Issue #7 - December 2013
  

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** Strat-o-matic Conventions - Early History - The 1978 Convention  **
      (compiled by Wolfman Shapiro with help from Mike Kane & Gary Losey and a republishing of the articles about the Convention from the 1978 Editions of the Strat-o-matic Review)

Notes from the Wolfman: - Well in our first six issues of this newsletter we have reported so far the
first two conventions directly held by the Strat-o-matic Review and the Strat-o-matic Game company (1972 and 1973) followed by our rag-tag group of devoted gamers living near Chicago trying out our first four conventions.  With the success and enthusiastic response from of our first conventions plus that we already had our club setup at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (which allowed us to use the ballroom at the student union to hold our convention and tournaments), we had everything we needed to do our 5th convention as people were still counting on us to keep this event as a yearly happening.
A great chance and opportunity to visit with our Strat family from all over the U.S. once again. 

So please find within this article, what happened at the 1978 Convention. Even though the turnout is declining (due to high travel costs) from the various tournaments being held by various other groups (for example by our partners in the Strat Alliance - Star Tournaments and Pure Strat amongst a few others) we
still believe these tournaments are an important part of the SOM Baseball gamer experience and that you can learn a great deal about the game via head to head competition. We still hope to organize in 2014 another on-line tournament which can simulate this experience without needing to travel outside your home. So look for some announcements as we explore how to make such an event a reality.

Anyway, as we prepare for these new versions of tournament play, we hope you are enjoying the re-telling of these early days, a time when I had no idea of where my life would take me after I graduated college in 1977  and now this was the first convention where I was a professional, a working man, a computer consultant in Chicago. However, no longer being a college student did not stop us, our determination to continue to offer the conventions for as long as we could. We really had a good core group of friends in Chicago to help make this happen.  Enjoy now, the 1978 Convention!!
 

Once again I wish to acknowledge the "SOM Review", where all the articles below came from and the help of Mike Kane and Gary Losey who provided the scanned copies of the SOM Review articles that discussed the 7th Annual Strat-o-matic Convention. I believe providing the history and stories from these early meetings is important and gives one a sensing of the early history of how we used to play the game.  I was very grateful to the other members of the support team as doing such events like this once a year is a bit of work and takes alot out of you. However, due to the enthusiastic comments we received from our attendees, it was well worth the effort. Once again we had mostly new champions with one person repeating and even your humble editor, almost had a shot to take a trophy home ... almost.

Wolfman Shapiro

 

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1978 SOM Convention
Champaign-Urbana, IL (August)
(The Wolfman challenges, Rigdon finalist in 2 tourneys ...)

The 1978 Convention saw a new person come to the forefront to run the convention, and really gave me a  breather.  I was very grateful to Dale Barnes, more then you will know. I don't know how many of you have created a conference before, but it is very hard and time consuming work.  So I take my hat off (and when I was playing baseball, I always wore my Skokie cap) to Dale for this year's event as well as our old friend Bob Anderson (I wonder where good old Bob is these days?) who helped us run some of the tournaments.  This gave me a chance to really focus on the Advanced Baseball tourney, my favorite tournament and again, I came up a  bit short finishing in second. Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly how we were permitted to use the campus of Champaign-Urbana again (as Bob and I had graduated), perhaps there were some local SOM players near the university who were able to keep our club going there.

Again over 100 people came to participate in the convention and we also had a celebrity of sorts join us (via Robert Henry), Clifford van Seek who had developed a baseball game back in the 1940's (see article
below).  Steve Rigdon became the second person in our history at this year's convention to repeat as a champion of the same tournament and also was the first person to be in the finals of two tournaments.  We added College Football to our tournaments (six that were held), which was new.  Unfortunately we couldn't create the regional tournaments we discussed in 1977 but as Gary Losey has been sending pieces of the SOM Review from this period of time, more and more people were organizing their own local tournaments so it made us feel good that we could be an inspiration for others to host more such type of events. 

Please find below some of the pre-announcements we released in the S-O-M Review about this year's convention and the detailed report they published. 

 

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EARLY ANNOUNCEMENTS
ABOUT THE 1978 SOM CONVENTION
IN THE SOM REVIEW....  

JUNE  ISSUE, 1978

National Convention Set For Aug. 4-6

Friday through Sunday, Aug. 4-6, will be the time. The place: Illini rooms A, B and C on the campus of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. The happening: the latest Strat-O-Matic National Convention, as presented by Dale Barnes and Rick (Wolfman) Shapiro.

Yes, the dates and sites are finalized. Signals are "go" for this summer's convention, which is expected to attract 150 to 200 gamers from the Midwest and hopefully all across the country.

