Vol. II, Issue #1 - January 2014
 

Support the Cause If you are enjoying the content and information our newsletter shares with you, why not support us with your helpful donation for our minor expenses and time?

** Recommended On-line SOM and Baseball Resources **
      (suggested resources by the newsletter team as well as to honor
our guests who have appeared in issues of the newsletter
as well as groups and individual who support the newsletter)

{ Wolfman: This webpage contains various on-line Strat-o-matic Game resources (predominately for the Baseball game) as well as other resources related to MLB baseball that can help you in your game play.  It has been my experience linked to my league play that there are many on-line tools one can use to help build their teams or to supplement their game using historical tools.  This page will change over time as we have more and more additions. 

If you have know of other resources that you feel should be added to this list please feel free to contact us with your suggestions. Our policy is to list those resources or organizations which we personally know of or have had direct contact with these groups or the individuals who run them. Further, the spirit of this newsletter is about supporting our community and finding others who are open to work together. Such cooperation (such as the Strat Alliance or our recent merger to work with Stratogists.com and Bruce Bundy) only helps to create stronger environment for the SOM Baseball Game. This does not indicate however, if one of your favorite resources is not listed here that we do not approve of such. It just means that either we are unfamiliar with this contact or that they may have a differently philosophy and approach about how to create partnerships and affiliations then we do. Of course, no one is perfect.}

Resources that we Recommend
(special on-line websites we have uncovered of great value)

http://www.strat-o-matic.com
(Website for the Strat-o-matic (SOM) Game Company. This is the website where you can purchase the Baseball game (board game or computer game); all of the various baseball printed cards and the computer teams plus various accessories.  Of course the game company offers various other sports games like football, basketball and hockey. For 2013, besides releasing version 17 of the computer game and cards based on the 2012 MLB season, plus the following new full seasons were released: MLB 1891, 1938, 1961; Negro Leagues: 1920, 1931 and 1942; and a Japanese League from 1973. Also the game company is offering an opportunity to play SOM baseball on-line with the options to play various teams.

Further, the Range Rating File, which lists the fielding ratings for all the players on the field of the cards represented in the 2014 card set, was released this month (December). To get your copy of this file as a Microsoft Spreadsheet or Adobe PDF go to:

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/community/announcements/2013-baseball-range-ratings-preview

Note - we are not connected nor endorsed by the Strat-o-matic Game Company. Our newsletter is offered as a labor of love by our newsletter support team to enhance the game playing of our members and the SOM Baseball Community. We do our best to be as supportive as possible for the success of the game company. We do thank Adam Rosen, the Marketing Director for his help to support our attempt of an on-line tournament in October of this year.)

http://www.stratalliance.com
(Home website of the 2013 October On-line SOM Baseball Convention co-sponsored by the Strat Alliance which is a joint alliance of Pure Strat, Star Tournaments and the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter along with Stratogists.com. Although our planned tournament or convention do not take place, the Alliance will continue and we hope to offer a similar on-line event in the near futue. This website gives you information about the first three Alliance partners and our thoughts about how to organize a special and new tournament for the future convention.  Here you can also sign up for their free newsletter (as we hope to eventually offer yearly on-line conventions) and to register for future conventions.)

http://stratomaticbaseballvillage.lefora.com/
("The Stratomatic Baseball Village" - a friendly and supportive online forum community for Strat Baseball enthusiasts. The key individuals who offer this wondrous forum includes Ken "rezzdogg" Dunning, founder/admin and Michael McLaughlin ("67mantle2-7"), admin/moderator. We also thank Ken and Michael for being our partners with this newsletter.)

www.cba-bb.net
(The website for the Cyber Baseball Association, a 24 team baseball league using the computer game which has existed since 1997. Wolfman Shapiro is the 2012 champion after seven years of hard work, Marc Wasserman, our so called "secret consultant" and author of the League Commissioner Column is the commissioner. The CBA is the first league to officially support our newsletter. The website contains the up-to-date standings of the league during the season which normally begins in March and goes through September/October.  The free report by Wolfman you received when you signed up gives his history in this league.)

