Warren Paper Products Company (now Warren Industries, Inc.) of 
  Lafayette, Indiana was founded in 1921 as a manufacturer of setup 
  paper boxes for manufacturers of candy, apparel, jewelry, and other 
  items.  With the shortage of metal toys during World War II, the 
  company began producing picture puzzles, paperboard dollhouses, 
  paper forts and gas stations, and miniature replicas of the 
  Indianapolis 500 Stadium.  The Built-Rite line of toys and games 
  was introduced during this period.  During the 1940s and '50s, 
  Warren began turning out miniature buildings and townscapes for 
  use with model railroad layouts.  Through the 1960s and 1970s, 
  Warren produced an array of low-end promotional games and 
  puzzles, similar to those produced by Milton Bradley and Western 
  Publishing, but lower priced. 
  -- info credit http://www.megabloks.com/warren/warren.html

  The company's first effort with tabletop baseball appears 
  to have been product No. 882, Manage Your Own Team 
  Baseball Game, in the late 1950s or very early '60s.  The 
  box measures about 16x8".  The game features 22 cards, 
  each with nine possible plays, the result determined by 
  the assigned field position of the player then at bat.  The 
  mechanic is derivative of that used in various editions of 
  The National-American Baseball Game ("the Nap Lajoie 
  game") and Baseball Cards, both produced by Parker 
  Brothers from about 1913 into the 1930s.  The playing 
  field, which reads simply "Baseball Game," build-ups, 
  and cards are shown here. 

 The game, entirely card-driven, was also produced 
 as a card game per se.  The "blue box" version of 
 Baseball Card Game shown at left, product No. 
 443, again featured nine results per card, but 
 doubled the card count to 44.  The cover art uses 
 the figures from the middle right of the boxed 
 game's lid.  At least two card-back designs were 
 made -- the green baseball motif shown at right, 
 and a plain beige pattern.  Instructions are printed 
 on the back of the box. 

 The "green-box" version of Baseball Card 
 Game shown at left, although using the same 
 title, the same cover art (but with a green 
 rather than blue background color), and the 
 same product number, is a completely 
 different game.  This is a simple "draw" 
 game with but a single result on each of 
 the 44 cards.  The swinging batter on the 
 "home run" card was first seen at the upper 
 left of the original box lid.  
   An edition with different cover art, shown 
 at right, was also produced, trumpeting the 
 "shaped" cards found in all of Warren's 
 early "card-game" editions. 

 The "nine-result" version of the game also 
 appears in Warren's Sports-O-Rama Game 
 Chest (No. 2003).  It's possible this four-game 
 medley, whose football, basketball, and golf 
 card games all use a similar multiple-result 
 mechanic, may have been the real first 
 appearance for Warren's baseball game.  As 
 with the earliest edition of Manage Your Own 
 Team (above), the baseball gameboard/
 playing field is again marked only "Baseball 
 Game." 


   The football game was also produced as a 
 separate boxed boardgame, Jr. Quarterback 
 Football Game -- and in another version as a 
 card game only, Football Card Game (No. 
 443F), which featured 42 play cards and two 
 instruction cards.  "Swish" Basketball Game 
 was likewise produced as a stand-alone boxed  
 boardgame, as was the "Break Par" Golf 
 Game.  Tabletop keglers demand to know why  
 Bowling Card Game (No. 495) was excluded 
 from this set! 

    This rare "book-style" version of the game turned up in the sping of 2016 thanks to one of our Forum's 
    most valued collectors and contributors (thanks, Dave!).  Labelled No.BC82, it includes 44 nine-result cards 
    with plain green backs, an unusual build-up, and a playing field and line-up sheet on heavy paper stock.  
    The batter on the cover, and the figures on the back, are the same as on the Sports-O-Rama box lid.  

 Slightly later editions of the 16x8" boxed game (again No. 882) featured much  
 more attractive cover art -- even if the pre-adolescent manager does have a 
 curiously awkward grip on his clipboard, and his adult players appear to be 
 competing on a diamond of Little League dimensions.  On the edition shown 
 above, Manage Your Own Team Baseball, the cover art "bleeds" over onto 
 the side aprons of the lid, where the game directions are also found.  The 
 gameboard, at right, now includes the "Manage Your Own Team" legend, 
 as well as illustrations of two batters recycled from the lower corners 
 of the original edition box lid.  

 Yet another variation in the graphic design is 
 shown at left.  A yellow border frames the lid of 
 this edition, which also features yellow aprons.  
 The build-up is also slightly different from that 
 shown above, and in at least some samples, 
 the cards again have the plain beige-pattern 
 backs. 

 Still No. 882 -- but now simply Baseball Game, with 
 "Manage Your Own Team" relegated to a blurb elsewhere  
 on the lid -- this edition of the game was published in the 
 1980s by Tee Pee Toys, begun in 1981 as a division of 
 Jessup Paper Box of Brookston, Indiana.  Whatever 
 licensing arrangement was made with Warren is yet to 
 be researched, but it's worth noting that Brookston is 
 barely ten miles from Warren's main plant in Lafayette.  
 The box, featuring some of the clumsiest, most painfully 
 garish cover art ever seen on a baseball game, is a bit 
 smaller -- 15.5x8" -- and the card backs have a blue and 
 white plaid pattern. Warren reclaimed credit for the game 
 -- now just Baseball, No. 7008-10 -- with what must be 
 mid-'80s editions shown at right, restored to 16x8" and 
 emblazoned with a crest declaring it "A Warren Blue 
 Ribbon Game." 

 One variation recommends the game "for Boys 
 and Girls Ages 5 to 10," the other "for Sports Fans 
 8 and up." 
   "Manage Your Own Team" remains in place on 
 the playing field, although the gameboard/build-up 
 is slightly altered once again.  
   Card backs have a bold green and white pattern.  

 It's uncertain how many cards are supposed to be in 
 this edition of Baseball Card Game -- at least 28, but 
 the flip-top box is too slim to hold many more than that.  
 This version, again No. 443, was probably the last hurrah   
 for Warren's tabletop ballgame after a run of close to 
 twenty years.  It may have been the image of a boy in 
 a magenta jersey reaching into a green typhoon that 
 finished it off.