The Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter - Issue #1, Part II - Baseball Card Quiz and Poll

Issue #1, January 2013, Part II

** Quiz about the SOM Baseball Cards **
(questions submitted by the "Secret Consultant", Marc Wasserman)

One of the things I hope to offer as a part of this newsletter is to make it fun. In other words, in each issue we offer, we will either make you think and challenge you or you will get a slight chuckle. The friend I call the "Secret Consultant" (now publicly disclosing his identity as Marc Wasserman) is the one who came up with this idea about offering a quiz linked to the Baseball cards that have been published by the game company from 1960 when Strat-o-matic started. But for now, he told me that he has all the cards ever made except of course the new seasons released by Strat-o-matic in January (2013) to go into for this quiz!

(Note from the Wolfman: After the release of Part I of this Issue, we did not receive any submissions from our members that offered possible answers to the questions of the Quiz. We are reposting the Quiz again as we have many new members now. So we will wait till Issue 2 to reveal the answers along with new questions - and perhaps there will be a person who answers all the question correctly and even if you aren't sure, why not take a chance?)

Now, here is the deal fellow members, the first person to answer these questions correctly, we will interview and give the answers in Issue #2 - a chance to be in the limelight as it were. But of course there will be more questions in Issue #2, right? :-) If you wish to take this challenge send your answers to my email at: wolfmanshapiro@gmail.com

Wolfman Shapiro

How well do you know your SOM Baseball Cards?

Question 1
Which Outfielder had the highest rated throwing arm or the highest deduction on a players running rating? Name the player, the team and yr, and what was his arm (-X)

Question 2
Which Catcher had the best throwing arm (best deduction on stealing)? Name this player, his team, the year and what was the arm rated (-X). Also another part of this question is, in what year (meaning the season made in the year) did the Catcher Throwing Ratings begin?

Question 3
When did Strat-o-matic release an estimated statistical card in a season set? Be specific. By this I mean, name the season and the players names. An estimated card is a player who's didn't have enough stats in the year the card was released so the card was estimated how the player would perform.

Members Poll. Which Players Received the Best Hitters and Pitchers Card ever published by Strat-o-matic?

(The idea of this poll is to solicit from our members, your opinion about which players received the best basic and combined advanced cards ever issued by Strat-o-matic. As you know, there are so many seasons that have been released now, many of the major league baseball seasons are available. However, we have two areas of play in baseball, the "dead ball" era which we will define from the late 1800's when professional baseball started until I would say 1919. And then with the advent of the "Sultan of Swat", Mr. Ruth in the 1920's, we started to see some of the great home run hitters.

So we will divide the poll up into these two eras, and also we want to include the seasons which have only been offered through the computer game. So if you are so inspired - please fill in the answer to the following question of our poll and email this to: wolfmanshapiro@gmail.com. In issue 2 - we will share the results and continue to do so over time. )

DEAD BALL ERA (1876-1919)

Vote: Who had the Best Starting Pitcher's Card?
         (Basic Game? --     Advance Game Combined L & R?)

        Who had the Best Reliever's Card?
        (Basic Game? --     Advance Game Combined L & R?)

        Who had the Best Overall Hitter's Card?
        (Basic Game? --     Advance Game Combined L & R?)

        Who had the Best Overall On-Base Hitter's Card?
        (Basic Game? --     Advance Game Combined L & R?)

MODERN ERA (1920-PRESENT)

Vote: Who had the Best Starting Pitcher's Card?
         (Basic Game? --     Advance Game Combined L & R?)

        Who had the Best Reliever's Card?
        (Basic Game? --     Advance Game Combined L & R?)

        Who had the Best Overall Hitter's Card?
        (Basic Game? --     Advance Game Combined L & R?)

Who had the Best Overall On-Base Hitter's Card?
(Basic Game? -- Advance Game Combined L & R?)

Contained inside this exciting issue of Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter:
(to view the interviews, articles and special sections click on the links {underline} and this will take you to the appropriate webpage)

♦ RETURN TO NEWSLETTER MAIN PAGE

♦ INTERVIEW with GLENN GUZZO author of "Strat-o-matic Fanatics", SOM columnist.
(Part II of his amazing interview)

♦ ARTICLE with MICHAEL MCLAUGHLIN -- moderator/administrator from the Stratomatic Baseball Village, an SOM baseball forum and partner for the newsletter discusses the great George Shuba.

♦ COLUMN with MARC WASSERMAN-- commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) begins a new column about what it is like to be a League Commissioner.

♦ COLUMN with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO -- editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion. Wolfman takes us back to the first national Strat-o-matic Convention in 1972 as he was present. This column will be based primarily upon the articles from the Strat-o-matic Review that covered the national Strat-o-matic conventions from 1972-1980 (including the ones organized by the Wolfman and his friends from Chicago). We will continue to share one new convention in this issue forward till all are shared.

♦ RECOMMEND ON-LINE SOM RESOURCES -- other on-line strat-o-matic websites that offer amazing information (all sports), special tools and products to improve game play which we have been in personal contact with and agree with our idea to help cross promote each other.