Issue #2, February - March 2013


** Recommended On-line SOM and Baseball Resources **
    (offered through the newsletter team)

{ Wolfman:
This webpage will contain various on-line Strat-o-matic Game resources (predominately for the Baseball game) and other resources related to MLB baseball.  It has been my experience in league play 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 have had direct contact with and who agree with our governing principles to help and support each other which provides a stronger environment for the SOM Baseball Game. This does not indicate however, if one of your favorite resources is not listed here that we are not supporting such, just that we may have a differently philosophy and approach about how to create partnerships and affiliations.}

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

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.

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 to be as supportive as possible for the success of the game company.
)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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. Hopefully we will be working with this group to help us great our own on-line tournaments, in a different form that can support hundreds of participants.)

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.)

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, rights about all kinds of ideas and stories linked to the SOM Baseball Game) 

---------------------------------


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

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.stratdraft.com/
(An online system that can help to automate and make it easier to perform your draft for your Baseball League.  Wolfman: The CBA, the league I am involved with, used this draft for the first time and it was a joy to use as our picks were timed and we had access to all the players still available. We hope to interview the creator of this amazing tool in a future issue.)

 



Special Services that could Benefit our Members
(in this section, we will mention, for the benefit of our members, cerain services that we could across which might be of interest to help our members on a more personal level. We hope this newsletter will be seen in a way, that together we are creating an extended family in the SOM community, and one of the thing I {Wolfman} have always been consciously aware of is helping other people. I have learned, as was discussed in the book, "Think and Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill, who had the opportunity to interview in the 1920's the most successful people of his time, that if we do our best to help other people (or tithe) through universal laws, if you will, this good always comes back to you.  So if we see something that might make a difference in our members lives in some way, all we will do is list it here. It is of course up to each member to decide, without any pressure, if the service will be of value for them - this is what happened when the energy of the "Wolfman" hits ya, amongst other things, you want each project you are involved with to benefit others and do your best!)


HELP TO CUT THE COST OF YOUR CELLULAR PHONE
(Recently we discovered a new cellular service in the U.S., which started last September, not far from where we live in Seattle, that is assisting people to cut the high cost of cellular service. But not only this (as we will being saving $700 or more this year plus I believe eventually we will no longer have to pay for our cellular service), this is the only company I know who is sharing their profits with their members. We have been using the service since early January and its amazing, unlimited voice, text and internet, the same as we had before but $60 less a month - some people are finding challenges with their finances - so if this sound interesting, feel free to email me privately at: joshuashapiro@v-j-enterprises.com and show a subject of "I wish to know more" - this could forever change your life. Thank you.

 



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 BRYAN SWANK SOM Gamer, league member.
(Sharing about his father, Thomas Swank)

  STRAT THOUGHTS with BRUCE BUNDY, SOM Gamer, Creator of Baseball Card Formulas, Baseball Strategy Advisor, Beta Tester for the Game Company
(A new monthly column of "Strat Thoughts" from the mind of legendary Bruce Bundy)

  ARTICLE with "REZZDOGG", Owner/Moderator of Stratomatic Baseball Village
(This Article is entitled "Fathers and Sons: Diamonds are Forever".)

  INTERVIEW with DAN PATTERSON, Founder of Strat-o-matic Fan Forum
(This forum covers all of the sports games offered by Strat-o-matic)

  COMMISSIONER's COLUMN 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 discusses how to deal with challenges from league members when there are heated disagreements or communication breaks down.

  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 second national Strat-o-matic Convention in 1973 held in Brooklyn, NY and co-sponsored by the Game Company and the Strat-o-matic Review. Wolfman will be taking us through the first nine conventions going through 1980 of which he was present at each one. From 1974-1980 Wolfman along with his friends from Chicago held these conventions in Illionies. We will continue to share one new convention in each future issue till all of these early ones are shared.

  SOM BASEBALL CARDS QUIZ - our test of your knowledge of the SOM Baseball Cards, questions and answers provided by Marc Wasserman. In this issue we give the answers to Quiz #1, interview our first winner (Art) and have two new questions to ask for Quiz #2. Who will be our next winner?

  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.

 




Contact Us for Questions or Submissions
:

Wolfman Shapiro
Founder/Editor, the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter

email: wolfmanshapiro@gmail.com
facebook:
www.facebook.com/wolfman.shapiro
twitter: @StratBaseball4U

To Sign Up and Become a Member of this Newsletter
http://www.UltimateStratBaseball.com
(this provides direct emails when our bulletins
and next issues come out)