Vol. III, Issue #1 - March 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
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 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 2015 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/2014-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/
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 Strat-o-matic for their occasional support of some of
our projects and sharing with their members about some of our
more interesting activities.)
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
Bruce Bundy released his next projection sheets for the 2015
cards. To read more about the Projection Sheets
or to obtain your own copy of the "2015 SOM Projection Sheets" visit Bruce's page on our site at:
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/SOMProjectionSheets-Feb2015.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.)
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.)
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)
---------------------------------
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/SOMProjectionSheets-Feb2015.htm
(The 2014 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 2015. 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.)
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)
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.)
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/Stratogist-Rookie-Review-Feb2015.htm
(The Stratogist.com Rookie
Review, is a special guide published each year - the 2015 Guide
is the 10th edition of the Guide that will discuss the top 200
Rookies, who either became key players in the 2014 season, which
will reflected by the new 2015 SOM Baseball cards or are
future young players you wish to draft for your team in your
leagues. Our members are receiving a $5 discount from the
normal price.)
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
♦
REPORT, "BILLY
SAMPLE CHALLENGE",
Ex-Major Leaguer Billy Sample accepts our challenge to play
Bryan Swank, one of our members in a best of 3 games series in
SOM as Billy takes the 1983 Texas Rangers, a team he was a
member of, verses Bryan's 1983 Red Sox. Read the full report,
which comes in three parts and also watch the video recorded by
Mark Wasserman.
♦
INTERVIEW with
JIM CALLIS,
Senior Writers MLBPipeline.com (MLB.com), as Jim discusses
his feeling about key young players who will be a factor in the
2015 MLB Season.
♦
INTERVIEW with RAY
MURPHY,
General Manager of Administration at BaseballHQ
♦
INTERVIEW with SEAN
RILEY,
Strat Tournament Player's Club 2015 World's Champion
♦
INTERVIEW with JIM GARY,
Council Member of the Strat Tournament Player's Club, West
Region
♦
SOM BASEBALL WORLD NEWS with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO,
editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter"
discusses the latest Baseball products offer by the
Strat-o-matic Game Company, Recommendations of on-line
Projection Systems for the performance of Major League Baseball
Players in the upcoming season, a summary of the recent new
Videos Ultimate Strat has released on their Youtube Video
Challenge and what is "The Bruce Foster Challenge" that is
underway.
♦
REVIEW OF KEY
BASEBALL PUBLICATIONS with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
-- Wolfman gives to our member a review
of the latest strategy guides and books published which includes
"Bill James Handbook 2015" (Acta Sports with Baseball Info
Solutions); "Ron Shandler's 2015 Baseball Forecaster" (Baseball
HQ) and the "Rookie Review, 2015 Edition" (Stratogists.com).
♦
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.