Issue #1, January 2013, Part I

** My SOM Experiences with the Various Tournaments since 1972  **
    (by Larry Braus, newsletter assistant)

My first Strat card set was 1971.  After a few years playing with my high school buddies I found a draft league through the SOM review. The dominant player in that league was early Strat legend "Wolf-Man" Shapiro, to whom I was a frequent victim (of losing to). When "WMS" organized his first Strat convention at the University of Illinois I talked my parents into letting me ride the Greyhound Bus to Champaign, and there I began my lengthy love of competitive tourney Strat.

Today I'll take you on a bit of a journey through my times in various tournaments, and how they were conducted. To my knowledge, I'm the only person to have experienced all these tourneys and I'm happy to share this with the strat world.

 

1. The 'Strat-o-matic convention'- 1970s and early 80s:

It was called a convention but it was as much a gathering (of SOM buddies who would see each other year to year) as a game tournament. These conventions were run by the legendary Mr. Shapiro himself at his Alma Matter.

The format was straight teams (Editor's Note: tournament contestants could pick any one of the baseball teams ever printed by the game company at the time of the Convention, a good or bad team even - I believe, but not sure, this idea of switching teams came from the earlier conventions) in a 2-game round. Game 1 went 9 innings full regardless of score. In game 2 managers would switch teams, with the same starting pitcher eligible. The winner of the round was the manager whose teams had scored the most runs.

In this unique format, your ability to run an "odd-ball" team better than your opponent was an advantage. My team was the 1973 Indians which in the times that I played in the tournaments (featuring Boog Powell, Charlie Skikes and Rick Manning) and I did reasonably well, but never placed well enough to advance. This event also sparked similar tournaments in Chicago's western suburbs, run with the same format.

2. The Lymon Bostock Memorial tournements- 1980s:

Run in Gary, Indiana by a Gary police detective, Jim Sanders. These tournaments were named in memorial of Gary native Lymon Bostock- a young ballplayer whose life was cut short in a tragic shooting in Gary. If you've ever been to Gary, you would wonder why it did not happen more- but I digress.

This event also included strat football and hockey tournaments as well, which went on simultaneously.  This was also straight teams, but with no swap. Teams were granted on a first-signed-up basis and grouped in divisions by team era.

My team was the 1973 A's in baseball, and the 67 Packers in my 1 foray into the football tourney, where I got my head handed to me by football legends like Jim Sanders and a guy named "Mad Dog". There is nothing in the world that takes longer than a football game that you are losing by 50 points. At the half.

Also run at the same time, but in the spring, was a tourney in Mishawaka, Indiana run by the father and son gamers, Ed and Pat Tafelski (spelling may be incorrect). The same format, but without hockey.

3. Table Baseball Association- 1990's- early 2000's :
 
Bought out by John Kreuz, another operator in the early 90's, this is the first every-weekend touring tournament. John- who was self-employed as an investment advisor-  would fly out to cities coast-to-coast every weekend running tourneys.

The format was draft teams- which amazingly was kept to a 2 hour endeavor. The pace of game play was, to say the least, ambitious- as many as 30 games played on the first day. Time limits and suspended games- to be made up after hours or early Sunday- were enforced.

This was a cash tourney- with prized topping $500 at a well-attended tourney. The year was capped off in January with a TBA World Championship where, due to every tourney donating a portion of their profits- the prize pool topped $1000.

I was lucky enough to do quite well in these, actually winning a Milwaukee tourney and doing well enough financially to join the tour for a few stops. Running standings for managers were kept in each region of the country, and prizes were awarded to regional champions.

Unfortunately, internal politics which I will not delve into led to the demise of the TBA, helped by declining attendance and rising air-fares. But from the ashes of the TBA Tournaments then came ---

4. STAR tournaments- 1990's- present:

These tournaments have been run from the template of the TBA, but with regional heads rather than a single traveling operator. It's evolved to a corporate model, with an elected board of directors.  STAR has now partnered with SOM-T, another group that runs tourneys in the eastern US.

Many past TBA players migrated to STAR and the level of play has risen to the best I have ever seen. Circumstances have kept me from competitive strat for a few years, but I look forward to returning in the near future.

(Note from the Wolfman: I don't recall how I met Larry but as he indicated in his article we knew each other in Chicago and Larry participated in the face-to-face leagues we ran there. Also I believe was a member of the Chicago SOM Club we created in the late 1970's. If you haven't guessed from Larry's photo he is a big Chicago White Sox fan and he volunteered to be our first team assistant for our newsletter. Larry was a big supporter of our conventions which were mostly held at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and in Part II of this newsletter I will begin to share over a series of issues the reports on the first SOM conventions from 1972-1980 which I attended and helped to organize from 1974 on. )
 

Wolfman Shapiro
Founder/Editor, the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter

email: wolfmanshapiro@gmail.com
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