Plans call for a wide range of activity, from tournament competition, to buying and selling S-O-M cards, to a one-on-one basketball tournament. Elementary tournaments A and B in baseball plus a super advanced football tourney will open Friday's schedule. The tournaments will be played throughout the day, from 9 a.m.. until 7 p.m. -- or to conclusion.

Advanced football and baseball, as well as college Football (if enough people are interested) will be Saturday's agenda, according to Shapiro, With Sunday wrapup time and when the trophies will be presented.

Entry fee is $3.00 and the amount, along with a list of tournaments (you may participate in only one per day) and a SASE, should be sent to: Dale Barnes, xxxxxx, Park Forest, IL xxxxx. Barnes in turn will send back your entry card, list of times for tournaments, a map of the campus and additional information.

For those concerned about lodging, Shapiro adds that the Florida Avenue residence hall will be available for S-O-M conventioners, at $6 per night plus tax. Some one representing the tournament committee will be on campus starting Aug. 1 to welcome the first arrivals.

"There might also be a loser's tournament," adds Shapiro, who has been instrumental in the success of past tournament ventures. "There will be, in addition to the tournaments, a bowling tournament, one-on-one basketball and ''Plato, a computer game extremely popular with the students."

Tom Nelson as well as many other past champions are expected to be on the scene. And the welcome mat is out to all in the 3-0-M world.

JULY  ISSUE, 1978

Convention Time In Champaign-Urbana

Summertime Gamer's Frolic Set For Aug. 4-6

The countdown is picking up for the Strat-O-Matic world's largest happening of the summer of 1978--the fifth annual S-O-M National Convention, Friday through Sunday, Aug. 4-6, at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Between 150 and 200 garners are expected to descend on the sprawling campus for the annual happening. Rick (Wolfman) Shapiro and Dale Barnes are the prime movers behind the convention, which they expect to be the best ever.

There will be, as always, something for everyone, whether your thing is playing S-O-M games, buying and selling cards, or just the desire to meet others like yourself.

Six tournaments are planned, according to Shapiro (who urges as many contestants as possible to bring their own games and teams), beginning with Elementary A and B baseball and Super Advanced football on Friday, Aug. 4, and then Advanced football and baseball plus College football on Saturday. A person, however, will be allowed to participate in only one tournament a day. There might be a losers' tournament as well, if there is enough interest. Sunday, Aug. 6, will be the finals with all the trophies being presented.

Many former champions will be on the scene, reports Shapiro--who's no pushover when it comes to playing the baseball game. Tom Nelson is expected to make the trip from New York to regain the Advanced football title.

Entry fee For the tournaments and convention is $3 per person. And, if you hurry, there's still time to get in on the fun. Just send your entry fee to: Dale Barnes, xxxxxxxx, Park Forest, IL xxxxx. Include a list of the tournaments you wish to participate in and send an SASE to Barnes, who will then send back an entry card listing the times of the tournaments, a map of the campus as well as additional information regarding the convention.

S-O-M gamers will be taking over the campus (or most of it) that weekend. Shapiro has again lined up lodging at a minimal cost, with the Florida Avenue Residence Halls reserved for conventioners for $6.50 per night plus tax. The convention will be staged in the Illini Rooms (A, B, C). People may start arriving for the convention as early as Tuesday, Aug. 1, as some one will be there to greet you at that time.

Among the other activities planned are a two-night bowling tournament, a one-on-one basketball contest, as well as ample time to buy, sell and trade cards, or just engage in gaming talk and make new friends.

Aug. 4-6 at Champaign-Urbane! 10-9-8-7 ...
 

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Devoted exclusively to the Strat-O-Matic game fans, with the consent of the Strat-O-Matic Game Co.

STRAT-O-MATIC REVIEW Vol.. VIII-7  October 1978

National S-0-M Tourney Kings Crowned

Convention '78 Is Success

Unofficially 'national champions' were crowned. Officially, upwards of 110 people had a lot of fun.  The occasion was the fifth annual National Convention held at Champaign-Urbana on the University of Illinois campus, Aug. 4-6.

Tom Nelson, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Muhammad Ali, and Seth Sherman of New York City were the first arrivals, jetting in on July 30 and officially kicking off the convention. Most of the conventioneers were on the scene Thursday, Aug. 3, a day ahead of the start of tournament fever. Age of the conventioneers, according to Rick (Wolfman) Shapiro, who again played a major role in staging the convention, was between 12 and 56. Even three girls got into the dice-rollin' fun, although Shapiro mentions that the female gender was again empty-handed when the trophies were passed out.

In addition to the six S-O-M tournaments, a doubleheader softball series was played, there was a one-on-one basketball tournament (won by Arthur Wright), and a bowling tournament (won by Ira Wolins and his doubles partner Warren Barest).

