Issue #6 - October 2013
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**
Commissioner's Corner - Part VI- Notes from the Commish **
(by Marc Wasserman, Commissioner of the Cyber
Baseball Association {CBA} )
(Note from the Wolfman:
- Here is the sixth part of this column written by Marc Wasserman,
discussing his experiences and insights about being a
commissioner of a Strat-o-matic baseball league. Each month as
we continue this column, Marc will share with us different
aspects of the job of being a commissioner and what is necessary
to run a successful league. We hope this
column is helpful to enhance your own leagues or what you should
be prepared to do if you decide to form a new league and act as
its commissioner.)
Taking a Closer Look at Your League
Part I:
Themes
All
Leagues vary linked to their unique rules, what type of seasons
they have, the numbers of gamers or teams, plus whatever else.
Now, when league apathy sets in, many wonder why this is so?
Commissioners will try many things to get the league back
on-track but all too often it's the wrong actions. How many
times have league veterans watched wholesale rule changes in
attempts to stimulate the gamer base? The Rules Committee may
think, "Well, if we mess with these rules here, and stir up some
new interest there, we will get our league managers going!" Uh,
no! You will just make a big mess.
In previous articles we discussed my um, feelings about allow
league wide votes upon new rules. Go back and read those
articles. As I mentioned briefly, allowing everyone to vote on
the rules may not be the best way to go especially to help with
League Apathy.
So
then, how does a league keep their base of managers motivated?
Well, the league must be relevant. Your league should be
credible, reliable and prompt. The League should blend a
variety of positives with a mix of unique people who are
dedicated believers that believe in the common goal for your
league: “Strat-o-matic fun”. A league wants the end of its
season to be tense, focused, and insane. And the base of league
gamers want this too ....
It is
important for the Commissioner to know what’s going on in your
league. The members can never build up to that wonderful
tension which we call a pennant race if the League Press doesn't
do their job! Great leagues often have a special theme. This
theme is the concept of what your league is about dealing with
the current season and the goal of your league, etc….
But to develop your league theme there must be a special
emphasis placed upon the league communication. As you may
recall, we also talked about before in earlier articles what I
call the “league wide communication network”. As I mentioned
before taking advantage of such free on-line services such as
Twitter, Facebook or Yahoogroups that are connected to your
league managers will provide for you the instant platform to
send out reports and news articles to the league. If you are
not already doing so, I recommend you explore such possible
systems and use them to your leagues advantage. It is important
to send out your League News OFTEN. Make it a regular feature
even, one which your members can rely upon. Do this like
clockwork!! Our league, the CBA, sends out a Newsletter. I
believe we are on Newsletter #412 right now which has been
shared since I started this process in 2003.
The
Newsletter should be a platform for sharing factual information
and not just to discuss bulletins of league events. The
newsletter can be used to maintain and create interest in your
league and league happenings. Trades and transactions should be
posted here for example. It really is a mandatory read for your
members however it should also be entertaining and fun.
I find
its not a good idea to do editorialize articles in your league
wide Newsletter. Just be like “Dragnet” and offer “just the
facts”. Indeed, the commissioner should always keep public
communiqués impartial and just share factual information. So how
can writing in a non-editorializing manner be fun? Indeed
there’s different styles of reporting that you can develop.
First, I recommend each week to offer some news and league
updates. For example, “Who just moved into first place?” “Who
are the current hot hitters?” “Which manager is on a 12 game
wining streak?”
Speaking of streaks, Mike Koepp's of our Maine Express actually
did win 12 game in a row which sparked quite a few 'press'
mentions during our current season. Of course in the CBA, this
is no easy feat with the tough competition we have. A few weeks
later then, Steven Adler Beatles ( see
http://www.cba-bb.net/new_jersey_beatles_cba_page.htm)
won 20 games in a row to break a well respected league record.
Of course a Newsletter can chronicle many other such events as
well including no hitters, the big games of the week, which
series impact the standings the must or a spotlight series can
be mentioned. Try not to spend too much time on the negative
performances but keep the sharing of league news upbeat. To see
an example of a typical bi-weekly Newsletter which can keep your
gamers informed, in the next paragraph is a link to the CBA home
page.
Press
coverage is an enjoyable way for the member gamers to express
the fantasy aspect of the game and happenings in your league.
The themes of these reports should be imaginative and have an
element of fantasy to them. Why not use your creativity to put
together a whole world of fantasy for your league, especially
with Press Releases that include great graphics. Again you can
find more examples of some Article or graphics that we use in
the CBA to help spice up our league by visiting the CBA
website’s main page at:
www.cba-bb.net . Some of
our articles are a bit witty, others are more realistic, but all
of these reports will add something to your league.
My next
suggestion is, if you have a creative person in your league,
have them design logos for your member teams. Then add your news
articles that create the drama in the league and describe your
pennant races. It’s far better to have all of this than a bunch
of guys griping and sniping at each other. What a drag.
