Wolfman:
Now
Jim, I like to ask those we interview about their
background first. So have you been interested in
Major League Baseball at a young age? Did you play
in little league and if so what was your best
position?
Jim:
I have been an avid baseball
fan since I was 7 years old. It's a giant chess
game with each pitch requiring a strategy,
depending on the situation. The little nuances
of the game are what I love the most about it. I played Little League and
3B and SS were my best positions.
Wolfman:
What team did you root for when you were younger or
growing up. Do you have any Major League players
that were your favorites or followed? Who do you
root for now?
Jim:
I have been an Angels fan my
whole life (even though I hate that they are
now called the "Los Angeles Angels Of
Anaheim"). I went to all seven games of the 2002
World Series when the Angels played the Giants
and that memory is the greatest sports memory
that I will ever have. I loved watching Greg
Maddux pitch, he was truly a master at his
craft, especially since he wasn't a flame
thrower and he did all of his great work during
the steroid era. I also loved watching Ricky
Henderson play. He was a superstar player and did
every to help his team win. Currently, I'm a big
Mike Trout fan. He's very similar to Ricky
Henderson, Trout is a superstar player and he
does everything to help his team win. Wolfman: When did you first come into contact with SOM? What teams did you play with first? Had you tried other baseball table games?
Jim:
I started playing SOM
when I was 16 years old and 33 years later I'm
still playing it. I never played a particular
team, I always liked to draft a team and then
play them against other drafted teams. I
know Hal Richman designed SOM to be played as a
replay of the previous season, but being your
own GM is really fun, in addition to playing the
game itself.
I have played Pursue The
Pennant and APBA baseball, but those games pale in
comparison to SOM.
Wolfman:
What is there
about SOM that you like or
enjoy? Have you played in any
leagues? Do you play in any
leagues now?
Jim:
I enjoy
building a team and then
managing it during a season or
tournament. I currently
play in a 12-team league called the
R.U.B.L. (Really Ultimate Baseball
League). We have been in existence
since 1989. We play a 162 game
season and we meet every Tuesday
night at my house. We have a great
group of guys that play in the
league and we have a lot of fun with
it.
Wolfman:
Now lets turn to
your experience with SOM
Baseball Tournaments. How did
you get started with the
tournaments? Did you play in the
earlier version of STPC - the
Star Tournaments?
Jim:
I have
been consistently playing in SOM
baseball tournaments for the
last 5 years. I started playing
in tournaments about 25 years
ago, but only sparingly. Then a
couple of guys from my league
told me that I should play
in the tournaments that they
were playing in. I went to one,
loved it and kept on playing.
It's great to play heavily
competitive SOM baseball with a
great group of guys that love to
play the game. I have met some
great people and built many new
friendships that go beyond
playing SOM. I started
playing tournaments when it was
still STAR tournaments.
Wolfman:
Have you been
successful winning tournaments?
What type of teams do you like
to play with or draft when you
play in the tournaments?
Jim:
I have
had my share of successes and
failures in tournaments. I just
won the opening tournament of
the year this weekend in Los
Angeles for my 3rd tournament
title. I made 3 finals last
year, but lost all three times,
so I was very happy to finally
close a tournament out with a
win. I generally
do not have a set strategy when I
draft a team. I can go with a big
power team or I can go with a small
ball team with pitching and great
defense. I have had success with
both styles. The team that I won
with this weekend was a power team
built around Andrew McCutchen. Wolfman: Ah, you did win the tournament in Los Angeles recently (Wolfman's Note: - end of February, early March using the new cards just released...) - Jim can you share with our members how you were able to win this tournament - what happened in LA? Jim: I was very fortunate to win last weekend. I beat some excellent teams with some incredibly timely hitting. I picked in the # 2 spot and I took Andrew McCutchen and built a power team around him and my home ballpark was Milwaukee (Singles to 9, HR to 18). I had to play in a one game playoff just to qualify for the postseason. I won that game 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning on a two-out, bases loaded HBP of Devin Mesoraco by Antonio Bastardo to walk it off. In the 1st round of the playoffs (all playoff series are best-of-5 