Issue #4, June 2013
(Help us keep our newsletter Free,
visit our on-line Collectibles, Baseball & Athletic Gear Store)
Comments from the Wolfman about Issue #4, its getting better and
more interesting all the time .....
Well
we missed the month of May, a lot of this has to do with some
personal issues for your editor but that will not take away from
the dynamic information we are sharing, each time we offered a
new issue. We hope you enjoy this June issue (out on the
last day of the month) as we have some exciting new interviews
and articles we have gathered for our readers.
For this issue, I am going to get right to the matter so you can
begin to explore our June issue. Also because shortly I have to
finish my last series for the Pure Strat Skype tournament I am
participating in June and see if at the end of the regular part
of the tournament (6 - four game series) if our Skokie Wolfmen
claim the best record in our division. There is a special
article I wrote for this issue discussing everything I did to
prepare for the draft which created the team I am using for the
tournament, but more important is that this article offer
insights to two of the tournaments we are co-sponsoring for
September of this year to create the 1st on-line SOM Baseball
Convention which we announced recently in Bulletin 9.
So while I am
very excited about this convention as it will provide a chance
for many SOM Baseball gamers to meet others, learn new
strategies and compete against each other while not leaving
their home, over a full weekend of three different tournaments,
I am also excited about the content of this latest newsletter,
so lets talk a bit about what you will find within.
Here is a quick summary of what the June issue of the Ultimate
Strat Baseball Newsletter contains:
-- we continue to interview ex-baseball players - Rick Sutcliffe
a sports announcer for CNN talks to our member this issue.
-- we
interview two of the Tournament Directors for the upcoming SOM
On-line Convention, Bryan Albin, President of Purestrat, the
western division of the Star Tournaments (we discussed in April)
and also Gene Abood, another board member of STAR who runs their
Netplay on-line tournaments.
-- We hear
from a baseball historian/SOM fanatic with Butch Haber and also
Steve Meyerson tells us about his personal experiences with Tom
Swank who we learned about before via his son.
-- Marc
Wasserman, my partner with the newsletter returns with his
Commissioner's column and I share with you the goings-on at the
1975 National SOM Convention at the U of I. Also our good friend
Tom Hahigian shares with you more examples of the first SOM
Baseball cards printed in 1961 & 1962.
Note: Once
again if you have joined us recently and haven't had a chance to
read all of our bulletins and prior newsletter, you can find
everything you desire by visiting our archive webpages at:
http://archive.aweber.com/stratbaseball
SOM Convention, September 2013:
Finally I want to come back to the convention. At the
moment of the release of this newsletter we have one page of
information that discusses briefly how the September Weekend
(Sept. 20th-22nd) will work out. You can visit this page right
now at:
http://www.stratalliance.info
By next week,
we will have a full blown website which will offer much more
detailed information how the tournaments will work as well as
provide you with all the vital information one needs to prepare
for the tournaments. We also have a free newsletter you
can signup for the Convention that will provide the latest news.
Some information will be provided through this newsletter but
the most important details will be found on the website above
and through the newsletter. There has never before been offered
such a weekend of tournaments which are working due to the key
organizations who have agreed to work together.
The three main
co-sponsors for this convention is Pure Strat, Star Tournaments
and the folks helping to maintain our newsletter. We will be
acting for the convention as the main coordinators with the
folks at Pure Strat and Star helping us to run the tournaments.
We will
basically be using the rules already established by Pure Strat
and Star Tournaments for their on-line Netplay and Skype based
tournaments which they have offered for a while now. As I stated
above, for the month of June I have been participating in the
June Skype Draft tournament and in this issue and in July, will
be a two part article about my experiences. But in truth
the on-line convention in September, is my personal attempt to
bring back a form of the conventions we have been reporting each
issue, that happened between 1972-1980.
So we hope you enjoy
this issue of our newsletter and we wish you continued success
and enjoyment with your game play, leagues, replays and tournaments. Again
we wish to express our great gratitude
for your interest and support. As always, we are open to any
suggestions or requests you have for future issues or
contributions!! So have fun in your exploration
of issue #4!
Wolfman Shapiro
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 BRYAN ALBIN,
Tournament Director of Pure Strat
♦
INTERVIEW with GENE ABOOD,
Tournament Director of
Star NetPlay
Tourneys
♦
INTERVIEW with RICK
SUTCLIFFE,
former major league starting
pitcher
♦
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 fourth national Strat-o-matic
Convention in 1975 held in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at the
University of Illinois as the Wolfman and his buddies organize
their second convention. Wolfman will be
our guide through the first nine conventions going through 1980
of which he was present at each one. We now begin the era from 1974-1980
when the conventions moved to Illinois. We will continue to share one new convention in
each future issue till all of these early ones are published.
Also as an inspiration for the SOM On-line Baseball Convention
this year.
♦
INTERVIEW with BUTCH HABER,
Baseball Historian and SOM
Fanatic
♦
ARTICLE with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO,
how the Wolfman prepared
for the Pure Strat June Skype Draft Tournament - Part One of Two
Parts (Part Two will describe his experiences)
♦
ARTICLE with
STEVE MEYERSON,
more about the amazing Tom
Swank
(personal stories and comments from one of our members)
♦
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 focuses specifically about the creation of a
strong league constitution.
♦
SOM BASEBALL CARDS
with TOM NAHIGIAN-
This month we
share more of the early SOM
Baseball cards from the 1960 and 1961 seasons thanks to Tom
Nahigian who has a complete collection of all the cards ever
printed and a birthday gift from him to us.
♦
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
-- On this page
we have listed special books that we are uncovering 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. We
have a special arrangement with Acta Sports to offer our members
a 10% discount. We hope to add more books in the future.
