Issue #5 - Part I, August 2013
(Help us keep our newsletter Free,
visit our on-line Collectibles, Baseball & Athletic Gear Store)
Comments from the Wolfman about Issue #5,
just trying to do our best to entertain and keep you highly
interested!!
I
don't know if any of our members are writers or editors of
publications but whenever there is a chance to share some really
cool information or insights with others in your community, I
don't know about you, but for me it gets me very excited.
So excited in fact, that it is hard to focus on doing anything
else for the few days it takes to put it together. Now we
hope, our members are finding great value within the various
issues we have come out with so far including some interesting
insights to help your game play or new information they you may
have never heard about before.
Also,
when you are the editor of a publication, you are right smack in
the middle of everything and you get to meet some of the most
amazing and interesting people ever. So for a person, like
I believe could be said for most of you, who loves the game of
Baseball, this is a most interesting job. Plus, I like the
challenge to constantly be looking for new information we can
share with all of you. Of course, to everyone who has been
a contributor or allowed us to interview them, we also wish to
express our gratitude.
One thing I
have observed with many of the on-line SOM Baseball forums is
replays. People seem to love to read about various forms of
replays people are doing. More so then reporting on SOM
leagues, which we have covered a bit via Marc Wasserman's
commission column. So if there are any of our members that have
some interesting or amazing replays they would like to submit to
share with our members please feel free to do so and contact us
by email. Ok, enough kibbitzing, lets get on with what we
have in this current issue.
Again, I must
apologize for the delay (our goal now is to have two issues for
August) in getting the newsletter out but on a personal level,
it has been very tough making ends meet over the past few months
(along with many others I would assume). To those who accepted
our e-book by donation, we appreciate so much your help and hope
you found great value in the e-book. So for August we are going
to try to have a two part newsletter once again.
For the August
Newsletter, Part I, we were extremely honored and fortunate to
be able to interview two
very special individuals that the SOM Baseball game and their
experiences playing the game we love, greatly
influenced and provided them with the knowledge they needed to
become involved intricately with Major League Baseball as their profession.
So we wish to thank John Dewan of Baseball Info Solutions (via
the interview done by our member Chris Witt near Chicago) and
Joe Hamhari of Baseball Prospectus (via the interview done by
Marc Wasserman in NJ) for allowing us a chance to share their
stories and insights with our members.
For this
issue, we again feature our monthly columns or articles
including a return by our good friend Bruce Bundy and
his next "Strat Thoughts"; Marc Wasserman with his "Commissioner's Corner"; permission by Tom Nahigian to share
more of the early cards from 1961, from the AL and NL All Star
teams and; of course yours truly also continuing with the next
National Convention at the University of Illinois, the 5th
edition held
in 1976.
As most of your know, we are working hard to bring a version of
the National Convention back in September, which is being called
the International SOM On-line Baseball Convention co-sponsored
by three organizations calling themselves the Strat Alliance. We
believe 100% in this event, we feel it could become a yearly
event, a historic event. So to support the reporting of
the Convention, you will find a few more new reports/interviews
including: a
continuation of my report of the Skype Tournament in June with
Pure Strat (all the games leading up to the playoffs); we
interview Alex Redovian, the creator of the Strat-o-matic.net
Forum and discuss the online dice rollers he provides for our
community and a short article from the Strat Alliance discussing a bit more
about the details of the convention. We call upon our Strat
Brothers to help us and support this convention, please help us
get the word out. Then finally we have our
resource pages which lists various on-line SOM Baseball and MLB contacts
along with some recommended books.
Note (as always): Once
again if you have joined us recently and 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 again, we hope you enjoy
this next issue of our newsletter and we wish you continued success
and enjoyment with your game play, leagues, replays and tournaments.
Thank you all for continued your interest and support (we now
have over 800 members). As always, we are always open to any
suggestions or requests you have for future issues or
contributions!! So have fun in your exploration
of issue #5, Part I! Below are links to the various articles,
columns and interviews, thank you ........
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 JOHN DEWAN,
President of Baseball Info Solutions
♦
INTERVIEW with JOE
HAMRAHI,
CEO of
Baseball Prospectus
♦
STRAT THOUGHTS with
BRUCE BUNDY,
SOM Gamer, Creator of
Baseball Card Formulas, Baseball Strategy Advisor, Beta Tester
for the Game Company
(Continuation of the monthly column of "Strat Thoughts"
developed by legendary Bruce Bundy)
♦
1st International
SOM On-line Baseball Convention, by the Strat Alliance
-- a more complete discussion of the revolutionary new
convention to be offered in
September offering three baseball tournaments organized by the
Strat Alliance of Groups!
♦
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 fifth national Strat-o-matic
Convention in 1976 held in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at the
University of Illinois as the Wolfman and his buddies organize
their third 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 year.
♦
INTERVIEW with ALEX
REDOVIAN,
Founder of Strat-o-matic.Net Forums/Dice Rollers
♦
ARTICLE with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO,
how the Wolfman
performed during the Pure Strat
June Skype Draft Tournament - Part Two of
Three
Parts (Tournament Game Reports)
♦
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 more upon the contents of a good,
strong and lasting 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. This is the third issue we have shared a few cards from
this early time.
♦
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.
