You see folks, this is why the three cuz's always failed to beat me at strat-o-matic baseball.  They have no vision; they can't see the forest for the trees.  Instead of listening to the question, or asking what's the question, they just take the easy way out and answer the question, any question, without a clue as to what's being asked.

The question is, how come Wayne was so superior to his three cousins at playing this all-star baseball game?  That's a pretty straight-forward, simple question. 

But instead of taking the academic route towards an answer, Mike chooses to ignore the question and instead wage a war over whether or not Ted Williams was left-handed.

I, on the other hand, upon introduction to the all-star strat-o-matic baseball game, was instantly attracted to the "bat" as it were, i.e., the arrow that was spun to determine how and where the batter hit the ball.   I quickly realized the number of revolutions and the final destination of the arrow's head (point) was determined by two factors:  (1) - the amount of friction between the arrow and the mechanism upon which it was mounted, and (2) - the amount of propulsion (spin) administered by the batter (me) when swinging the bat (spinning the arrow.)

Pretty simple stuff, but far beyond the three stooge's collective grasp.

The arrow had a hole in the center of the shaft, and was mounted over a peg, resting on the game's "board".  There was a "cap" holding the arrow in place so it wouldn't fly into the sunset when I gave it a spin.  The peg, the board, and the cap all applied friction to the arrow.

The challenge, naturally, was measuring the amount of propulsion necessary to spin the arrow exactly 7-3/4 revolutions from the 9 o'clock position to stop between 11 o-clock and high noon, where the home run awaited.  Cousin Ed demonstrated his spin for me, at various speeds and coming to rest at numerous locations.  He made it a point to tell me the arrow must make a minimum of seven revolutions before coming to a stop. 

I took a few practice spins and quickly deduced the appropriate amount of propulsion necessary to hit a home run.  A few more practice swings to achieve muscle memory, and the rest is history.

Now here we are, almost 60 years later, and Mike's answer to the simple question highlighted above is to still argue whether or not Ted Williams was left-handed.

Aye yi yi.