Ultimate Strat Baseball Collectibles and Sporting Goods Store
(To help our members who are interested in Baseball Collectibles, uniforms and sporting gear we have worked out a deal with Amazon to provide for our members some amazing items linked to baseball that you can't find any where else.  So we encourage you to visit our store periodically and check out these special items. Instead of charging a monthly fee for the newsletter we rather keep it free for everyone but your purchases will help to compensate for our time and dedication to allow the newsletter to continue and come out each month.  Also the banner at the top of each page for the Amazon sports collectibles will also take you to our store - thank you!!)

www.Stratogists.com
(The 'Baseball Stratogists' group has been designed for those seeking a competitive edge in Strat-O-Matic baseball. 'Baseball Stratogists' was created by three Strat buffs and game veterans (Dave Welch, Rick Speciale, and Mike San Clemente) as the essential guide to good drafting and better game play. They share each year a "Rookie Review".  We thank the Stratogists for becoming a partner in alliance with our newsletter and for their support.)

To obtain a copy of the "2014 Rookie Review", the 9th annual publication, you can read more about this special document (and order your copy at a slight discount) at:

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/Stratogist-Rookie-Review-Dec2013.htm

http://studio303.com/star
(Strat-o-matic Face to Face Tournament Association, Series of live and at times on-line SOM Baseball tournaments. Started in 1996 and took over for the TBA, has numerous tournaments each year.  The region which STAR covers is the Western part of the U.S., shares the midwest with their sister organization SOMT, and the southern part of the U.S.  News Update: -- as noted in our SOM Baseball World News page these two tournament organizations have now merged into one and will be known as the "National Strat Tournaments" as of January 2014.)

http://www.purestrat.com
(Purestrat is the western region of the STAR tournaments (the new "National Strat Tournaments") and handles all face-to-face tournaments in this region plus the on-line touraments utilizing Skype and an electronic dialer for STAR. Bryan, the owner of Purestraat will be supporting the joint tournament weekend for on-line tournaments which our newsletter is initiating.)

http://www.strat-o-matic.net/
(This is another premier SOM forum developed and the brain child of Alex Redovian with 2400 members that covers all of the various strat-o-matic games. In addition, Alex, who is a programmer has developed an on-line dice roller for both the baseball and football game which is available for free. The tournaments done on Skype by Pure Strat (western division of the Star Tournaments) uses his dice rollers and also for the September 2013 On-line SOM Baseball Convention, we also will be utillizing the dice roller.)

www.facebook.com/ImbaStratOMaticBaseballLeague
(A face to face league for Strat-o-matic Baseball located in the New York / New Jersey area with 18 teams. They also have their own online forum linked to the league at: http://imbastrat.proboards.com/index.cgi -- this becomes our second baseball league to support and help us let others know about the newsletter)

http://www.stratfanforum.com/
http://www.stratfanforum.com/forums/forum.php
(Welcome to the Strat-O-Matic Fan Forum. A dedicated online community who have been discussing Strat-O-Matic's board and PC games since February 2001. This forum covers all of the sports games offered by Strat-o-matic. We interview the founder Dan Patterson in Issue #2 of this newsletter)

http://www.oneforfive.com/category/strat-o-matic/
(Paul Dylan, WA, U.S. - blog site that contains all kinds of articles about Strat-o-matic in this part of his site with some powerful ideas and insights about the game, Paul is a member of our newsletter as well and is doing an interview about us for his site.)

http://flory.net/twsl/
(Ted William Strat-o-matic League, founded in 2002, 24 team netplay draft baseball league, one of several baseball leagues supported by Nick Flory on his website. Mr. Flory doesn't have a main page for his site that list all the other 67 baseball leagues he supports but you can see a list of them by going to the Ted Williams league and go to the menu on the left hand side of the page and click on "Other Sites" and a list of all the baseball sites pop up. We wish to thank TWSL heads Mike and Larry for introducing us to Nick, who has our newsletter logo shown on his sites and shared the newsletter with all the different leagues which saw a substantial growth in our membership - thanks Nick, Mike and Larry - interview with Mike and Larry in a future issue.)

