Vol. III, Issue #4 - December 2015

** 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 (the groups or the individuals). Further, the spirit of this newsletter is about supporting our community and finding others who are open to work together. The more we share and work together, our community can only be enhanced. Such cooperation (such as the existence of the Strat Alliance or our recent merger to work closely with Stratogists.com and Bruce Bundy) only helps to create a stronger environment for the SOM Baseball Game and all of us involved. 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 and we don't make any judgements of others. Having variety and different forms of special information and activities helps all games and we see it as being very good for our community! Or in other words, we remain in the neutral and do not take any sides.}


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 2015, besides releasing the new version of the computer game and cards based on the 2014, 1969 and 1953 MLB seasons (cards and rosters), they also released rosters on the Negro Leagues: 1911, 1922, 1934 and 1945; and a Japanese League from 2014.

Further, the Range Rating File, which lists the fielding ratings for all the players on the field of the cards represented in the 2016 card set, is also available. To get your copy of this file as a Microsoft Spreadsheet or Adobe PDF go to:

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/community/announcements/2015-baseball-range-ratings-preview

Also, you may want to check out their on-line baseball leagues and tournaments they offer with different sets of players from the 1880's through the new set for the 2014 MLB season and it also includes the Negro League players.  We have covered this version of playing the game in various issues of the newsletter in 2014 and doing a new experiment that will be reported in issues of 2015. To read more about the on-line gaming play please go to:

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/

Finally, we also recommend to check out the announcements that SOM makes on Twitter, go to:
https://twitter.com/StratOMatic

And also on their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/StratOMaticGames/

Note - we are not directly connected nor fully endorsed by the Strat-o-matic Game Company although we do have conversations with them at times and they will share via their website or social media sources some of our events and activities. We have done interviews with individuals at times, who are or have worked for the game company. But primarily, 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 and when we can help share special news they release. We do publicly thank Strat-o-matic for their occasional support of some of our projects and sharing with their members and customers about some of our more interesting activities.)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC93h4fGGI7ibBUuTxrwDrzw
("The Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter Youtube Video Channel" - here is where you can find dear members the live videos we have taken from Opening Day at Strat-o-matic to the "Billy Sample Challenge" and much much more.  As no only do we share special reports and articles via this special Strat Baseball newsletter but we expand our coverage with live interviews and interesting strategy videos.  Don't wait for announcements via the newsletter or our bulletins to know what videos are contained here, check it out as we do our best to cover all aspects of the game we love with the written word and through video!!  Check out our channel, we added several new videos in December, 2015.)

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 their initial help, advice and support last year (2013) as our newsletter was first starting out.)

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!!)

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 agreed to allow our newsletter to help in the release of his "SOM Projection Sheets" to forecast the new baseball cards coming out by Strat-o-matic in the next year. Once again in October of 2014 and October 2015 Bruce Bundy released his next projection sheets for the 2015 cards and 2016 cards respectively. To read more about the Projection Sheets or to obtain your own copy of the "2016 SOM Projection Sheets" visit Bruce's page on our site at:

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/Bundys-SOMProjectionSheets-November2015.htm

www.moonlightgrahamsmarketplace.com
(Moonlight Graham's Marketplace is the place to be to find any Strat-o-matic Baseball card ever printed by the game company. Chris Rosen is the man behind the scenes and with our special project with Billy Sample, he shot out the cards we need for Mr. Sample's article and the chance for Mr. Sample to play SOM against one of our members and learn about Strat-o-matic Baseball. Chris is the man you want to work with for your SOM Baseball card needs and dreams. We once again thank Chris, Mr. Moonlight Graham, for his help to provide a team to face Billy Sample in the "Billy Sample Challenge" for his opponent {this series will be announced in a future newsletter) plus getting to us a copy of "Tony Brizzolara" 1979 card to use in his interview in this issue.)

http://StratTPC.com
(Strat-o-matic Face to Face Tournament Association known as the Strat Tournament Players Club (STPC) which offers a series of live and on-line SOM Baseball tournaments (via Skype and Netplay). Started in 1996, this group formerly known as the Star Tournaments took over for the TBA group and has numerous tournaments each year with their champion tournament called the Worlds, held in January of each year.  The section of the U.S. covered by these tournaments is in parts of the Midwest of the U.S., the western states and west coast and several southern states in the U.S.  The tournaments use a format of draft a team of 25 players from the most recent released SOM Baseball card set with a stadium. 