Robert Henry, the S-0-M Baseball trivia quizmaster, was also present -- bringing along his vast card collection -- as were such other S-O-M notables as Gerald Ittenbach (the 56-year-old gamer from North Carolina), Brad Furst, Bob Anderson, Dale Barnes, Steve Walters, Steve Rigdon and Randall Witt. It was Barnes who shouldered most of the work in answering mail regarding the convention, as well as buying trophies, while Anderson was another virtual whirling dervish, running the various tournaments off in precision fashion.

When the last die fell silent at noon on Sunday, six champions had been crowned, a no-hitter had been experienced and Steve Rigdon, Lemay, MO, had become the first person to ever be in two finals the same year as well as the second person to win the same tournament twice.

ADVANCED FOOTBALL Mike Reitz (left, runnerup), Steve Rigdon (right, champ)

SUPER ADVANCED FOOTBALL Alfred Wong (left, winner), Steve Rigdon (runnerup)

COLLEGE FOOTBALL Gary Nusbaum (left, winner), Steve Parewski (runnerup)

ELEMENTARY BASEBALL A (1905-1957) Tom Fees (left, runnerup), Bobby Thompson (winner)

Now, on to the tournaments!

The Advanced Football Tourney matched Rigdon and his '69 St. Louis Cardinals against Mike Reitz' '71 Dallas Cowboys. Twenty signed up for the tourney during which contestants exchanged teams at halftime. Rigdon took advantage of the switch, too, scoring 20 points in the second half and going on to a 23-10 victory after trailing 10-3 at intermission.

Summary:

Rigdon (Cards-Cowboys) 0  3 10 10 - 23
Reitz  (Cowboys-Cards) 0 10  0  0 - 10

Rigdon also put in an appearance in the Super Advanced Football finals, but Alfred Wong, Matteson, IL, finally gained the upper hand in a titanic battle, Ricky Young's Five-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter gave Wong his margin of victory.

Summary:

Wong   ('75 Steelers-Chargers) 10 3 3 7 - 23
Rigdon ('75 Chargers-Steelers)  7 3 0 7 - 17

College Football was the newest S-O-M creation to be tested in tourney competition and 11 signed up for the gridiron battling.  Some of the teams entered included Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Indiana and Mississippi St. and some of the scores produced went something like this: 36-7, 39-24, 38-23, 30-18, 42-14, 43-14 and 45-30. The finals pitted Gary Nusbaum, Anoka, MN, and Steve Parewski, Norridge, IL.

Summary:

Nusbaum  (Oklahoma-Houston) 10 3 9 0 - 22
Parewski (Houston-Oklahoma)  0 0 7 0 - 7

Houston scored off three field goals in the second half, while Oklahoma tallied once via a touchdown but had two passes intercepted and misfired on its last eight attempts.

The Baseball Tournaments also were played under a similar format -- a two-game series in this case, with teams being switched for the second game. The winner was determined by total runs scored in the two games.

In the opening tourney on Friday for the Elementary Baseball A Tourney (1905-1957), Bobby Thompson of Thayer, MO, made off with the trophy after defeating Tom Fees, Richton Park, IL, in the finals

A three-run homer by Joe DiMaggio in the first game was the big blow for Thompson who started with the '50 Yankees and finished with the '06 Cubs.

Summary:

Game 1                          Game 2

'50 Yankees (Thompson)  4       '50 Yankees (Fees)   1
'06 Cubs (Fees)         3       '06 Cubs (Thompson)  3

Thompson wins series 7-4

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The Elementary Baseball B (1960-1977) tourney was won by Wayne Headtke of Chicago, IL, who bested Russell Vensk of Queens, NY, in a matchup of big city rollers:

Summary:

Game 1                          Game 2

'72 Red Sox (Headtke)  4       '72 Red Sox (Vensk)   2
'69 Mets (Vensk)       2       '69 Mets (Headtke)    2

Headtke wins series 6-4

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And finally the Advanced Baseball tourney, where the busy 'Wolfman' finished runnerup to Jeff Merklin of West Jefferson, OH. Shapiro had reached the finals on one other occasion--and also lost that one!

Summary:

Game 1                          Game 2

'76 Reds (Shapiro)   5       '76 Reds (Merklin)   4
'77 Expos (Merklin)  6       '77 Expos (Shapiro)  3

Merklin wins series 10-8
 

ELEMENTARY BASEBALL B (1960-1977) Russell Vensk (left, runnerup), Wayne Headtke (winner)

ADVANCED BASEBALL Rick Shapiro (left runnerup) Jeff Merklin (winner)

With five straight convention successes, Shapiro, Barnes, Anderson and Co. are hoping to expand to two conventions next year--one in Champaign-Urbana again, the other possibly in New York, perhaps on Long Island. "IF we can find an appropriate site (and hopefully with Steve Kurzban, head of the Long Island 5-O-M Club, and Tom Nelson as organizers], the New York convention would be in mid-July and the Champaign-Urbana convention in early August," enthuses Shapiro.

