1988 Talking Baseball - DArryl Strawberry

Starting Lineup Talking Baseball was an electronic game with interchangeable cartridges that would load different rosters. The machine was a plastic stadium and the bases lit up with red lights when players were on base. It was fairly interactive and complex for the time. And the "talking" part was quite sophisticated. It sounded like a real game was being called. The game system came with the All-Star lineups. It may have also come with old-timers lineup too, my memory is a bit fuzzy there. The only specific memory I have of playing the game was the dread I'd have (if I was managing the NL, delight if I was against the NL) when a fly ball would go to left field. It seemed like Darryl Strawberry would always commit an error.

The cards that came with the game were ugly. And the game didn't have an MLB license, at least not for the cards, so the team names were airbrushed out of the uniforms. Pictured is the error-prone Strawberry, rookie saves record-breaker Todd Worrell, and Alan Trammell (below). I used to play basketball with Todd Worrell at my church gym. He was barrel-chested and unmovable in the paint in his middle age.

How can you spend so much care in making a great game like Starting Lineup Talking Baseball and then include such trashy cards? Look how Trammell's hat disappears into the pitch-black cave they must have taken this photo in.