www.somhoops.com
(A Fan's Guide to Strat-O-Matic Basketball created by Jason. Somhoops offers a rating guide for Basketball with the permission of the game company. We recommend Somhoops as a great site to visit for our members if you like Basketball plus we are grateful for their support to announce our newsletter to their members who similarly love the baseball as much as we do.)

http://somtour.net
(Strat-o-matic Face to Face Tournament Club, Series of live and at times on-line SOM Baseball Tournaments, predominately held in the Eastern Part of the U.S., shares the midwest with their sister group STAR and now has begun to go into Canada. SOMT is supporting our proposal for a joint tournament weekend and will be helping us with the on-line tournaments.  News Update: -- as noted in our SOM Baseball World News page SOMT has now merged with Star Tournaments into one organization and will be known as the "National Strat Tournaments" as of January 2014.)

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/community/glenn-guzzo-column
(Column by Glenn Guzzo - periodic articles by "Strat-o-matic Fanatic" Author Glenn Guzzo shared on the SOM Website that covers all the different games. We interviewed Glenn in our first issue.)

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/community/podcast
(Podcasts done with well known SOM figures by Steve Reiter shared on the SOM Website, in a future issue we will share an interview we did with Steve.)

https://www.facebook.com/billy.sample.75
(This is Billy Sample's facebook page, where you can chat with this ex-Major Leaguer. I have found him very friendly and open to discuss his experiences as a ball player for Texas, the NY Yankees and Atlanta as well as a sportscaster, interview in April issue)

http://users.wowway.com/~faust05/index.html
(The website linked to the genius of Bruce Bundy, who has developed and shares his formulas that can help a person create their own SOM baseball cards. On his website he additionally shares his advice how to improve your play in the baseball game, interviews with key people in our community and is a tester for the game company.  In this issue we have an interview through Bruce with Steve Barkan of the Game Company and also Bruce acts as an advisor for the newsletter and is one of regular columnist with his "Strat Thoughts" column.)

In December of 2013, Bruce Bundy released his "SOM Projection Sheets" to forecase the new baseball cards coming out by Strat-o-matic for 2014. To read more about the Projection Sheets or to obtain your own copy visit Bruce's page on our site at:

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball/SOMProjectionSheets-Dec2013.htm

Column and Blog by Jeff Polman

http://mystery58.wordpress.com
(his current blog postings, been involved with SOM since 1964. Is one of the few people to have a column on the SOM website, along with Glenn Guzzo, is also a member now of our newsletter)

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/community/jeff-polman-column
(Jeff's column on the SOM website, writes about all kinds of ideas and stories linked to the SOM Baseball Game) 

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Special On-line Tools that are Available
(different newsletters and special reports )

http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/Secrets-of-the-Wolfman-d.htm
(The Wolfman's first e-book to discuss his secret strategies, for time after time, placing his league teams into the playoffs. This is part one of his report, about how to win fast!  He uses his experiences in his current league the Cyper Baseball Association {CBA} and his 2012 Championship to hold nothing back. If you have been struggling in your draft league (face-to-face or computer) or draft tournament, this document will help you tremendously.  It comes as PDF. This document could be the difference between another year (or tournament) of frustration or a chance to get to the top.  Mostly geared for league play but could be helpful with the current tournaments who use a draft.  In honor of the September 2013 On-line SOM Baseball Convention this e-book is offered to anyone by a donation.)