http://www.purestrat.com
(Purestrat is in the western region of the Strat Tournament Players Club and handles the on-line tournaments utilizing Skype and an electronic dialer. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/StratOMaticStrategy
(The Youtube channel for Matt Beagle, who is a contributing writer for Baseball HQ and these SOM Baseball Strategy videos are listed on the Strat-o-matic Game website. Matt has over 30 years of experience playing Strat Baseball and won a number of league championships. He shares keys to winning and intriguing strategies to play SOM Baseball in these videos.)

http://somers.activeboard.com
(SOMers is a Strat-o-matic Baseball based forum which their members are discussing all kinds of aspects about the game as well as Major League Baseball. According to founder Mark Heil, its a very friendly place to be with some great and very knowledgeable members. Mark was interviewed for USBN in our October 2014 issue. 

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.)

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. Please note: -- for 2016, there will not be a "Rookie Review".)

To obtain a copy of the "2015 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-Feb2015.htm

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 lists 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.)

kurt_meunier@yahoo.com
(Fox Valley Strat-o-matic League, a face-to-face league of six gamers from Wisconsin, supports of the newsletter, founded in 1988.  They offer free copies of any of their newsletters from their league (MS excel format) but they do not have a league website, featured in the November 2015 issue of the newsletter.)

http://latorrer0.tripod.com/sombb/home.html
(Rob's Strat-o-matic Decade Keeper Leagues, an e-mail/Computer based league currently has 12 members and started in 2012.  They play seasons by decade and keep the players for that decade. They start with the 1950's decade and now are into the 1960 decade. A supporter of this newsletter, they were featured in our November 2015 issue. Rob also has a system to show live on the internet, the playoff games for their league.)

http://nasoma.homestead.com/
(North American Strat-o-matic Association is a league that combines face-to-face, Netplay and Computer Manager play.  This league has existed since 1980 and currently has 16 teams.  Key meetings for the league are done in person even though their members are all over the U.S.  This league fully supports the newsletter and has a strong interest to partnership with us in the future. We featured this league in our November 2015 issue of the newsletter.)

colleary@prodigy.net
(Bob Colleary, represents both the Bill Veeck Leg League (BVL) and the Barefoot League (BFL), a computer mananged league.  The BVL has been around since 1999 and the BFL is starting its 1st season in December of 2015. These leagues were featured in our December 2015 issue of the newsletter.)

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://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/tournament/19
(The 2014 Barnstormers Tournament, which is a yearly tournament held that utilizes the SOM Baseball Online gaming system and uses what is called the All Time Greats card set. This card set comprises the best MLB players who have received a card in any season printed by Strat-o-matic including those who had printed cards and those players who have just a computer image. Barnstormers plays six draft leagues choosing to begin with 25 players and a stadium. There gamers qualify for the playoffs by points and play one or two more leagues to find their champion. This tournament has existed since 2001. By viewing this particular tournament, you can get in touch with the Barnstormer's commissioner how to join for future tournaments as they offer one each year. Even though this tournament started in 2014, the champion is not crowned until early 2015. A new tournament for 2015 is expected to start in April.)

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, interviewed in our April 2013 and October 2014 issue - accepted our challenge to have a member of USBN play him in Strat vs. the 1983 Texas Rangers, a team he played for.  Also Billy has a movie he made about his baseball experiences he put out in 2013 called "Reunion 108".)

http://pastpros.com/willie-mays-aikens/
(This is Willie Mays Aikens official website. There is a bio about Mr. Aikens here as well as a way to send him an email. He is open to be interviewed or make public appearances. In the December 2014 issue of our newsletter we did an interview with Mr. Aikens and we also did a review of his book, "Safe at Home", which you can also order via this website. Mr. Aikens is known as the 1st major league player ever to hit two home runs in two different games in the same world series, in 1980 with the K.C. Royals.)

http://www.danielokrent.com
(The official website of Daniel Okrent, the creator of Rotisserie League Baseball. Mr. Okrent is also an author of various baseball books which you can obtain copies of via his website.  However, based on his interview in our December 2014 issue, he claims there are much better website which support fantasy gamers for Rotisserie Baseball which you can easily find by doing an on-line search.)

