The system includes a control system (12) which carries out the performance of a video sports game, such as a baseball game, and controls the display on a video monitor (14). Input information concerning the performance of players in the game is supplied via trading card elements (20--20), each of the trading card elements having a conventional trading card appearance which includes a photograph of the player and performance data in human-readable form. The trading card element (20) also includes machine-readable performance information (input data) which is readable by a card reader (22) which applies the input data on the card to the control system (12), which then creates the two teams and carries out the game.