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/Stratogist-Rookie-Review-Dec2013.htm
(The Stratogist.com Rookie Review, is a special guide published each year - the 2014 Guide is the 9th edition of the Guide that will discuss the top 200 Rookies, who either became key players in the 2013 season, which will reflected by the new 2014 SOM Baseball cards or are future young players you wish to draft for your team in your leagues. Our members of our newsletter by order this guide on the page above will receive a $3 discount or a special price when ordered with Bruce Bundy's "2013 SOM Projection Sheets")

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball/SOMProjectionSheets-Dec2013.htm
(The 2013 SOM Projection Sheets by legendary Bruce Bundy created through the special formulas that Bruce has developed with a 95%+ accuracy on creating the cards that Strat-o-matic will release for 2014. The Sheets are in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format, one for the hitters and one for the pitchers and Bruce also includes articles (in PDF format) that discusses his formulas. These sheets are offered at a significant discount via our newsletter and a special price if order in combination with the Stratogists.com Rookie Review for 2014.

http://www.outsiderbaseball.com
(This online weekly baseball newsletter is offered by Scott Simkus.  Mr. Simkus is a base historian who in each issue offers another special story related to various individuals and teams who have been involved with MLB. There is a yearly subscription fee to receive this newsletter.)

http://www.baseballamerica.com
(Baseball America is an organization dedicated to tracking young baseball talent throughout high school, college, the minor leagues and the major leagues. They offered a website filled with all kinds of timely information and several publications.)

http://www.sabr.org
(Society of America Baseball Research, with over 6000 members and has existed since 1971. There is a membership fee to join - gives you an opportunity to share and discuss anything about the game of baseball with its members. Also SABR prints its own books and journals and has members from people who have been personally involved in professional baseball as well as fans.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/
(Another website that focuses statistically on many aspects of the game of baseball including the best and most talents major league prospects that are coming up with all kinds and tables and charts. Major League Ballclubs hire this group to help them with their various strategies for their teams. Their website has all kinds of articles and blogs plus the group publishes their own guides. In our July 2013 issue, we will be sharing an interview with Joe Hamrahi, the President who is an avid SOM baseball gamer and credits SOM for starting him on the path to work with baseball statistics)

http://www.baseballinfosolutions.com
(The premier baseball website by John Dewan and his team, to analyze and record every baseball statistic that one can think of. This company provides Strat-o-matic key data needed in order to create the baseball cards each season as well as works with and supports every team in Major League Baseball. They were originally known as Stats, Inc. but have evolved into a new company. To follow "John Dewan's Stat of the week" go to: StatOfTheWeek.com or follow John on Twitter at: @FieldingBible)

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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 donation 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)
 

♦  RETURN TO NEWSLETTER MAIN PAGE

♦  INTERVIEW with DEL NEWELL, retired Editor of the "Strat-o-matic Review"

♦  SOM BASEBALL WORLD NEWS, a new page to share interesting news related to
Strat-o-matic Baseball.

♦  STRAT THOUGHTS with BRUCE BUNDY, SOM Gamer, Creator of Baseball Card Formulas, Baseball Strategy Advisor, Beta Tester for the Game Company
(Continuation of his column of "Strat Thoughts", one of our members has some great questions for Bruce about how the baseball cards are created to show realism.)

♦  ARTICLE with MIKE SANCLEMENTE, founder of Stratogists.com
(Mike takes us on a delightful journey with his article "Koji vs. Bill Gates" and then discusses how using Excel spreadsheets can take you far with your league's team strategy)

♦  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 seventh national Strat-o-matic Convention in 1979 held in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at the University of Illinois as the Wolfman and his buddies organize their sixth 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 we hope this column will inspire our readers to help us create a SOM On-line Baseball Convention in the near future.

♦  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 turns his focus to how things wok in the CBA and via the Strat Alliance introduces us to another baseball league that has existed for 43 years.

♦  ARTICLE with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO -- Wolfman discusses his strategies how to build a very successful team in a draft SOM baseball league where you keep your players form year to year.

♦  BOOK REVIEW with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO Wolfman takes a peek at the "The Bill James Handbook 2014" created by Bill James and John Dewan through Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) and why if there is one book on baseball you must have, this is it!! Also speaks to Ben Jedlovec of BIS to discuss the book a bit more.

♦  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 Base 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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