Issue #7 - December 2013
|
Support the Cause
If you are enjoying
the content and information our newsletter shares with you, why
not support us with your helpful donation for our minor expenses
and time?
|
**
Commissioner's Corner - Part VII- Notes from the Commish **
(by Marc Wasserman, Commissioner of the Cyber
Baseball Association {CBA} )
(Note from the Wolfman:
- Here is the seventh 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. However, in this issue he
starts to showcase different Strat-o-matic Baseball Leagues. 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.)
Your League Goes on even in the Off-season
The off season is always your most busy season.
The playoffs are done. The championships having been decided,
and time to take a break right? no. The real work begins for the
real dedicate league officials. No doubt part of the fun. If
your league hasn't decided its champion by now, and your not a
winter league like the Great Midwest Baseball League (GMBL) run
by Jack Frost, then something is wrong.
The results have gone by the wayside and chances are that most
in your league probably don't care very much who wins if your
still begging league members to send in results or play their
games. Apathy is a Strat-o-matic league worst enemy, right after
voting all kinds of rules amendments and changes.
Strat-o-matic leagues must have reliability and consistency. The
schedule should be regular from year to year so all your members
will in general know when the necessary tasks have their
approaching deadlines. The goal is GM longevity and stability.
League
deadlines should be set months in advance and publicly posted at
least twice with a reminder or two along the way. I can't tell
you how many times certain guys will ask and ask again about
these issues and totally ignore your postings. Their answers
such as "Hey, I never got that Email" is always good for a
laugh. Or: "Hey man I deleted it" is even better, but at least
they are taking responsibility. But, be kind, and indulge them.
It's to
the league's benefit that all communiqués are extremely clear.
With many professionals and family people as your members who
are on a strict routine in their personal life, I believe the
league they participate in should also have a strict routine
with clear dates and expectations so people can plan and plan
ahead. You don't want to alienate your members, but offer them
gentle preseason reminders with extremely good communication.
Hopefully designated officers or league Presidents can assist
the GMs in this information process acting as a liaison. The
league should have an individual responsible for updating your
spreadsheets that list current team rosters by keeping up with
all the trades going on and as some of you know, some leagues
have many trades. Another task of importance is to keep the
league website updated as well and setting up social networking.
Perhaps your commissioner handles these tasks during your off
season commissioner to do. So again, in the off season, your
work is just beginning and doesn't ever end.
News
from around the StratAlliance:
www.startournaments.com
Want the
best competition in the Strat Baseball World? Then I recommend
you can compete in the legendary STAR tournaments against some
of the worlds best players. Newcomers are always welcomed, so
don't hesitate to try something new. The experience you can gain
in these tournaments will definitely definitely help you in your
league play. And, if I must say so myself, a heck of alot
of fun as both Wolfie (Wolfman
- you better believe it!) and I both know. Maybe during the
Winter, you in need of a competitive baseball fix and your
league isn't giving you the excitement you want. Pure Strat
Tournaments (a part of the STAR tournaments) plays using the SOM
Baseball cards utilizing Skype in a very innovative and easy
manner to create tournaments for all levels of gamers. The
benefits of the Skype system are plenty. Easy connections,
interpersonal play, and as close to the feel of rolling the dice
in the Cyber world as you can. You can read more in our
interview with Bryan Albin from our June Issue this year.
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/USBN-6-2013/BryanAlbin-June2013.htm
I was asked by a Strat fanatic, "Do you think Strat will
ever give another -6 arm?" So I wondered out loud, what would my
readers think about this issue? Clemente was the only -6
arm that I can recall. I also recall a few +5's in the OF and at
catcher! ... It is so much easier to set up a league file now
with all the great improvements to the game as compare to past
versions of the game .... How the game handles: All Star games,
Playoffs, Series, Awards, the league locks ... maybe all of this
seems doesn't seem like much, but to your Commish, it's alot...
One of the most recent developments to the baseball game also
happens to be one of my faves. I don't know about you, but I
like the Social media posting tool. This tool works really nice
as some of the GMs and people who are CBA (Cyper Baseball
Association, the league I am the commish for) followers, like to
keep up with the week's game results as they come out when I use
this feature. Also how about, Strat news by Twitter and league
News by Twitter, you gotta love this as well
Now, I
have been talking to some other leagues about not using
some of the most advanced features in their league draft play.
Some leagues do not toggle certain miscellaneous adjustments in
their replays. So my question to my readers is, "What settings
does your league use?" Custom tailored leagues please speak up!
... Some leagues are considering rules adaptations to limit the
impact of the PED players who were, in real life, suspended. One
league the P.S.B.L. actually proposed some rules which would
limit PED players ability to win Awards, or qualify for aspects
of league play...
