A close friend of one of my sons is passionate about baseball cards. While I was never a hard-core collector (read: I don't worry much about protecting cards in plastic), I have been accumulating trading cards for baseball, football, basketball and other sports since the mid-1970s. As a result, I have a few special cards worth something to me or eBay and hundreds more that are considerably less valuable.

My boys and their friends have enjoyed a weekly gaming session with me for several months. In an effort to mix things up from fighting dragons, and to try to expand the interest in trading cards, I devised a game — Toppers — that could leverage the stats on the back of a player card and use it to simulate a game.

With a mix of brands and information content over the years, there are some significant statistical limitations in this game. Since hits and batting average against are not stats typically included on the back of a trading card, I had to have an open mind about how to best match up what was available to use. I also wanted to keep the game simple while preserving as much of the sport strategy as possible. As with all of my games, I try to limit the rules to a single page (see attached). The result is a dice game that does a good job giving managers control of their own fate.

Best of all, I now have a way to give Jody Davis more value than just a memory of Cubs homeruns prompting Harry Caray to sing.

As the new 2012 baseball season begins, I am looking for some additional game testers to give Toppers a whirl, with or without kids involved, and report back what kind of experience it helps generate in your home. For me, any excuse to dive into 1980s Chicago sports is worthwhile.

Play Ball!

Toppers.pdf (Rules and Blank boxscore)