Vol. II, Issue #3 - May 2014

** Welcome to USBN Vol. II - Issue #3 **

Comments from the Wolfman about this issue as we continue into our
2nd year with some new pages, more special interviews and more!!

It is always a great feeling when I sit here to write an introduction to our latest newsletter because I know the newsletter is getting ready to be released.  And what I appreciate about this issue, besides being able to honor one of the most lovable and special persons I have met since being involved with SOM is I discovered what was to me, and could be to quite a few of our readers a whole new world of SOM Baseball Play!

We appreciate those members who have contacted over the best few months and told us how much you like the newsletter.  Doing a free newsletter that can take a week to get all the materials ready is no easy job but it is a labor of love and we appreciate that the members are finding it of value.  We want to acknowledge ahead of time a few new people who have been generous to give of their time to help us with this issue as we always try to find new information and insights to share and continue to offer links to Major League Baseball, as the baseball season is in wide swing now with a few teams surprising.

First we continue to honor the "Proud Papa" of the Star Tournaments, Hank Smith.  You are going to find a special questionnaire he helped me design back in 2007 which he fills out to share some of his secrets for winning.  We hope you may consider to download the questionnaire and we will collect them and eventually offer their contents to our members, this is kind of an experiment if you will.  We also want to thank Bill Deane for sharing what it is like to work at Baseball's Hall of Fame and Carl Kidwiler for sharing photos of old-time Yankee greats no one has ever seen before (and I told we may get more for future issues).

Marc Wasserman, the commish, gives us a little more insight into the CBA for which he is the commissioner; An update on the lastest between the Star Tournaments (now called the Strat Tournament Players Club) and SOM Tours; we thank Ralph Polumbo, the 2013 champion of GUSSOMO (the longest standing league) for sharing his insights how he creates champion teams and his human.  And finally we bring to our readers, the world of Strat-o-matic Baseball online which has existed, as I am told since 2001 - where you can play in leagues or tournaments with cards from the earliest teams offered in the late 1800's till 2013.  We thank commissioner Mighty Moose (who we mentioned last month) of the Barnstormer's tournament for his interview and help, the 2013 Barnstormers Champion Bruce Foster and finally Dan known in the SOM online gaming community as Mesquiton for his help and advice as well (next issue we will have our interview with him as he just won a different on-line tournament).

Late Breaking Announcement as we go to Press .....

Hear Ye - Hear Ye - SOM Baseball Family, thanks to the Commish, my partner Marc Wasserman we have been given special permission to share a series of ten special strategy videos done by the very knowledgable and an excellent baseball gamer named Matt Beagle. We here, at Ultimate Strat Baseball, take great pride to feature Matt's excellent strategy series (note: he also discuss strategies for the online gaming system we feature in this issue) on our own YouTube Video Channel (Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter). This series has been reposted on our channel through the courtesy of Matt. We know you love these videos. It is our fondest hope that we will be able to continue to feature Matt's informative videos in the future going forward! Yes!

Also, it is our intention to do an interview with Matt and feature him in a bulletin next month, so either you can wait for the interview to learn more about Matt's background and why he is qualified to give his special strategy advice or you can take advantage of his strategy advice now by visiting our Youtube Video Channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC93h4fGGI7ibBUuTxrwDrzw

PS - Also remember on our Youtube channel we have exclusive interviews with Strat-o-matic gamers from the 2014 card release.  Enjoy it all as we continue to find new and innovative ways to share with our readers all facets of SOM Baseball, the game we love.

Note (as always): Once again, if you have just joined us recently or haven't had a chance to read all of our bulletins and prior newsletters, you can find everything you desire by visiting our archive webpages at:

http://archive.aweber.com/stratbaseball

So here we are once again with our next exciting issue of Ultimate Strat Baseball news, stories and updates for our members as we continue into the 2014 SOM Baseball Season. We hope these new insights and fun stories will keep you busy till July (due to some personal projects, we will need two months per issue now ), when we once again come back to you with new articles and information to discuss Strat-o-matic Baseball and the special individuals who are a part of our community along with aspects linked to Major League Baseball.

So to another great year of Strat Baseball in 2014,

All the best and enjoy your game play via your leagues, replays,
face-to-face and tournaments,

Wolfman Shapiro
on behalf of the team at USBN
 
 

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Support the Cause If you are enjoying the content and information our newsletter shares with you, why not support us with your helpful contribution 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)
 

♦  INTERVIEW with RALPH POLUMBO, 2013 GUSSOMO league champion.

♦  INTERVIEW  with BILLE DEANE, MLB statistician, researcher and author.

♦  SOM BASEBALL WORLD NEWS, the current status on the Strat Tournament Players Club and SOM Tours, a final farewell and honoring of Hank Smith.

♦  INTERVIEW with CARL KIDWILER, sports photographer and collector
(Special photographs of old NY Yankee players in his collection.)

♦  QUESTIONNAIRE with HANK SMITH, former Star Tournaments Commissioner and Ambassador -- Hank was one of the most beloved individuals in the SOM Baseball World
and a key for the success of the Star Tournaments. In this questionnaire which Hank and Wolfman developed in 2007, Hank shares his secrets and keys for winning in tournament
play based on drafting your team. If any member is so inspired there is a blank form of this questionnaire you can fill out and send back to us to help us collect more data we can share at some future time.

♦  SOM BASEBALL ONLINE REPORT with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO -- editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion, the "Wolfman" explores a whole new world of playing the SOM Baseball game through the online gaming system which Strat-o-matic Offers. In 2001/2002, Strat-o-matic agreed with The Sporting News to offer a version of their game which could be played completely on-line using a web browser. In 2012, SOM told full charge of this system and there is a whole community now of people who are involved in all type of draft leagues including a unique style of holding tournaments. In this issue, "Wolfman" explains how the gaming system works and you sign-up for a league plus he interviews the commissioner of the Barnstormers Tournament and the 2013 Champion of this tournament.  To view this three part report, click on the links of the articles to read shown below:

ARTICLE: Introduction to SOM Baseball Online (the online gaming system)

INTERVIEW with MIGHTY MOOSE (R. Johnson), Barnstormer's  Commissioner

INTERVIEW with BRUCE FOSTER, Barnstormers Tournament 2013 Champion

♦  COMMISSIONER's CORNER with MARC WASSERMAN -- commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) continues his column about what it is like to be a League Commissioner. In this article, he continues to focus his discussion on his own league the CBA and shares the websites of other special baseball leagues linked to the Strat Alliance.

♦  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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