Welcome to 1981MLB (an Inside Pitch Project).
Baseball has had my heart since the very early 70’s. At 6 years old I played t-ball in a little podunk, upstate New York village named Livonia. The powers that be placed me on a team called the Yankees and my affection for the Bronx Bombers has remained true to this day.
In the late 70’s my family relocated south. At 13 years old, we loaded the U-Haul and headed for the Lone Star State where I met my future best friend. He introduced me to tabletop baseball gaming. The game(s) have been interwoven in me for the last 40+ years. I’ve gone from Avalon Hill’s Statis-Pro Baseball to Pursue the Pennant to Dynasty League and now I’m captivated by Inside Pitch Baseball. There have been many games in between, but those have been the main culprits of stealing me away from sunlight to hover over cards/dice or FACs for decades. I still play a variety of games, but Inside Pitch (IP for short) has become my preferred game of choice.
The one season that has always peaked my interest was 1981. The famous ‘Split Season’ divided by a baseball strike that wiped out 1/3 of the season. So many great players that season and the two best teams in overall win/loss missed the playoffs due to the post-season setup. I’ve always wondered, “what if …” I no longer have to wonder as Inside Sports Games recently released the 1981 season. If I wasn’t the first to order, I was very close. The cards are here, separated, and sleeved. The only thing left was to decide how to do a project.
Lately I’ve been reading of a few different folks who have replayed entire seasons for every team. Some go at it with a fervor that is amazing. Granted, when they don’t have much of a life away from the game they can crank them out. But when life starts interfering the seasons can go from an 18 month marathon to 5 years or more. At my age, I may only have a couple full season replays I could finish if I start right now. Just for fun, here’s a breakdown of how long a 162 game schedule for all 26 teams that played in 1981 would last (based on games per year).
| Gms /Yr | Yrs to Finish | Gms / Month | Gms / Week | Gms / Day |
| 50 | 42.12 | 4.17 | 0.96 | 0.14 |
| 100 | 21.06 | 8.33 | 1.92 | 0.27 |
| 125 | 16.85 | 10.42 | 2.4 | 0.34 |
| 150 | 14.04 | 12.5 | 2.89 | 0.41 |
| 175 | 12.03 | 14.58 | 3.37 | 0.48 |
| 200 | 10.53 | 16.67 | 3.85 | 0.55 |
| 225 | 9.36 | 18.75 | 4.33 | 0.62 |
| 250 | 8.42 | 20.83 | 4.81 | 0.68 |
| 275 | 7.66 | 22.92 | 5.29 | 0.75 |
| 300 | 7.02 | 25 | 5.77 | 0.82 |
| 325 | 6.48 | 27.08 | 6.25 | 0.89 |
| 350 | 6.02 | 29.17 | 6.73 | 0.96 |
| 365 | 5.77 | 30.42 | 7.02 | 1 |
| 375 | 5.62 | 31.25 | 7.21 | 1.03 |
| 400 | 5.27 | 33.33 | 7.69 | 1.1 |
Obviously I’m not planning this replay taking 42 years to finish, meaning I’ll have to be more involved than a snails pace. If I had to guess I would think I could finish this sometime during year seven. The biggest question, if I embark on this monumental task to which I’m already building a website for is: WILL I finish? There’s always a chance that I will. So >0, but <100. Yeah, I’ve narrowed it down.
1981mlb.me 