09.17.26 PLAAY CONNECT

Welcome to another edition of our monthly e-newsletter, “The CONNECT!” Here’s what’s going on in the World of PLAAY as we head into autumn (thumbnail photo credit to Chad Madden, unsplash.com)….

TONIGHT: In-Season Baseball Fast-Forward and PLAAY-off Seeding!

We're doing this off-line and will report the results AND playoff seedings in tonight's 09.17.26 live stream from the PLAAY Space. Here's a recap of this morning's actual league standings...

...the National League playoff lineup seems mostly set, except for some shuffling of the seedings but the American League is total chaos! Our "fast forward" will produce our twelve playoff teams: six division champions and six wild cards. Watch tonight's stream to see who makes it! AND...If you'd like to play one of the four Wild Card series for the official "Pre-PLAAY" (using the 2026 Pro In-Season card set for History Maker Baseball), just let us know in the chat box during tonight's stream! 6pm MT (8pm ET) on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel!

TOMORROW: MORE Games We Found at the Thrift Store!

In last month's CONNECT we promised a new episode of this series, and I'm excited to present it in a recorded stream that premieres tomorrow 09.18.26 at 5p MT (7p ET) on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel. I'll be in the chat room to provide added commentary and answer questions. QUITE a haul this time, can't wait to show it off. Yes, there's at least one sports-themed game...

Coming Soon: 2025-26 Pro Hockey Season for Hockey Blast!

Our "official" release date was set for next Thursday, just ahead of the start of the real-life pro hockey season (which gets underway 09.27.26), but since the set is complete we're going to go ahead and release THIS weekend. We've started a wait list so as to get an idea of how many sets we'll need to produce for the initial print run. Many thanks to Rob Gallamore for preparing the player ratings, this is going to be another very exciting set. A PDF version of the set will be available when the printed set is released.

NEWS: Holiday Sale, Online Christmas Party...

...are both ON! We've decided to go ahead and maintain these community traditions, albeit at perhaps a less intense level, and are excited to start getting plans in place.

The sale will be Friday 11.27.26 thru Monday 11.30.26. It’ll be similar to what we've done in the past, with digital deals, new product launches and a handful of items available ONLY during the sale.

The online Christmas party will be Thursday, 12.17.26 and will once again feature the "White Elephant Gift Exchange" that's been so popular the last few years!…

White Elephant Exchange Rules…

Here's how it works. YOU mail us something sports or board-game-themed from your attic, basement, closet, crawl space or whatever--(please DON'T buy something! It wouldn't be a White Elephant gift if you bought it!) Examples from past exchanges include football mini-helmets, books and magazines, sports figurines, out-of-print games (sports and non-sports), sports trading cards and more. Everyone who sends us a gift will GET a gift in return, we'll draw gifts randomly during the online party.

We'll go in reverse order of gift receipt: the last gifts we get, those people go first. The early-birds get to go LAST. Remember, when it's your turn, you can opt to "steal" an already-opened gift from someone else rather than pick a new one from under the tree. There are ALWAYS some pretty sweet goodies under the tree--seems the old maxim is true, "one man's trash is another man's treasure!"

• Please mail your White Elephant gift to us NO LATER than 12.07.26, so that it will be sure to get here before the party and we'll have time to wrap it. If you need the mailing address, just e-mail us (or check the enclosed letter from a recent order!). Thanks!!

If you don't have a gift to send, no worries! You can still participate--we'll have extra gifts under the tree and will choose random participants from the chat room the night of the party!

The sale and party will look and feel a little different this year with me and Aaron doing the bulk of the orchestration and execution. Especially, we want to encourage patience in our processing of your holiday sale order of printed products: we'll do our very best to balance speed with accuracy and care. Depending on volume, it may take up to three weeks to clear everything this time--just want to set the proper expectations ahead of time!

In-Person Live Events This Fall...

In order for us to focus on the Holiday Sale and Christmas party preparations, we're going to need to take a step back in the "live events" department. We'll conduct the baseball "pre-PLAAY" entirely online and will take a one-year hiatus on organizing and coordinating the Commissioner's Surprise Hockey Blast Tournament. I'm hoping that the someone in the community might step up and make the hockey tournament happen, either in a solo, small group or co-op arrangement--if you're interested, let me know, I'll comp you the card set for your efforts.

“Hill Country Ball” : Dick Butler's Book is Published!

We previewed PLAAY Gamer Dick Butler's new book about Texas Hill Country "town base ball" of the 1930s in a blog post this past spring. (In case you missed it, here's the link!) The book is now available from Texas Tech University Press, you can find it here. Printed and e-Book formats. It will also be available soon from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Congrats, Dick! You're an author!

Football Season is ON!

We've completed the release of our "trifecta" of football card sets for the summer of 2026! The 2025 Pro Season and 2026 Football America team cards for Second Season Pro Football Game AND the 2026 Pro Football Fury cards for Fury Football are ALL available on the PLAAY website!

There's video content for all three releases...

• 2026 College All-Star Game (Seattle vs. All-Stars)

• NEW and NOW Fury Football, New York vs Cincinnati

• 2026 Football America Kickoff Show

Next in the pipeline is the 1985 Pro Season--more details ASAP...

FREE STUFF

• Joe Cards XHL Expansion Teams for Hockey Blast: Joe created the Gladiators and the Monarchs as an add-on to our 2026 XHL card set, or as a stand-alone hockey match-up just for fun.

• James Cast "Gridiron Legends" for Fury Football: Six decades of pro football history is brought together in one fast-playing, personality-driven set! Built around the teams, players, and styles that made pro football memorable, this is not simply a collection of champions or an all-time ranking of franchises. It's a 32-team celebration of football history translated into the Fury Football system so that matchups once separated by decades can finally share the same field.

• John Alexander's 1888-89 English League for Soccer Blast: That’s right, nineteenth century football! The first year of the English pro league as we know it, twelve founding clubs are represented by player, goalkeeper and team cards.

Photo Finish

Dick Butler was kind enough to send me a SIGNED copy of his new book—so excited to read it! I know it was a labor of love…

That’s it for September, thanks for reading and for being part of our amazing community of board gamers! Hope to see you soon on one of our upcoming video streams!