series), I won that series 3 games to 1 by winning the first game 4-3 on a RBI groundout in the top of the 9th inning, which broke a 3-3 tie in a game where I faced Clayton Kershaw. I got crushed in the 2nd game, 8-1 and then I had back-to-back dramatic walk-off wins on HR's by Lorenzo Cain off of Sean Doolittle in Game 3 (I rolled the 6-9 HR 14 or double and I hit the split) and again in Game 4 (I rolled Cain's 2-4 HR to 8 or double and I hit the split). In the semi-finals I won that series 3 games to 2. The home team was shutout in each of the first 4 games of the series and was two outs away from being shutout again in the 5th game until Jose Bautista hit a 2-run HR in the bottom of the 9th inning, but it was too little, too late, as I won the deciding game of that series, 8-2. In the finals, I lost Game 1, 2-1, as Danny Santana's sac fly off of Dellin Betances' card in the bottom of the 8th inning broke a 1-1 tie (6-7 was rolled, all other non X-chart chances on the card are strikeouts) Game 2 was the swing game of the series. I was down 5-2 heading into the top of the 9th inning in Pittsburgh (Singles to 9, HR to 1) and my opponent had Papelbon on the mound. Edouardo Escobar led off the inning with a double. Pinch hitter, Albert Pujols then hit a groundball to Andrus, but Andrus kicked it for an error. McCutchen then gets beaned by Papelbon to load the bases with no outs. Up steps Pablo Sandoval to the plate and he smokes a Papelbon fastball just over the right field wall for a grandslam and a 6-5 lead, that turned into the final score (I rolled a 2-8, HR to 8 or double and the split die roll was an 8). From there I went on a scoring spree, as my team scored 21 runs over the next two games, including 9 homeruns, to win the last two games of the series, 11-3 and 10-6.
Wolfman:
I always ask
each person we interview if
there are certain key strategies
you have developed in your play
that have helped you to be more
successful?
Jim:
I don't
know if there is a "key"
strategy I have developed that
has led to any success that I
have had. All anyone can do is
to try and build the best team
that they can to give them the
highest probability of
success. That and timely dice
rolling is always the best
formula for success.
Jim:
My most
memorable SOM moment was in the
World Series of my league. I was
down 3 games to 1 and down to my
last out when Chipper Jones
rolled a 4-5, HR to 10 or out
on reliever Jeff Zimmerman's
card and I rolled a 10 to walk
off Game 5. I then won Game 6
and then in Game 7 I rallied
from a 7-3 deficit in the bottom
of the 8th inning against Jeff
Zimmerman (who had an incredible
card that year) by scoring 7
runs in that inning which
propelled my team to a World
Series title. Another time
I was in the World Series, I had
Jose Canseco go down with an injury,
but his replacement Hector
Villanueva came in and hit three
homeruns in Game 6 to clinch the
series win for me. The "Hec-Tor, Hec-Tor"
chants were echoing in the ballpark
during that game. :-)
Wolfman: Now lets turn
our attention to STPC - first
tell us how you became the head
of the West Region? What areas
does this region cover and what
tournaments are coming up in
this year. Are your tournaments
all draft tournaments with the
new cards or will there be other
type of tournaments? What are
your duties for this region?
Jim:
As the
council member for the West
Region, this region covers
the west coast of the country
(the U.S.).
There
will be tournaments in Los
Angeles, Phoenix, Portland and
possibly even San Jose this
year. In the West Region, we
only play sanctioned tournaments
with the most recent card set. Our
council meets via conference
call every so often to discuss
topics and issues to make the
tournament experience the best
that it can be for all players.
We also set up the location for
The Worlds tournament, which is
the World Championship SOM
tournament that brings all of
the regions together to see
who's the best of the best in
that particular year. The
tournament is played in January
each year during the MLK holiday
weekend and it appears that we
will be playing next year's
tournament in Pittsburgh after
having it in Las Vegas this
past year. In the end, we know
that everyone is spending their
time and hard earned money to
play in a tournament and our
goal is that we want everyone
who attends to go away from a
tournament with having a lot of
fun and enjoying the fellowship
that comes from the love of SOM,
whether they have a successful
tournament or not.
Jim:
I had been involved in a
few things in the past
within the SOM
tournament community and
when the council
was being selected for
the new STPC, I was
asked to be the
representative for the
West Region and I
accepted the position.
