At the time of the release of this issue, we are now in the middle of the 2015 Major League Baseball season, a very interesting season indeed as quite a few of the 100 top rookie prospects are beginning to invade the game and have an impact already on their teams.  This idea of basing your ballclub's success upon these talented young players is having quite an effect as there are at least three MLB teams who have followed this strategy and all have a shot to be in the playoffs (The Royals who have already broken through and now here come the Cubs (YES!!) and the Astros.)  So this is probably getting many of you juiced up to think about your league's draft next year and all the new talent that might be available to add to your club. 

On the Strat scene of course we have our normal level of leagues going on whether it is draft leagues with the latest set of players released or some type of retro-league or even leagues running via the on-line version of the game which is very busy too.  We have our share of tournaments going on, all year long - so yes my friends, Strat-o-matic Baseball is very much alive and well and will be with us in all its flavors for a very very long time to come.

Now for this particular issue, we have some goodies to share with you as we always do.  The return of our good friend Bruce Bundy is always a welcome sight as he brings to you a new edition of his column "Strat Thoughts" with his unique insights into key strategies to help you perform better in your leagues.  Next up we are trying some new reports/columns such as funny stories and special strat experiences - as via a few new friends I met via Facebook and through an appeal I put out on the net - we have this new report where we share some pretty amazing stories.  I hope this will appeal to our readers and that it might inspire our members as we go forward to make your contribution to this new section and make it a regular happening.  Its my job as your editor, for each issue to come up with some new and exciting insights linked with the game we love.

Also we have two individuals who shared their most special game ever played during their private replays (replays are a big thing on the SOM Baseball Forums) so if you have such an unforgettable game that you have played (whether in a replay or live in a league, netplay or face-to-face) we would like to report these as well in the future and now offer you the space to do so. What was your greatest game you ever played.

Marc Wasserman, our commish, also comes back this month with a new view of Strat Leagues that you should find very entertaining especially about trading and how to build your teams to compete for the championship of your league.  I don't know how many of our members have been with us since our early days and first issues in 2013, but we have also brought back Tom Nahigian (known as "The Collector" in Guzzo's book) to share another view of some of the original cards released in 1961 and the mysterious GROUNDBALL and FLYBALL E which no longer exists.  Next up, via a post on Twitter, I discovered Minnesota Twins Play-by-Play Annoucer Dick Bremer is a Strat Baseball guy and so we have a special interview with him too to once again share a link between Strat and Major League Baseball.

And next, if you recall, in our last issue (the SOM News section) I spoke about the "Bruce Foster Challenge" which deals with the on-line version of the game offered by Strat-o-matic where you draft and control your team totally via your web browser. Bruce has a system he has used to win numerous leagues and various tournaments focused around a set of players that is called the "All Time Greats set #8".  This sets features thousands of the best seasons of the greatest ballplayers to ever live which spans from the 1880's to today including the Negro Players released as well.  Imagine drafting a team of the very best seasons of any player in the history of MLB - what type of team would you draft? Anyway, I challenged Bruce to see if I followed his system, step by step could I take a team to a league championship.  I briefly reported last time which team I drafted and how the league worked that I joined. Well here in this issue is my full report of exactly what happened and if Bruce's system worked for me.

As the final part of this issue, we have a surprise of sorts.  How about a live video interview with Hal Richman, the creator of Strat-o-matic?  When our "Johnny on the Spot" visited the game company back in February for Opening Day, beside all the great on-site interviews he did with fanatics waiting to receive their games and/or new cards, he had a chance to interview the "Man" himself.  As a part of our Youtube channel, we have now released this special (18+ minute) interview.  We hope you enjoy it!!