Vol. II,
Issue #4 - December 2015
**
Diamond Vision: Tales of a Strat Master
- Chuck Tinkler
**
(In this article, our boy Chuck Tinkler continues part II of his
tale and experiences with a special
individual he has met that is very knowledgable about
the game ... a true Strat Master he says? )
(Bio on Chuck:
Chuck is returning to USBN
with his second article, this is Part II with more parts to come. His one
article for us was in September of last
year (see the link below). Also if you forgot what
he wrote in Part I of this article, is a link for that below as
well.
He is from the Long
Beach area of California and has been playing Strat-O-Matic off-and on for about 25 years. He
currently plays in two leagues, Polo Grounds
Baseball and the Bigs Winter League. His Strat
interests include finding slick ways to cause a team
to outperform expectations and irritating his league
mates by talking lots of smack about it. Chuck
is always likes to chat about Strat, Hal settings
and ballpark dimensions in particular, so feel free to email him with questions or
comments related to this article -- his email is
listed at the end of this amazin' article = thank you Chuck!!
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball/USBN-10-2014/CharlesTinkler-September2014.htm
(his first article for our newsletter about Ballparks - quite
insightful, check it out)
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball/USBN-11-2015/CharlesTinkler-November2015.htm
(This is the link to Part I
of this article about the Strat Masters with Sections I & II) )
Diamond
Vision:
Tales of a Strat Master (Part II)
Who is this Master Chuck
is Speaking about?
III
To me, in all my averageness, this was like magic. I
had never been witness to anything like it. I certainly hadn't
ever accomplished anything like this myself, and all in all, the
whole thing just left me in awe. I just kept asking myself, how
could this be happening??? After his third consecutive World
Series win, thinking it was just "luck" was out the door. People
do not win three consecutive World Series by luck. And he wasn't
cheating. He could barely send an email without help; he
certainly hadn't rigged the game somehow. So what was it?
It was a number of things. More than anything else
though, at least, the one thing that all the others fall under
is this: he wanted it worse than everyone else. By far. He
wanted to win in a way that was borderline pathological.
Strat guys… guys in my league, your league, we think we
want to win, we play as though winning is our #1 object - but it
isn't necessarily. We all "want to win", but "wanting to win" is
measured in degrees and varies from guy to guy. For most guys,
sure, they "want to win", but not more than they want to have
fun. Strat is a hobby, an enjoyable break from more stressful
things, a way to enjoy baseball and the company of friends, etc.
Other guys are more willing to sacrifice some of the fun in the
name of winning and tend to do a little better. And other guys
of course are really, really competitive, and really determined
to win and usually have the best results. This guy though was
just a freak. His approach seriously bordered on mental illness.
But it had to, right? I mean, how else would such a thing
happen? People like to think whatever they do, and in this case
they'd have liked to pass him off as this, that, or whatever,
but the truth to me as it became revealed was simple - he just
wanted it in the worst way possible. He wanted it in ways that
guys could not even conceive of. He was willing to go to depths
that other guys simply would not go. He would stop at nothing to
win. And the Strat Gods simply did their part and rewarded him,
time and time again.
A few months back, a video came out of a friendly
shooting contest between Michael Jordan (his Airness) and Jimmy
Butler (current Chicago Bull). It was "friendly" in that each
was paired with a youngster and the whole thing was in front of
a large group of youngsters, all attendees of Jordan's "Flight
School". (Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cnyrSoiqqk)
The idea was for each duo to make as many combined jump shots as
they could before the clock ran out. What happens of course can
be described as nothing other than pure Jordan. Clock ticking
down…quick feed to Jordan…can he get the shot off? YES! AND IT
COUNTS!!! Michael Jordan does it again! He didn't of course get
the shot off before the buzzer, but why would that matter? I'd
like to meet the man that would have waved that shot off. We
could write an article about him instead. This though was
classic Jordan. The guy is pacing up and down the court, staring
down his 11-year old opponent, fist pumping when the kid misses
a shot. This was classic Jordan, playing this shoot around like
he plays golf, like it's Game 7 of the NBA Finals. like he plays
a card game against an old lady (that's a funny story) - he
competes as though his life depended on it. He just knows no
other way to be.
