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Vol. III, Issue #3 - November 2015


** SOM Baseball Cards with Tom Nahigian
**
      (thanks to our friend Tom Nahigian and his complete collection of SOM Baseball Cards we go
       back into the past to share some of the first cards issued by the game company!!)

(Notes from the Wolfman: In January of 2013, our first issue, we introduced a quiz of our members related to specific questions linked to any of the SOM Baseball cards ever printed. Specifically we were asking about unique aspects of the cards related to the performance of the players.  However, because only a few people, like our good friend Tom Nahigian (who is highlighted in this article), have the full collection of the cards ('The Collector' as Glenn Guzzo called him in his book on Strat), the responses to our quizzes dwindled to nothin' eventually.  So to celebrate Tom's birthday in June of 2013 and then again in the August issue, we shared the image of a few of the cards that SOM printed in 1960 (just an All Star set) and then 1961 as well (an all star set and the top two teams in each league).  I thought again, for his issue we might take a peek again at some of these amazing early version of the Strat Basell cards -- to view how the baseball game has evolved so much in the 50+ years of its existence. Some key features of the existing version of the game (just considering the basic side of the cards today) had not been developed yet as we look at some more cards from 1961.

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter - Tom Nahigian, Collector of all Strat Baseball Cards I first met Tom in person when I visited my father in Chicago in 2005. At this time I was living in Holland and usually once a year I would come home to be back in the U.S.  Now in April of 2013, we did an interview with Tom, you might remember if you have been our member since then. However if not, to learn more about this personal good buddy and fellow SOM fanatic, and how he was able to create his collection, check out this interview using the link shown below.
 



LINKS TO PREVIOUS ARTICLES THAT SHARED EXAMPLES OF THE EARLY CARDS

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/USBN-6-2013/Baseball-Cards-TNahigian-June2013.htm

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/USBN-8-2013/Baseball-Cards-TNahigian-August2013.htm

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/USBN-7-2015/Baseball-Cards-TNahigian-July2015.htm
 

INTERVIEW WITH TOM NAHIGIAN, APRIL 2013

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/USBN-4-2013/TomNahigian-April2013.htm
 

 




What did the Baseball Cards Look Like in the First Years?
(shared by Tom Nahigian, back in 2013, as we slowly share these cards )
 

1961 Based Cards
(More card images from the 1961 Yankees and Reds)

New York Yankees

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter, Whitey Ford 1961 NYY Strat-o-matic card

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter, Ralph Terry 1961 NYY Strat-o-matic card

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter, Mickey Mantle 1961 NYY Strat-o-matic card

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter, Roger Maris 1961 NYY strat-o-matic card


Cincinnati Reds

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter, Jim O'Toole 1961 CINN Strat-o-matic card

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter, Vada Pinson 1961 CINN Strat-o-matic card

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter, Frank Robinson 1961 CINN Strat-o-matic card


(Again in 1961, no fielding ratings or X chart existed plus the results shown in
lower case for outs and getting on base [hits/walks/errors] is capitalized)
 

Note from the Wolfman: We again want to thank Tom for his help to allow our members for this rare view into the history of the development of how the baseball cards have evolved over time. Of course there are modernized versions (card sets) of these early seasons that the game company now offers along with the computer rosters.  Again, as we mentioned in the July issue (2015), the mysterious GROUNDBALL E (showing up on a result of 3 or 11 on the cards or a dice roll chance of 2 out of 108) found on both the hitter's cards and pitcher's cards and a FLYBALL E (showing up on 2 or 12 on the cards or a dice roll chance of 1 out of 108) on the hitter's cards only are automatic errors (since there were no X-ratings yet for the card).  The GROUNDBALL E was a one base error (but the error wasn't credited to any fielder) and a FLYBALL E was a two base error (again not accredited to any outfielder). Just very interesting to see the format of the early cards aye?
 


 

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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

  ARTICLE with JOHN DEWAN, owner of Baseball Info Solution, chapter for a book about Bill James.

  MLB STORY with BILLY SAMPLE, Talks about "Bat Flipping" and Willie Montanez while a Ranger.

  ARTICLE with CHUCK TINKLER, another special article by Chuck, one of our members about a real Strat Master he met in his early days of playing Strat-o-matic

  SOM BASEBALL LEAGUE REPORT with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO -- the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion, the "Wolfman" puts out a call to commissioners of various Strat-o-matic Baseball Leagues that he finds on the internet and three leagues respond to be interviewed and tell their stories!  To view any individual interview, click on the links below or start with Part I and finish with an in-page link to Part II for the two interviews, more interviews given in the December issue coming:

INTERVIEW with Kurt Meunier, FVSL, P-I (F2F League in Wisconsin)

INTERVIEW with Robert Latorre, 60's Decade Keepers League, P-II, (CDROM-email)

  SOM/MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL WORLD NEWS with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO, editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" shares the Special Fielding Ratings given by John Dewan's Group with Baseball Info Solutions and an update on the SOM Baseball Projection Sheets shared by the legendary Bruce Bundy, author of the periodic column called "Strat Thoughts".

  STRAT WISE with MARC WASSERMAN -- commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) renames his column to "Strat Wise" as he expands his sharing and reporting of our Strat-o-matic Baseball Community.  In this first part of his new column he talks about the recent MLB World Series and discusses the content of some of the special videos we have on our Ultimate Strat Baseball Video Channel on Youtube.

  ARTICLE with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO -- the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion, the "Wolfman" goes back into the far past and pulls out one of his first articles to the Strat-o-matic Review from 1973, when he really was becoming known as the "Wolfman" (the Skokie Wolfman) as he challenged one of the first female strat gamers, Donna Chevrette to a play against him via play-by-mail.  This is series used the MLB All Star players from 1971, with the Wolfman taking the National All Stars and Chevrette taking the American.  The series became known in the Review as "The Battle of the Sexes".  After this series was played, and a victor uncovered, the combats switched teams and played a second series (which is an article by Donna Chevrette) that will be reported in our December issue.

  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 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 Baseball Game and Game Company's history.  We have a special arrangement with Acta Sports, who is a publisher of a number of great baseball books (including Bill James Handbooks which the 2016 version is now released) to offer for our members a 10% discount. We will continue to add more books to this page in the future as we uncover other gems our members should know about.


 




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)