Shapiro, looking ahead, foresees the day when two conventions are staged ... then regional conventions ... and finally a national convention as a tournament of all the champions from the regional conventions.

(Wolfman's Note: And this has now come to pass via Star Tournaments, Pure Strat and SOM Tours, who work together to offer regional tournaments all over the U.S. and in Canada with a special championship tournament at the end of each season.)
 

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Celebrity At S-O-M Convention
Father' of Table-Gaming Puts in Appearance

by Rick (Wolfman) Shapiro

Clifford Van Seek, perhaps the recognized father of the simulated baseball table game, was invited to attend our convention by Robert Henry.

For those of you not familiar with Cliff, he is the creator of a game called National Pastime, which today is similar to APBA. I spoke to him as a person interested in the history of the baseball table game and also what his motivations for creating it,

Cliff was born Feb. 28, 1903. Until he was five years old, he lived in an orphanage, afterwards with his grandparents. At age 14 he started to toy with his own baseball game, as he liked baseball very much, even participating in a sandlot league.

His game was based on the professional players at the time, and he developed an individual hitter's card for each. The basis for his game were two dice (read as 1-6, 2-3, etc.], the numbers 1-41 to represent all the different situations that could happen in a ball game (single, groundout, etc.] and eight charts to tell what happens when men on base (one chart for each positioning of runners). Thus you can see how logical his game was. However, the game was developed from the hitting point of view and had no pitcher's card to reflect that particular player's ability,

Finally, the game was intended for the participate to just be a spectator and not a manager. Between 1917-1926, he kept improving it, adding a few things here and there. Eventually, he got a bunch of friends together and formed a league. His friends were very excited about the game so he applied for a patent and in 1926 it was granted (it was to last for 17 years). In 1931 he mass-produced his first game set based on the 1930 season,

However, his printer went out of business [remember it was depression time] and he was only able to have 400 of the 1,000 contracted games manufactured. Cliff was unable to recover from this financial setback and did not come out with any other seasons.

TABLE-GAME PIONEER CLIFFORD VAN BEEK (on your left) WITH ROBERT HENRY AT 1978 CONVENTION

Now we go to 1970. We find Cliff glancing through a Street & Smith Baseball book and he finds an ad about a baseball game called APBA -- with a display of its cards, which look almost exactly like the cards he developed.

So, he decided to attend the 1975 APBA Convention in New York, and try to talk to the President of the company and show him his game, Cliff tracked down the vice president and brought him to his room and showed him National Pastime. The V.P. was flabbergasted. As far as he knew, his boss had created APBA from scratch, yet here was this man with absolute evidence that he had instead created the game. Cliff's game had been copied (the patent ran out in 1945) and a slightly enhanced version was produced in 1951 (with no recognition of Van Beek's work).

So, at least for myself, I would like to acknowledge Clifford Van Beek for his tremendous contribution to our Favorite 'pastime.' He was very friendly and an interesting person to talk to.

(Notes from the Wolfman:  Ok. we had another convention under our belt and again it was quite successful. The limiting of people to one tournament a day allowed us to offer other activities during the weekend. We were still hopeful we could pull off at least two conventions next year however.  With the extra help from Dale and Bob, we were open to go for our sixth year of conventions in 1979.  This would be our last one at Champaign-Urbana though but we will always be grateful to the University for providing us this space and all the wondrous experiences we had and the lifetime friendships formed. 

So dear readers, we hope you are continuing to enjoy these early reports especially linked to the 1978 National Convention as we traveled back in time to when many of us were far younger. Our attendance was a bit down in this our fifth attempt still to get over 100 people to attend is not bad as compared to what we are seeing presently. See you in the next issue when we will discuss what happened at the 1979 Convention as the life of an SOM gamer never ends. ) 
 

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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 JAMES WILLIAMS, retired Sales Director of Strat-o-matic

♦  INTERVIEW with STEVE BARKAN, R&D Baseball and Hockey Depts at Strat-O-Matic Media LLC (interview done by Bruce Bundy, Dec 1st, 2013)

♦  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", photos linked with SOM and a brief
 discussion about the 2013 SOM Projection Sheets)

♦  ARTICLE with MIKE SANCLEMENTE, founder of Stratogists.com
(Mike will discuss a bit more about the 9th Annual Rookie Review with some examples
 of what the review will look like.)

♦  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 upon the Strat Alliance and beginning to introduce to our members some of the SOM Baseball Leagues that exist.

♦  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.

 

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Check out the new e-book by the Wolfman
his first SOM Baseball e-book sharing his
secrets for creating a successful team

(for your draft league or tournament,
click on the cover to read more and
be one of the first to get a copy!)

In Celebration of our
first year of existence
Wolfman is offering his e-book
by donation through Janaury!!
 

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