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/Bundys-SOMProjectionSheets-November2015.htm
(The 2016 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 2016. The Sheets are in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format, one (or more) for the hitters and one (or more) for the pitchers and Bruce also includes articles (in PDF format) that discusses his formulas.)

http://www.baseballhq.com/som
(A free weekly newsletter, which you receive via email, from Baseball HQ, which provides information about MLB. Our special guest, Matt Beagle, who we interviewed in December of 2014, helped to arrange with their editor, this free newsletter for our members.  This will give you some idea of what Baseball HQ offers if you might decide to go for their full services. They have a number of contributing writers who have various levels of Baseball expertise as well as information that help you with the building of teams in your SOM leagues using the latest card sets.  Also if you could to Baseball HQ main page (click here) you can see the tremendous amount of information they offer if you become a member or subscribe to their newsletter. In the March 2015 edition, we interview General Manager Ray Murphy and also reviewed their book "Baseball Forecaster 2015" with Ron Schandler.)

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 -- also Baseball Info Solutions works closely with Bill James and helps him publish his Baseball Handbooks each year, see our page on recommended books. Also they are helping Bill James with his own website, shown next ...)

http://www.billjamesonline.com
(A new website started in 2015, which is directly connected to the genius of Bill James.  This website has a free component and for a very reasonable monthly fee, allows you to have access to the full information which Mr. James shares linked to his different perspectives to look at baseball via various information analytics.  The website is being helped by Baseball Info Solutions.  This site could provide insights about MLB players that can be helpful for draft leagues using the latest cards printed by the game company each year.)

http://MLBPipeline.com
(This website is part of MLB.com, and focuses mostly on young players coming up, prospects and foreign players being signed and entering MLB for the first time.  Jim Callis, who is one of the writers for this site, was interviewed in the March 2015 issue discussing this website and his opinions about some of the best young players coming up.)

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. Look at our March 2014 issue for a review of the annual guidebook that publish called "Baseball Prospectus 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.)

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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 MARC PELLETIER, another well known and successful strat baseball gamer in the on-line version of the baseball game offers us insights from his genius.

♦  STRAT WISE with MARC WASSERMAN -- commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) continues his new column sharing various perspectives on SOM Baseball. In this issue he discusses about the Miscellaneous Rules in the computer game (to use or not to use), some special new videos on our Video Channel on Youtube, the fielding ratings given out by the game company and more.

♦  ARTICLE with DOUG BRUNET, another member of our newsletter shares his thoughts about the game of baseball and its connections with Strat-o-matic as well as his philosophies of how to succeed in your game play. Doug is a member of the CBA Council, a computer baseball league.

♦  ARTICLE with CHUCK TINKLER (Part II), a continuation of the article by Chuck, one of our members sharing about a real Strat Master that he met in his early days of playing Strat-o-matic

♦  SOM BASEBALL LEAGUE REPORT with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO -- the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion, the "Wolfman" puts out a call to commissioners of various Strat-o-matic Baseball Leagues that he discovers on the internet and shares two more replies he received from these leagues to be interviewed and tell their stories! This is the second part of this report.  To read the individual interview, click on the links below or start with Part III and follow the in-page link to read the second interview as well:

INTERVIEW with Glenn Wheeler, NASOMA, P-III (F2F/Netplay/Computer)
INTERVIEW with BOB COLLEARY, BVL + BFL, P-IV (Computer)
 

♦  SOM/MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL WORLD NEWS with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO , editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" shares about the 2015 Baseball Fielding Rating File released by the Game Company, revisits the status of what 2016 MLB projections are already available to obtain and study and shares about some of the new videos that are available on the Ultimate Strat Baseball Channel on Youtube - more good stuff is on this page - head over there NOW!

♦  REPORT with TOM NAHIGIAN (1961 cards) Personal friend of the Wolfman, known in Guzzo's book as "The Collector", returns and we take a peak at some of the early strat cards printed from 1961 from the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

♦  ARTICLE about WOLFMAN SHAPIRO written by DONNA CHEVRETTE -- the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion, the "Wolfman" goes back into the far past and pulls out one of his first articles to the Strat-o-matic Review from 1973, when he really was becoming known as the "Wolfman" (the Skokie Wolfman) as he challenged one of the first female strat gamers, Donna Chevrette to a play against him via play-by-mail.  Two series were played with All Star players from 1971, one report is written by Wolfman and the other by Miss Chevrette, it was called "The Battle of the Sexes", this month we hear Ms. Chevrette report of Series II.

♦  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 Baseball 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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