Are salary leagues too complicated for their own good? Salaries
will most definitely change the trade talk dynamics. Is this too
hard to administer? I would think it would require a full team
of people to take care of this but then you will have many
members involved working on the various league projects from the
spreadsheets to league files and transactions. Will a Salary
league have its day in the CBA or is just a fad to stimulate
interest from the boredom of a mundane league. How innovative
can you get without overkill and apathy? ... Just askin'
Who dat beat Cabrera? Will leagues be making like Tommy Byrne,
treating him like Bonds, and walking him all the time? Note the
intentional walks on him this year? ... Who will be this years
Rudy Pemberton mutant card? According to projections, Khris
Davis could be that card ... How many GM's choose to use the
Superhal for their pen? ... As the level of competition rises in
your league, so does the number of teams who lock their CM's
...To backup and post this information to Email or to post to a
file download site? This is the type of question for many league
officials. Anyone found better than Yahoogroups yet as far as
using for a league mailing list? I haven't found something else
where I can even do a league poll for members, or all star
ballots via league polls, hmmm .... Hey, don't mess with your
league's three letter codes in the computer game too much unless
you want to do extra sorts and have an encyclopedial mess. Is
that a word? yeah, well whatever nevermind, moving on ...
======================
(Wolfman's
Note: The Strat
Alliance was created by Marc several years ago to form a network
of SOM Baseball leagues. And since the creation of this
newsletter starting in January of this year, the Alliance has
been expanded to include baseball tournaments as we worked
together for an on-line tournament to offer with the help of our
partners, the Star Tournament and Pure Strat - which by the way
we will look to offer another tournament in 2014. Marc is now
adding to his commissioner column, under the Strat Alliance
umbrella, to feature in his column one baseball league starting
with this issue. If you would like your league to be featured,
see how to contact Marc below.)
======================
The Strat Alliance
Featured League
This
week we are going to feature "The Ultimate Strat-o-matic
Baseball League" which is a league not affiliated with us
directly, if you will. Yup, but of course then, this must be a
great league. Here's a little league profile of the USBL:
Many baseball fans play fantasy – it gives a little extra
incentive to even the die-hard fans to watch a game
involving teams that aren’t our favorites, or even in the
other league that won’t affect our team in the standings.
Some of us die-hards take that further and play
Strat-o-matic. We like the thought of taking that Monday
morning quarterbacking thing to a different level. Our wives
and families sometimes wonder about us a little, but
appreciate that we are making friends and having fun with
our obsession. If they have to put up with us spending a
little time to prepare for the annual draft, it’s not too
bad.
Well, the Ultimate Strat Baseball League takes that concept
to a maniacal level. We draft players when the MLB does. Do
you think you were the first to notice Jose Fernandez?
Sorry, you’re too late in this league. He was drafted in the
spring of 2012 and will graduate to his spot in the rotation
of the World Series Champion Barrie Baycats this year.
Sounds like a dynasty, but this is the eighth different
franchise to win the championship in the eight year history
of the league.
We maintain 150 man rosters, and have to deal with salary
caps, budgets, the Rule 5 draft, and even arbitration. You
may complain about Scott Boras and other agents driving up
the cost of free agency, but we have learned for ourselves
that it only takes one or two owners to drive salaries up
with insane contracts in our e-bay style free agent auction
each winter. Just ask R.A. Dickey of the Las Vegas 51’s, as
his $19.5 million salary is the highest in the league for
the 2014 year before this year’s free agency.
We use the names of actual teams, past or present – major
leagues, minor leagues, or independent – from the Boston
Braves to the Richmond Flying Squirrels. And when one of our
owners took a job in Australia, he chose the local Brisbane
Bandits.
Our goal is to simulate mid-market MLB franchises, with as
many of the challenges of being a major league general
manager as we can simulate. Then, we become the field
managers by playing strat over the computer – in the
American League, we try to have franchises that like to
netplay while the National League tends to be more
traditional in the solitaire game. And NEITHER league uses
the DH. After all, that would be one more expensive contract
to pay…
And in an attempt to build a little camaraderie, each season
since its inception the USBL has picked a major league
stadium, to attend a ball game as a group.
2006 Detroit Tigers
2007 Chicago White Sox
2008 New York Yankees [Last year of old stadium]
2009 Pittsburgh Pirates
2010 Minnesota Twins [First year of new stadium]
2011 St. Louis Cardinals
2012 Philadelphia Phillies/Washington Nationals
2013 Cleveland Indians
If you would like more information, you can check out our
website at
http://www.the-usbl.org
or contact our commissioner,
Don Ervick
(at)
midlanddog@chartermi.net
If you would like your league featured on the commisioners
Corner, write me at:
Marc.Wass@ultimatestratbaseball.com
Have a
happy holiday season!
--
Let them dice roll!
Wass
(Marc Wasserman)
|
Support the Cause
If you are enjoying
the content and information our newsletter shares with you, why
not support us with your helpful donation for our minor expenses
and time?
|
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 JAMES
WILLIAMS,
retired
Sales Director of Strat-o-matic
♦
INTERVIEW with STEVE
BARKAN,
R&D Baseball and Hockey Depts at Strat-O-Matic Media LLC
(interview done by Bruce Bundy, Dec 1st, 2013)
♦
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",
photos linked with SOM and a brief
discussion about the 2013 SOM Projection Sheets)
♦
ARTICLE with MIKE
SANCLEMENTE,
founder of Stratogists.com
(Mike will discuss a bit more about the 9th Annual Rookie Review
with some examples
of what the review will look like.)
♦
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 seventh national Strat-o-matic
Convention in 1978 held in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at the
University of Illinois as the Wolfman and his buddies organize
their fifth 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.
♦
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
