
Picked up 30 (2 starter sets and 4 boosters) figures on ebay for $16. Figures are attractive, and I liked the stages of rules (preseason, regular season, playoffs, etc.). This allows for scaling the complexity level if you find the game engaging, allows you to taylor to your opponent (often likely to be kids), and time available to play.
Both games I played with my son were very low scoring affairs, and this seems likely to continue (and reports here confirm this is an issue with others). Rules could be easily modified to allow more scoring, I would think by changing picture fatigue, increasing fielding difficulty, etc.
My biggest problem after two plays is the lack of decisions, for all the activity invested. Moving your lineup back and forth on the board between innings, fiddling with the bases of the players as they get hot or cold, etc. This fiddling takes up tremendous time, pushing the game to the 90 minute time frame. That isn't necessarily bad all by itself, but the lack of decisions made me feel like I was "playing a spreadsheet" over and over. Granted a lot of the tension in baseball (and other sports) is by those one or two key plays in the game, but this is a matter of taste in a boardgame.
For under $20, it's worth the time invested, but the full retail experience would have cost over $70 - definately not worth it in my mind. Probably not a bad price for a collectible series I suppose.
