Vol. III, Issue #3 - November 2015

** Another Story with Billy Sample, ex Major Leaguer,
Baseball Broadcaster and Movie Producer **

      (sent in by Bill Sample, our best friend and supporter amongst the ex-MLB ball players )
 

(Wolfman's Comments: Billy Sample is no stranger to our newsletter as we have done two personal interviews with him, plus he is infamous for accepting our challenge to play one of our members in a best of three series using dice and cards the early part of this year. He played with of his Texas Ranger teams that he was a member on, the 1983 team.  He also sent to us in our last issue, one of the many stories that Billy has to share about his life and his experiences with baseball too.  If we only could have such a warm and friendly relationship with more ex-Major Leaguers, who we all would love to hear more from aye?  So before we share this next contribution for our newsletter from Billy, please find below the previous interviews and such where Billy has been featured (especially for any of our new members who have joined us recently ...)

Billy Sample Prior Newsletter Appearances

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/usbn-4-2013/BillySample-April2013.htm {2013}
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/usbn-9-2014/BillySample-September2014.htm {2014}

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/usbn-3-2015/BillySampleChallengeReport-Intro-March2015.htm {2015}
(Billy Sample Challenge, his 1983 Texas Rangers vs. Bryan Swank's 1983 Red Sox, February 2015)

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/usbn-7-2015/FunnyStoriesforYou-July2015.htm {2015}
(Throwback Thursday from 1967, before Billy became a major league ball player)
 

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Half of my Ranger's pitching staff would have fought each other for an opportunity to hit this batter in the neck during his next plate appearance ... anyway, especially for my newer Facebook friends, here is an invitation to see how justice was meted out back in the day, as is shown in our recently released video called Reunion 108, an edgy, satirical, college frat-like, strongly R-rated, baseball clubhouse comedy with four former major league baseball players in the cast ... (to learn more about this film, visit http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013ZJ4FOO).

Comments from the Wolfman:  We have spoken before about Billy's film, which he wrote the story for, stars in and has put his heart and soul into.  I think this is a good way {without the R-rating of course} to provide for those of us who have dreamt to be a ball player, to see what it is really like behind the scenes.  Nice to see that Billy was able to use his special abilities to channel it in this other direction as Mr. Billy Sample is multi-talented fun loving and entertaining human being.  If anyone wishes to chat with Billy, you can find him on facebook and he will answer you.  Go to:

https://www.facebook.com/billy.sample.75

 

 

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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.

♦  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".

♦  REPORT with TOM NAHIGIAN (1961 cards), Personal friend of the Wolfman, known in Guzzo's book as "The Collector", returns and we take a peak at some of the early strat cards printed from 1961.

♦  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) 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.

 

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