so he wasn’t that expensive. Compare Trachsel’s card to the 2003 Pedro Martinez (Red Sox) foil card; Martinez would have cost an owner 660 points; he had a control of “+6″.
In 2002, in 30 game starts, Trachsel threw 173.2 innings and went 11-11. So, in real life, he averaged 5.78 innings per start.
My personal favorite player in the Showdown series was ex-Met Doug Mientkiewicz. This was not because he was a great player or hit game winning grand slams very often but because I could finally figure out how to spell his name.
The Showdown cards were a good idea, although about 20 years too late. These should have been out when Dungeons and Dragons was all the rage.
I still prefer the 1968 Topps inserts that you could play a game with.
When I was going for my MBA, I wrote up software for a baseball game. The Mets vs All-Stars. The idea was a best of seven series. My first test of the game, Mookie Wilson was the first batter; the result read something like, “Ouggggggh!” Batter hit by pitch. take your base!
I said, wow this game will actually work. Then Tim Teufel cam up and he was hit too. I was like, what????
Then Keith Hernandez came up and he got hit too. So I knew there was a problem in the random outcomes. So I had to go back in and fix that and it took days to finally square it away. Finally, I got it fixed so you could play a game. I did a whole series. I presented the computer sheets plus completed score cards, a paper and everything.
And my professor was like, “you get a C because it isn’t complex enough”. She wanted all pitchcounts, scores, runner movements on bases calculated within the game.
I was like, “Wait a minute…you gave me like two weeks to create, program, and debug an entire game system. You’re not happy with this? I put three Mets on the disabled list while I was debugging it.”
She had no idea what I was talking about.
In respect to Trachsel, was it mandatory to wait one minute between rolls?
Hahaha!