Issue #3, April 2013
(Help us keep our newsletter Free,
visit our on-line Collectibles, Baseball & Athletic Gear Store)
**
Interview with Willy Dominguez, STAR Worlds
Champion 2013
**
(conducted by Wolfman Shapiro, Willy is the Southern Regional
Director of STAR)
(Notes from the Wolfman:
Starting from Issue #1, we have
talked about the history of the Strat-o-matic Conventions which
introduced face-to-face tournament play. In the April
issue we are beginning to share about the STAR Tournaments,
which is one of the current organizations which is offering many
live tournaments within parts of the U.S. as well as on-line
tournaments. But what is special in this interview is that
we have a chance to meet the STARS top champion, the individual
who won what they call their "WORLDS" championship which is
where the best players come to compete. Now our other interview in this issue is with Pete Nelson who is
one of the members of the STAR Board of Directors who is providing more a
history of STAR and how STAR works. At some future point I
will also share some articles I wrote about my experiences
playing in a STAR tournament in Chicago a few years ago.
But here we get to hear from their 2013 World's Champion, Willy
Dominguez. We can learn a lot from a tournament champion.
I met Willy on Facebook as I read about his championship in the
Worlds in Florida in January of 2013 and he agreed to be
interviewed. So below is the interview we did, enjoy!!)
|
Here we see Willy
in the WORLDs Tournament in Florida
being crowned the STAR champion
in January of this year. |
Wolfman:
Willy when did you start to play SOM Baseball?
How
old are you now?
Willy:
I'm 54 years old. I was born in Lima, Peru and came to
the US when I was 17 years old to study at the
University of Miami. Kids in Peru play mainly Soccer,
Basketball or Volleyball so I barely had any concept of
Baseball at the time.
|
Wolfman:
Can you tell us
some more about how you first got involved with Baseball and in
particular with Strat-o-matic Baseball?
Willy:
I didn't know a thing about baseball until a frat
brother who had transferred to Miami from the North East
brought the Strat game with him and some of the guys at
the frat house started playing it.
It peeked my
curiosity because as a kid I had two loves, sports and
board games. Although I knew nothing about baseball, the
fact that Strat was a board game about sports really
got my attention.
Pretty soon we were playing the
basic game with old timer cards. My favorite player was
the 1953 Dodger's Duke Snyder. I must admit that back
then I also knew zero about baseball strategy. For
instance, I would call for the corners in with two out
and nobody on base. Just because I thought it
was a neat
thing to do so ... it raised a lot of eyebrows with my
opponent ...
Wolfman:
After you became familiar with the baseball game did you event
participate in any face-to-face or computer leagues - can you
give us a short history of what experiences you have had
in league play?
Willy:
I played in a local face to face league back in the 1980's and
that's pretty much when I was exposed to the numbers side of the
game (Editor's Note - Willy is talking about learning
about the percentage from the cards of a hitter to get a hit or
get on base versus the percentage to not get a hit or on-base on
the pitcher's cards, this percentage is a number). One of
the guys I played with, Eddie Machado, had mastered the art of
identifying card chances instead of what we all used to do,
mainly look at a card and pick players because "we liked the way
the card looked". After kicking our butt for a couple of years,
we started to learn how to rate a card properly.
I don't have that much time to play in a league anymore, so I
only play in one league full time, the NNL where I have played
for the last 10 years or so.
Wolfman:
Now turning toward tournament play - how did this start, when
did you start to play in the Star Tournaments?
Willy:
I started playing in the old TBA back in the 80's and then later
in STAR when the TBA went out of business. I am currently the
South Regional Director and organize all the Florida tournaments
and have responsibility for the proper running of the other
tournaments in the southern states. There is a bit of a learning
curve to play in tournaments, however at least in the South we
do try to mentor new players to get them up to speed as much as
possible.
Wolfman:
My understanding is that if you play in the Worlds you must be
fairly successful player in the various regional tournaments -
either having won a tournament or so or have finished with a
very positive win-loss percentage in the games played over many
tournaments, is this correct?
Willy:
I have played quite a bit over the last several years but I've
had as much success as failure as anybody. If you look at the
STAR website, I don't even rank above .500 in terms of wins and
losses lifetime. Part of the reason for my success recently is
because during the season I experimented a lot with different
combinations of teams and players until I found the best
combinations possible to have a competitive team at the Worlds.
So sometimes you do really well and sometimes you bomb and your
record suffers accordingly. For some reason I do much better at
the Worlds tournaments, having finished 3rd twice and 5th twice,
with finally winning the whole thing this year.
Wolfman:
Is there a certain type of team you like to draft in the Star,
do you always go after the same type of team or change from
tournament to tournament - or does it has to do with
circumstances of what players are available?
(Editor's Note, as is explained in the interview by
Pete Nelson, the creation of your team in the STAR tournaments
is based upon draft players from a specific season, whether its
the latest released cards or a prior season that has the
advanced side of the cards, so this is why I am asking this
question here.)
Willy:
One of the things that I have learned over time is that you have
to be flexible when you are drafting. I drafted mainly high
diamond teams (Diamonds represent Ball Park Homeruns) this
season while playing in STAR and PURESTRAT (an on-line
tournament using Skype the player's card and either real dice or
an online dice roller, PURESTRAT tournaments are a part of STAR)
tournaments and had quite a bit of success with them. However, I
was forced to use a low diamond team when I won the Purestrat
championship this year and ended up forcing myself to draft a
Lefty dominated (hitting) team for the STAR Worlds. I was not
planning on it but sometimes you have to adjust to what players
come back to you in the draft. Being able to win both the
Purestrat and STAR championships back to back was pretty
unexpected and actually a pretty cool accomplishment. However,
many of the guys I played against are just as good or better at
this game than I am.
