1980 SOM Convention
Evanston, IL (August)
(A new location,
our last convention but no final report, sorry!!)
For myself, in 1980, was a key year in my
personal life. For many people, the cry went out, where did the Wolfman
disappear to? One friend thought I joined the "Moonies", or others
said I got religious. Well as a result of these changes, I
stopped playing Strat-O-Matic for 25 years and didn't come back till 2005
(see my article, "The Wolfman Returns"
-- this is my story how I returned to SOM through the on-line gaming
system the game company did with the Sporting News and joining my first
computer league).
And unfortunately, the people helping us with this final convention we
did, were not able to send to the Strat-o-matic Review a report of what
happened this
year. So if there is anyone out there in cyper land who attended the
1980 Convention, and can tell something about it, please contact me.
In 1980, we still had our Chicagoland SOM
Game Club going and so I recall, quite a few of our members did attend the
Convention. I also don't recall how this happened but I believe we lost our contact
for the club who was attending the University of Illinois so this is why we looked into the Chicago
area for a university to hold the Convention. We were able to make an
arrangement with Northwestern
University in Evanston to hold the convention there, luckily. I
also remember we had a very good softball game on the day before the
convention started and I believe Bob Anderson was the captain of one
team, and I was the other. I think, if memory serves me correctly, my boys
won the game in the last inning and I may have scored the winning run
even.
Bob Anderson and Dale Barnes once again
were the key individuals who assisted
me to setup this last convention. Thus, I wish to publicly acknowledge both of these
fantastic SOM devotees for all their help as well as all the other people who contributed their time or resources to make our seven year run
of conventions a great success. At the end of this page I would like
to honor some of the other people who dedicated their time and energy to
offer their own small or large tournaments during this time period we had ours or
even after we
stopped in 1980. Ok then, let's move on. Unfortunately, there were just two short
announcements in the Review about this convention which you will
find below.
EARLY ANNOUNCEMENT
ABOUT THE 1980 SOM CONVENTION
IN THE SOM REVIEW....
APRIL ISSUE, 1980
August 1-3
at Northwestern University
Gearing up for
Convention, 1980
Rick (Wolfman) Shapiro, one of the prime organizers of
the annual Strat-O-Matic National Convention held in the summer, passes
along word that those gamers planning on staying in a dormitory at
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, will have to pay for their lodging
in advance.
This is a switch from past years. The cost will be $28.50 per person no
matter how many days they stay [the convention is from Aug. 1-3). The
Chicagoland S-O-M Game Club (xxxxx, Skokie, IL xxxxxx) must have the money
in advance--the deadline is June 10--so if you're interested, be sure to
pay For your accommodations before that date.
Devoted exclusively to
the
Strat-O-Matic
game
fans,
with
the consent of the
Strat-O-Matic Game Co. |
STRAT-O-MATIC
REVIEW
Vol. 10 July
1980
|
 |
National Convention Aug. 1-3
The ninth annual Strat-O-Matic National Convention isn't
far off. In fact, Aug. 1-2, at Evanston, IL, on the campus of
Northwestern University, is when S-O-M's most talented dice-rollers in the
midwest will gather together, face-to-face, and crown national champions.
Rick (Wolfman) Shapiro, organizer of all the previous tournaments
(with Dale Barnes, Bob Anderson, etc.) is again putting on the 1980
gathering at Evanston. He reports that entries still can be submitted--but
that time is running out fast.
The dorms will open Thursday, July 31, at noon (dorm fee is $28.50 per
person no matter how many nights one stays), and the first die will
officially be cast Friday. All the tournaments will be conducted in the
Student Union.
(Friday, August 1st:) Super Advanced Football end Elementary Baseball A
end B (A: 1905-1957; B: 1960-79) are the opening tournaments, commencing
at 9:30 a.m.. Each tournament (a contestant can enter only one each day)
will be played in rounds, with no elimination. At 5 p.m. play will to
halted and the eight players with the best records will advance into a
single-elimination playoff to be played that evening. Finals in all
tourneys will be held from 10:00 a.m. to noon on Sunday (August 3rd).
Here's the remainder of the tournament schedules:
* Saturday, August 2nd, 9:30 a.m. - 5
p.m. - Advanced baseball and football
plus hockey tournaments. Teams used for advanced baseball are from 1971 to
1979;
for advanced football from 1967-1973 and for hockey from 1978-79 only.
Every contestant must must supply his own teams (and game components).
Two team choices is preferred, thus if someone else has the same team as
yourself,
you can use your second choice. And remember that the tournaments are
designed
to find out how good a manager you are, not how good the teams you
selected are.
