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BASEBALL
GAMES
HOMEPAGE
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MANAGE YOUR OWN TEAM, BASEBALL CARD GAME, and variants by WARREN PAPER PRODUCTS
-- text copyright 2011, 2017 by the Baseball Games front office staff -- This page is heavy with photos and may cause problems for users with slow connections. If photos do not load, PC users should right-click the red "X," then click "Show Picture," or just try reloading page. - Updated December 2017 -
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BASEBALL
GAMES
FORUM


  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.


This subtle variation of the cover design is somewhat oddly retitled Manage Your Own Team Baseball Games.

 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.


Still, Warren wasn't completely done with
tabletop baseball. Although utterly unrelated
to the family tree of games above,
Dice-Baseball (product No. 2880),
the company's last (and only other) foray into
the genre, is included here for completists.
Warren were only the "jobbers" for this
early-1980s dice-and-cards design
by K & K Enterprises.
- - - - - -

  What, then, of the eventual fate of 
  Warren Paper Products?  In Jigsaw 
  Puzzles ~ An Illustrated History and 
  Price Guide (Wallace-Homestead 
  Book Co, 1990), author Anne Williams  
  reports that Warren, founded in 1921, 
  produced the Built-Rite line from the 
  1940's until 1976 and continued with 
  other products until 1986, when the 
  company was acquired by Random 
  House Publishing.  Mega Brands 
  (then MegaBloks), a Mattel property, 
  bought Warren in 2005, but any and 
  all references to the venerable old 
  company have been erased from 
  the Mega Brands website.  Warren 
  Industries apparently continues to 
  exist in name as a subsidiary of 
  Rose Art, formerly a division of 
  Warren Paper and now a division 
  of Mega Brands. 
Additions, corrections, and clarifications are welcome at our Baseball Games Forum.


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