MJ had an incredible jump shot. That fade-away jumper
was truly a thing of beauty. He had huge ups. He could fly
around the court in ways that could be only dreamed of. Michael
Jordan hit his free throws, he played defense, he shot three
pointers…he was just incredible. I don't think anyone can really
argue that. But dude is not nice. If you have ever heard
him speak, or heard any of the people around him speak of him,
you'd know that the guy is not nice, at all. He may smile in
those Hanes commercials, act friendly or whatever, but he is
pretty much as unfriendly as a nonincarcerated human being can
be. He's a cold blooded assassin. He walks around like everyone
else, smiling, etc., but on the inside, he's a killer. But isn't
that just how he'd have to be to be to do what he did? People
don't just roll out of bed and decide they are going to
three-peat, retire for a few years, then three-peat again. There
were plenty of players with great jump shots and dunks, but
dominating a generation in the NBA took something else entirely.
And so it was with Phil. While he had the Strat-O-Matic
equivalent of an incredible fade-away jumper, great 3-point
shot, etc., the "magic" to be found on him was in actuality just
a ruthless determination to win. He just wanted it worse than
everyone else. He wanted it worse and from this place was he
able to push his teams where others were not able to go. That,
and he had a sick jumper and could dunk from the free throw
line. Those things though would make a great topic for next
time. Until then…
Chuck Tinker
(NOTES from the Wolfman:
We want to thank Chuck again for continuing with this
fascinating article about a real Strat Master, with Part II,
although he still has more to write. Chuck is the type of
member we hoped would join our newsletter and occassionly be a
contributor as the lifeblood of our newsletter is
through a
co-creation of your editing team in conjunction with all of you,
our
members. Chuck has been a great example of the type of
stories and information that is possible, so we hope that this
has inspired some of our other members to share in the future. We are
always open to consider to share good and thoughtful articles from
you and each of us has our own special stories to share. So
thanks again Chuck for your next contribution and of course you
have all of our interest to hear even more about this "Strat Master"!! Chuck is
always waiting to chat with you at:
chucktinkler@gmail.com
)
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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
♦
INTERVIEW with MARC PELLETIER,
another well known and successful strat baseball gamer in the
on-line version of the baseball game offers us insights from his
genius.
♦
STRAT WISE with MARC WASSERMAN
--
commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) continues
his new column sharing various perspectives on SOM
Baseball. In this issue he discusses about the Miscellaneous
Rules in the computer game (to use or not to use), some special
new videos on our Video Channel on Youtube, the fielding ratings
given out by the game company and more.
♦
ARTICLE with
DOUG BRUNET,
another member of our newsletter shares his thoughts
about the game of baseball and its connections with
Strat-o-matic as well as his philosophies of how to succeed in
your game play. Doug is a member of the CBA Council, a computer
baseball league.
♦
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 discovers on the internet and
shares two more replies he received from these leagues to be interviewed and tell their stories!
This is the second part of this report.
To read the individual interview, click on the links below or
start with Part III and follow the in-page link to read the
second interview as well:
INTERVIEW with Glenn Wheeler, NASOMA, P-III (F2F/Netplay/Computer)
INTERVIEW with
BOB COLLEARY, BVL + BFL, P-IV (Computer)
♦
SOM/MAJOR
LEAGUE BASEBALL WORLD NEWS with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
, editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter"
shares about the 2015 Baseball Fielding Rating File released by
the Game Company, revisits the status of what 2016 MLB
projections are already available to obtain and study and shares
about some of the new videos that are available on the Ultimate
Strat Baseball Channel on Youtube - more good stuff is on this
page - head over there NOW!
♦
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 from the New York Yankees and the
Los Angeles Dodgers.
♦
ARTICLE about WOLFMAN SHAPIRO written by DONNA CHEVRETTE
--
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. Two series were played
with All Star players from 1971, one report is written by Wolfman and
the other by Miss Chevrette, it was called "The Battle of the
Sexes", this month we hear Ms. Chevrette report of
Series II.
♦
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.
Contact Us for Questions or Submissions:
Wolfman Shapiro
Founder/Editor, the
Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter
email:
wolfman@ultimatestratbaseball.com
facebook:
www.facebook.com/wolfman.shapiro
twitter:
@StratBaseball4U