With that in mind, rules of play call for teams to be switched after one
game
of a two-game baseball round, at halftime in football and after two of a
four-period
game in hockey. Rules of the tournament are elaborate and well-designed
and
strictly enforced.
Playing S-O-M, although it will consume much of the time spent in
Evanston,
isn't the only activity. There will be a bowling tournament, softball game
(Thursday afternoon for early arrivals), as well as the use of the campus
pool, tennis courts, gym, etc...
Entry fee for the tournaments is $5 ($3 for members of the Chicagoland
Strat-o-matic
Game Club). Both the entry fee and the dorm fee are payable in advance and
should
be sent to: Chicagoland SOM Game Club, xxxx, Skokie, IL xxxxx. Send a SASE
so that confirmation as well as tourney information , can be sent back.
Questions regarding the tournament should be directed to Shapiro, who can
be called at either xxx-xxxx or xxx-xxxx.
The Deadline for fees to be received was June 30th, but latest word from
Shapiro
and the convention organizers has July 15th, as the absolute deadline date
for
dorm reservations.
Shapiro also passes along word that this may be his last S-O-M National
Convention,
at least as far as organizing the annual event. Demands on his time have
cut into
his SOM activities and he's looking to step down and turn the role over to
someone
else for next year. If there's a successor in the crowd, be sure to let
the Wolfman know.
(Note
from the Wolfman: After I left
the game in 1980, there wasn't anyone in our game club who was able to take over, so this was our last convention. Although if you have read
earlier versions of the newsletter, you know that new tournaments began
to be organized in the the later part of the 1970's and into the 80's. In my final summary below where I
discuss the
conventions we setup and what I believe we accomplished, I discuss briefly
and honor the individuals who offered these new activities. Again, if you
were at this 1980 convention or know someone who was, we would like to share
and collect more details of what happened in the tournaments we offered
and who were the champions. Thank you.)
FINAL REFLECTIONS FROM
THE EARLY SOM CONVENTION
Dear Friends in SOM -- I
hope you have enjoyed the reporting of the first 9 SOM Conventions
organized in the 1970's and into 1980. I believe that what we did in
these special events has shaped how the tournaments are being run today to
some degree.
Also, we wanted to create a space where gamers from all over the world
could meet and
compete and we believe we were able to admirably accomplish this goal. We made many new friendships during
these days and although it was very hard work, I personally would not have traded
these special moments for anything else in the world.
However, because we were
only able to offer our convention in one location, although it was in the
central part of the U.S., we really couldn't say that the winners of our
tournaments were the absolute best players. We wanted to conduct
regional tournaments with the convention providing a way for the champions
to meet. Unfortunately we couldn't do this but as you will read in
the next section, through the TBA and now being done via the Star Tournaments (which
is now called the National Strat Tournaments) this dream did come to pass
but unfortunately these tournaments are only focused upon the baseball game. It is my intention
one day, if the opportunity will show itself and the universe grants to me the proper resources to
do so, at some future point to see if we can re-create again the National
Conventions -- A place where many tournaments using the different SOM Games
are offered. However, due to the high cost for traveling these
days and ability to play the game via the computer, it may never happen
again but one can dream.
BRIEFLY
HONORING THE OTHER PIONEERS
( Special Individuals who have setup
other tournaments & conferences)
Our group were not the only
folks to be working on local, regional or national tournaments (or
conventions). So in this section I would like to honor a few other
individuals, who were reported via the SOM Review for organizing their own
events. I doubt this is a comprehensive list but it will give
to the readers of these reports we have made in our newsletter more of a
feeling for how other SOM Conventions
and tournaments were born and evolved over time.
In the December 1975 issue of the
Review, Thomas Swank from
Little Fall, NJ, discussed setting up a Bicentennial Invitation Baseball
Tournament for the Bicentennial of America in 1976. I don't
know if he was able to do make this particular tournament happen but in the early part of 1977, they
organized two tournaments called Gambit (Great Armchair Managers Baseball
Invitational Tournament) which was primarily focused on the NJ-NY state
area but only dealt with the baseball game. As far as I could see,
Thomas organized nine Gambit tournaments through the beginning of 1981.
(Note: If you read our interview last year with Mr. Swank
son, you will see his father offered numerous tournaments linked to a
trophy which has each year the champion's name on it.)
In February of 1976, Robert Henry,
famous for his card collection, decided to organize his own min-convention
or regional convention in Detroit, Michigan. Robert wanted his
convention to be more then just tournaments but also had on display
every baseball card ever printed up till that date plus people could
trade or sell teams. 40 people attended and it was held at a local
sport hobbyist store.