As I stated
previously, my goal
is for every player that
attends a tournament to
have the best experience
possible and being on
the council gives me a
great opportunity to
work with the other STPC
council members to
acheive this goal.
Wolfman:
Finally, can you
share with our members an update
what is happening with STPC - we
hear that SOM Tours now has
become one of the regions you oversee
... how did this come to pass?
Jim:
The
E.A.S.T. Region (formerly known
as SOMTour) has now joined the
STPC. We are all very excited
about the addition of this region
as it unifies the entire
country under one SOM tournament
club. There have been some
issues in the past, but
a major roadblock to
achieving unity as a
national organization
was removed last year
and after some hard work
put in by Jim Galloway,
Gene Abood and Doug
Yano, so than we were able to
come to an agreement
where the E.A.S.T.
Region joined STPC.
Wolfman:
If someone wants to know more
about STPC - what is the best
way for them to contact you?
Jim:
They can
visit our website at
strattpc.com
and they can click on a region
link to see the tournament
schedule for that particular
region. There is also contact
links for the council members
and the regional directors for
anyone who has any questions. We also have
a message board that anyone can
register for and they can read the
latest info on upcoming tournaments,
results of previous tournaments and
other various SOM topics.
Wolfman:
Is there
anything else you wish to share,
that might be important for our
members to know that were not
covered by my questions before?
Jim:
I think you covered it
all, Wolfman. The STPC would
love to invite all of your
readers to come give us a try to
see how their SOM playing skills
match up with other players. I
know that they will have a lot
of fun. Thanks for
your time and efforts in promoting
SOM and SOM tournaments, Wolfman. We
all really appreciate it.
Wolfman:
Thanks Jim for
spending time with our members,
all the best with STPC and
success in your personal
tournaments.
(NOTES from the Wolfman:
So now officially we have heard from four of the six council
members of STPC since 2013. It has been interesting to
watch the evolution of Star Tournaments into STPC and how they
are embracing different varieties of their tournament formats
from drafting with the lastest issued cards by SOM to playing
tournaments on-line and now using some of the older sets.
As our readers know I am a big fan of tournaments from my early
days and I am still hoping that somehow in the future we will be
involved in some future tournaments. In any case, if you look
below, to the link to other parts of this newsletter, you might
want to read the interview with Sean Riley, the currrent STPC
champion. Its all good and its all Strat-o-matic.)
http://strattpc.com/star/2015_star/d_anal/aps.htm
♦ RETURN TO NEWSLETTER MAIN PAGE ♦ REPORT, "BILLY SAMPLE CHALLENGE", Ex-Major Leaguer Billy Sample accepts our challenge to play Bryan Swank, one of our members in a best of 3 games series in SOM as Billy takes the 1983 Texas Rangers, a team he was a member of, verses Bryan's 1983 Red Sox. Read the full report, which comes in three parts and also watch the video recorded by Mark Wasserman. ♦ INTERVIEW with JIM CALLIS, Senior Writers MLBPipeline.com (MLB.com), as Jim discusses his feeling about key young players who will be a factor in the 2015 MLB Season. ♦ INTERVIEW with RAY MURPHY, General Manager of Administration at BaseballHQ ♦ INTERVIEW with SEAN RILEY, Strat Tournament Player's Club 2015 World's Champion ♦ SOM BASEBALL WORLD NEWS with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO, editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" discusses the latest Baseball products offer by the Strat-o-matic Game Company, Recommendations of on-line Projection Systems for the performance of Major League Baseball Players in the upcoming season, a summary of the recent new Videos Ultimate Strat has released on their Youtube Video Challenge and what is "The Bruce Foster Challenge" that is underway. ♦ REVIEW OF KEY BASEBALL PUBLICATIONS with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO -- Wolfman gives to our member a review of the latest strategy guides and books published which includes "Bill James Handbook 2015" (Acta Sports with Baseball Info Solutions); "Ron Shandler's 2015 Baseball Forecaster" (Baseball HQ) and the "Rookie Review, 2015 Edition" (Stratogists.com).
♦
RECOMMEND
ON-LINE SOM RESOURCES -- On-line Strat-o-matic and Baseball related websites
♦ 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.
Wolfman Shapiro
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