Wolfman:
What is the key to your success in the tournaments - is it
strategy or luck or do you have a plan you follow?
Willy:
I would say that 30% is a good draft, 30% strategy and 30% is
luck. The other 10% is being able to keep your cool through the
many ups and downs that you go through over the course of a
tournament. Lastly, you need to keep in mind when you build a
team that it works pretty much like a good football team
(Offense, defense, special teams). In baseball you need some
offense, good defense and good enough pitching. Lacking in any
of those may get you by in a short tournament but not in a long
tournament such as the Worlds where your deficiencies are
exposed over time.
Wolfman:
Can you tell us about your victory in the Worlds - from your
perspective why was this your time to be the champion? Were
there any close calls during this championship run, where you
almost didn't win or were you dominant?
Willy:
I had a pretty balanced team at the Worlds. My offense was not
overwhelming but just good enough to score 3-4 runs per game or
more and let me be competitive. My defense (I had an all 2
infield and either 1's or 2's in the OF) plus an outstanding
bullpen carried my team when I was not hitting. I had a pretty
dominating run with this team until the last few games of the
regular season when my team hit a mini-slump. The only time that
I was really in danger of not advancing was in the semi-finals
when I lost my first two games of the series. I kept my cool
though and was able to win the next four games. That was the one
time that I felt I got pretty cheesy while my opponent did not
get a lot of breaks. You do need that sometimes to carry you
over the hump.
Wolfman:
Are there any tips you can share with the members of our
newsletter how they can either play better or build a more
successful team?
Willy:
Be flexible, do your homework and always be prepared for
alternatives when the player you wanted is taken. Also, don't
fall in love with a player. You will tend to draft him earlier
than he should and it will hurt you later in the draft.
Wolfman:
Is there anything else you wish to share about yourself, your
strategy with the game, about your championship or some special
experiences or stories you wish to share from you game play that
was not asked before?
Willy:
The key to being successful in tournament play is to keep your
cool. I have played with many outstanding players that if they
had a little more patience would probably win a lot more games
and tournaments. Baseball is a sport designed to make you fail.
Keep in mind that a .300 hitter will fail to get a hit 7 out of
10 times he's at the plate.
Wolfman:
Can people write to you at your email address or on Facebook, if
they would like to speak with you?
Willy:
Absolutely.
(to contact Willy via email write to:
or via his face book, see him at:
https://www.facebook.com/willy.dominguez.50 )
Wolfman:
Thank you Willy for giving us this
chance to speak with you and meet a Star Tournament World
Champion.
----------------------
Wolfman's Note:
Having played in many
tournaments, I recognize a great deal of truth of what Willy has
shared with us in his interview. Playing with a Balanced
team is a key which is the reason I believe our Skokie Wolfmen
won the CBA championship. As I discussed, in the special
report I am offering for all of our members, you will clearly
see this explained in that document. I also agree that you
have to keep your cool, and play it game by game. Each time you
start a new game, its like starting over. Willy's
experience at working for many years to finally become a
champion shows that it does take dedication to finally succeed,
again it turn my Skokie teams 7 years (6 years in the playoffs,
3 world series visits) before we won it all and there are some
of the best baseball GMs on the planet in the CBA. I hope
that Willy granting us this interview will inspire other league
and tournament champions to share with the members of our
newsletter.
In April now we add the website for the STAR tournaments to our
resources along with PureStrat to be added to the SOMT
tournament websites. Also STAR and SOMT have their own forums
where you can speak with other gamers involved in their
tournaments. Click here to visit our On-Line SOM
and Baseball Resource page.)
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 JEFF POLMAN,
Writer, SOM Website Columnist, Replay Expert.
♦
INTERVIEW with JIM CALLIS and KEN
DAVIDOFF,
Jim is Executive Editor of
Baseball America and Ken is a baseball columnist for the NY Post
♦
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 third national Strat-o-matic
Convention in 1974 held in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at the
University of Illinois as the Wolfman and his buddies organize
their first convention. Wolfman will be
our guide through the first nine conventions going through 1980
of which he was present at each one. We now begin the era from 1974-1980
when the conventions moved to Illinois. We will continue to share one new convention in
each future issue till all of these early ones are published.
♦
INTERVIEW with PETE
NELSON, (STAR),
Board Member of the Star
Tournaments Association, discusses what the Star Tournaments are
all about.
♦
INTERVIEW with TERRY
BARTELME,
SOM Gamer, Discusses his
experiences with the Negro and Japanese Players working with
private developers.
♦
INTERVIEW with BILLY SAMPLE,
Ex-MLB Player (TEX,NYY,ATL),
Sportscaster
♦
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 discusses the early development of a League's
Constitution, League Themes and Economics.
♦
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 #2,
explain our new format for this column, introduce some early SOM
Baseball cards from the 1960 and 1961 seasons thanks to Tom
Nahigian who is also interviewed in this issue in his own
section.
♦
INTERVIEW with
TOM NAHIGIAN
--
SOM Gamer, Baseball Card Collector
♦
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.
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)