Instead, add humor, use photoshop skills with your graphics;
include witty dialogues and articles along with the creation of
individual unique team personas.
Not
that I have much in the way of web skills, but we found a way to
create homepages for each of our teams along with their own team
logos. Another of our creative managers even created wonderful
team uniforms and pennants along with his own great news
articles. Perhaps your members can post regular press
releases. If the culture is conducive, your managers will take
on these types of themes and write their own posts. Perhaps
they will write this in a “Newsline” fashion discussing their
team’s antics or strengths? Our editor, you all know the Skokie
Wolfman, writes often and has developed a team persona for his
Skokie Wolfmen through his own writing. Teams can promote their
own themes and stories too. Oh, and don't forget to attach
your leagues encyclopedia! Do the team yearbooks!, Add player
pictures to your game to make it look more realistic. Get a
document website list for your alias folders and give this out
to each member. Perhaps even ask all league members to
participate in your media blitz.
For the
future, I intend to include reports and examples from other SOM
Baseball League. Thus, we encourage any of our newsletter
members, if you are open to share stories about your league,
feel free to send to us a link for your website. We also would
love to see examples of your league’s "Press Releases" or your
league/team Graphics along with League News or Events. I plan
to publish this information (if permission is granted) in our
upcoming Strat Alliance League News section on our site at
Ultimatestratbaseball.com in Commissioners Corner.
If
interested feel free to share your league’s information with me
via email as shown below,
thanks for listening ...
PS
(next time in Part II, we will discuss the Statistical Aspects:
Hard to Find Stats)
--
Let them dice roll!
Wass (Marc Wasserman)
Contact me at:
marc.wass@ultimatestratbaseball.com
Contained inside this exciting issue of Ultimate Strat
Baseball Newsletter:
(to view the various interviews, articles, columns and special sections click on
the links {underlined}
and this will take you to the appropriate
webpage)
♦
RETURN TO NEWSLETTER MAIN PAGE
♦
INTERVIEW with ADAM
ROSEN,
Marketing Director of Strat-o-matic
♦
INTERVIEW with BUD
PODRAZIK,
Graphic
Artist of SOM Fanatic Logo
♦
STRAT THOUGHTS with
BRUCE BUNDY,
SOM Gamer, Creator of
Baseball Card Formulas, Baseball Strategy Advisor, Beta Tester
for the Game Company
(Continuation of his column of "Strat Thoughts", this
time about Starters Usage)
♦
NEVER BEFORE HAS
THIS TOURNAMENT BEEN OFFERED!! by the Strat Alliance
--
A complete discussion about the revolutionary new
convention to be offered in
October offering a unique baseball tournament
that has never been offered before organized by the Strat Alliance of Groups!
Will you be the 1st Champion - this is an On-line Tournament
using Netplay and the 2012 Roster - There is still Space for you
to Join!!
♦
EARLY SOM
CONVENTIONS COLUMN with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO --
editor of
"The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion.
Wolfman takes us back in
this article to the sixth national Strat-o-matic
Convention in 1977 held in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at the
University of Illinois as the Wolfman and his buddies organize
their fourth convention. Wolfman will be
our guide through the first nine conventions happening through 1980
of which he was present at each one. This particular column now
moves into the 1974-1980
era when the conventions moved to Illinois. We will continue to share one new convention in
each future issue till all of these early conventions are published.
Also as an inspiration for the SOM On-line Baseball Convention
this month.
♦
ARTICLES with
LARRY BRAUS,
newsletter assistant and contributor, three new articles
covering Larry thoughts and experiences with Strat over the
years.
♦
ARTICLE with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO,
the Wolfman's
performance during the playoffs of the Pure Strat
June Skype Draft Tournament - Part Three of
Three
Parts (Playoff Game Reports)
♦
RECOMMEND
ON-LINE SOM RESOURCES
-- On-line Strat-o-matic and Baseball related websites that offer amazing information, special tools and products to improve
your game play
that we strongly recommend. In most cases, we have had personal contact with
these sources who agree with the principle to work together and help promote each other.
♦
BOOKS TO
DIE FOR and Become a BASEBALL GURU
-- This page
is a new page we are adding for the newsletter that is
specifically about special books we are finding that either will
expand your insights about the game of Baseball, help you in the
creation of your current league teams or with your replays and
learn more about the Strat-o-matic Base Game and Game Company's
history. At the time of the release of this newsletter we
have a special arrangement with Acta Sports to offer our members
a 10% discount. We hope to add more books in the future.
Contact Us for Questions or Submissions:
Wolfman Shapiro
co-Founder/Editor, the
Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter
email:
wolfman@ultimatestratbaseball.com
facebook:
www.facebook.com/wolfman.shapiro
twitter:
@StratBaseball4U
To Sign Up and Become a Member of this Newsletter
http://www.UltimateStratBaseball.com
(this provides direct emails when our bulletins
and next
issues come out)
To Learn more about the SOM On-line Baseball Convention
(sponsored by the Strat Alliance, October 2013)
http://www.stratalliance.info