Next up, in March of 1978, Steve Berens
who at this time (Note: he now lives in near Seattle in Washington State and known for his work with
the ESSOM baseball league and now hosting the Friendship Cup tournaments
#VIII in 2005) lived in Jackson Heights, New York, started a series of play-by-mail
tournaments called the "Gold Cup Challenge Series". You picked two
teams to play who their combined won-lost record was .500 -- I even
entered his first one and came in second. It took him 9 months to
finish the Cup (he actually played all the games) and he continued the cup into
the 1980's as well. In 1981, Greg Balas of Ponteix, Saskatchewan (Canada) organized a similar tournament
called the Silver Cup, which used Old Timer teams instead.
In August of 1981,
James Sanders, took over for our
conventions in Illinois and organized a series of tournament/conventions
in Indiana which he called the "Lyman Bostock Memorial Tournament".
It was in memorial of a strat baseball player named Lyman Bostock who was shot to death in Gary,
IN. Sanders was a Gary Police officer. This mini-convention
featured a number of tournaments in various SOM games.
He started to call his tournament a national convention in 1982 and SOM
creator, Mr. Richman contributed trophies that year. In the 5th
year of the convention, they held it at Purdue University. In that year,
Sanders finally won a football tournament. Based on the glimpses of
the Reviews which Gary Losey has sent to me Mr. Sanders continued his conventions at least through 1987.
Finally, late in 1985,
Tim Johnson started to work on
creating the vision that we had discussed in the 1970's about having regional
tournaments (he started with the baseball game) all over the country and
then having a national championship tournament with people qualifying to
be invited to this last tournament based on their play, at the end of the
year. This would be a true test for a national champion.
However, this series of tournaments went into another domain, which not
all felt comfortable with and that was their was a fairly high entry fee to
play of which the champion would receive a good portion of what was
collected.
Now for our convention, we did our best to keep our entry fees
reasonable so people
could enjoy the tournament. So this was a bit controversial at the time.
Another new feature of this tournament
by Johnson was that you didn't select a professional MLB team to use
that SOM had printed in prior seasons, in this tournament you would draft your team from the latest Baseball cards
that had been issued. The organization was at first called
Table Tourneys Inc. (TTI) but later this name was changed to the Table
Baseball Association, TBA for short. Mostly like this name chance came perhaps
because they decided not to focus on the
other SOM games but only work with the Baseball one. The very first
tournament was setup in Boston in February of 1986 and there were 44
participants who Tim called some of the top SOM baseball gamers in the
world.
The TBA seemed to have some
challenges getting off the ground but they did hold a few
more tournaments in other cities, such as Philadelphia was mentioned but this
group seemed to disappear later into the year. So, three individuals
Steve Laskin, Howard Belgrod & Fred
Goodman (two of these players wrote the rules for drafting in
the TBA, all who lived in NY state), decided to make their own tournaments
which they called Pro-Strat. Apparently toward the end of 1986, they
offered two tournaments in this area, following similar rules to the TBA,
including an entry fee with the top winners receive a handsome cash prize
and a VCR and TV were offered.
However before the end of
1986 (1986 was a busy year with Sander's convention, the TBA and
Pro-Stat), a person who saw Tim's vision and didn't want it to die,
rescued the TBA, and then the TBA continued with tournaments all over the
U.S. through 1995. His name was John Kruez,
who was a chartered life underwriter and certified financial planner, who
lived in Glenview, IL. Anyway, I don't know how many tournaments John was able
to organize for the TBA in their first year but I heard from two personal
friends that knew
John, he was very devoted to the TBA and personally setup all the
tournaments that were organized (flying to one place after another, weekend
after weekend). Thus John, for 10 years was able to create our
vision of regional tournaments ending with a National Tournament following
the ideas setup by Tim Johnson.
Now, when the TBA ended in
1995, Hank Smith and a group of
friends who had participated in various TBA tournaments decided to continue these
baseball tournaments and started a new organization called the Star
Tournaments. So the current tournaments now offered by the new
National Strat Tournaments which includes the Star Regions and SOM
Tours, the basic format of their tournaments was started by Johnson and
has been continued and enhanced. And it is with my old friend, (a dear
friend to many
gamers) Hank Smith, that we are going to begin a new direction for
my column which is linked to the SOM Conventions and Baseball
Tournaments that have been offered, please see the next section below
for more details.
WHAT'S
UP NEXT?
Well, first
of all, I hope you enjoyed the full series of articles about the early
SOM Conventions. It was a great time to be alive and be an SOM Gamer.
And although here in 2014, our beloved SOM games have tremendously evolved and
we have seen so
many amazing changes including all types of new activities and event, the love
we have specifically of
playing the SOM Baseball Game in all it forms with the idea to play in
tournaments has never died.
In 2006, I
had a chance to visit the U.S. (I was living in the Nethelands at the
time) and participated that fall in a Star Tournament in Chicago. And it
was my good fortune to meet Hank Smith who was also there for this
tournament. I really enjoyed speaking to him, one of the
friendliest people you want to meet and I had the privledge to playing against him in the late
rounds. (Note - linked to my article, "The Wolfman
Returns" is a three part article of my experiences at this tournament in
Chicago in 2006 ... )
After the
Chicago tournament ended, I stayed in touch with Hank and received more
than 20 emails from him, where would end the email and call himself the "Proud Papa".
Everyone
I have spoken to linked to the Star Tournaments told me its successful was
due in a great part to Hank's dedication in supporting the early
tournaments offered by Star, by using his own money to travel to and
attend as many as he could. He was named the first Star Commissioner and
became known as their world ambassador and the name of this tournament
was suggested by him. (Note - there were other key
people who worked with Hank to develop Star, and as we honor him in this
and future issues, Hank will give us the story of how the Star
tournaments began and tell us about these other special individuals.)
So I am
going to continue this column with a second article in this issue, that
comes from a special report by the "Proud Papa" who goes on to win in
January 2007, the Star World Tournament, their championship tournament.
In addition, over the course of the next few issues, I will continue to
honor Hank, via other
articles and interviews as unfortunately, the Strat-o-matic Baseball
World suffered a great loss with his passing last year (2013). If
you wish to read Hank's report of his victory, there is a link to it
below with the other articles, interviews and columns.
I do really
believe (as I am a great supporter of this kind of stuff) that Hank is
looking down from wherever his soul is, and seeing how the fruits of his
many years of dedication is paying off. It is the least we can do at the
newsletter to honor this amazing individual as we have done our best to
honor many special people in our previous issues. Without the creative
genius of Hal Richman and the rest of us, the SOM gamers, who love and
support this game, there would be no newsletter and stories to share.
Thank you Hank for being you!!
Finally, I
decided to finally use the credit I received for purchasing the computer
game and cards in 2013, to play one league or season with the on-line
baseball gaming system that Strat-o-matic offers as a birthday present
(I am an April baby). When I explored how this way to play the
baseball game works, I noticed there is a tournament that uses this
engine and has gone on for a number of years called "Barnstormers".
I had never heard of this tournament before, what type of editor am I,
if I am not able to keep up with all the great activities happening in
the SOM world? So I contacted the coordinator of "Barnstormers",
he goes by the nick name of Mighty Moose (a Moose and a Wolfman) and I
decided to join a league in the tournament. So starting in our next
issue I will describe how it all works. Now if any of our readers
are interested go to our SOM Baseball News page, and there is more
information about this tournament there and how you can join if you
wish. Further, I received a response to my post on the on-line gaming
forum that there are a number of tournaments being held on this system
and we hope to make contact with the coordinators of these tournaments
as well.
It is
amazing, how many different worlds there exist out there of SOM Baseball
gamers between all the leagues that exist along with both the
face-to-face and on-line tournaments. But heck, SOM is over 50 years
old, and in such a long time, anything is possible to develop.
I thank you
for your interest and support as always, see you in the next issue.
Wolfman
Shapiro
|
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 BRIAN
MCRAE,
ex-MLB player with Royals, Cubs and Mets.
♦
INTERVIEW
with JEFF MONTGOMERY,
ex-MLB player with the Royals.
♦
SOM BASEBALL WORLD NEWS,
a new page to share interesting news related to
Strat-o-matic Baseball.
♦
ARTICLE with JOSEPH
BOTTOM & ALAN DAVISON,
two SOM Baseball Fanatics
(Joseph & Alan) give permission for us to share with our members
their article called "Numbering
the Days - Memories of SOM
Baseball", published in the Weekly Standard, Sept. 2013.
♦
ARTICLE with HANK SMITH,
former Star Tournaments Commissioner and
Ambassador
Hank was one of the most beloved individuals in the SOM
Baseball World and a key for the success of the Star
Tournaments. In this report, Hank discusses how he won the 2007
Worlds Tournament held by Star to find their champion. This is
the beginning of a new direction by Wolfman Shapiro for his
Conventions Column and to honor Hank who passed away in 2013.
♦
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 discuss how the start of the CBA began with its Canadian roots
and once again is being strongly influence by our Canadian
members.
♦
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.
♦
BOOK REVIEW with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
Wolfman takes a peek at the
"
Baseball
Prospectus 2014 Guide"
created by Baseball Prospectus and over 20 contributing writers.
This guide features predictions for over 2,100 players who will
or could be a part of the upcoming 2014 season. CEO, Joe Hamhari, helped us to get this book.
He is an avid SOM baseball
gamer who we interviewed in the August 2013 issue of the
newsletter.
♦
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.
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 March!!
