Vol. IV, Issue #5 - July 2016
**
Welcome to USBN as our Strat Leagues are in their midst,
Baseball Daily is a realhappening, and we have some good
team competing for the championship in MLB
**
Comments from the Wolfman about
this current issue as we begin our fourth
year (2016) of publication with a new year of excitement. As we
provide for our
readers
the most unique and interesting aspects of Strat-o-matic Baseball
with links
to Major League Baseball. Time to meet some of the most interesting people who
are connected to
the game we love -
2016 is
gonna be a big ride with all the
new products and services that Strat-o-matic is offering - stay tuned -
from your staff at the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter ....
Hello
again dear members - I am back from my break in June, and even
though I traveled with my life partner Katrina on a 2-1/2 week
road trip which probably was over 5000 miles of driving,
visiting friends and family, I still had time to work on and get
out our next issue
for July 2016. I would call this issue "The Dream
Issue" and in a moment you will know exactly what I mean.
I think
the 2016 play of Strat Baseball has been greatly enhanced with
Baseball Daily, as now we can play along with our favorite team
or teams in real life using their actual stats (card image) as
we go along. With the exception of a minor glitch
(which I will discuss in my article this month) that happened
around the All Star Break, this version of the game is pretty
darn exciting and working great. Have you tried it yet yourself?
Ok, what
is this "Dream" stuff all about? Well, have any of you ever
wanted to visit the Baseball Field that was used in the movie
"Field of Dreams" (which is BTW my most favorite baseball film)?
Well, this month, with some help from dear old dad (my father),
Katrina and I passed through Dryersville, Iowa, en-route to visit
my Father in Bloomington, Illinois. This city in Iowa is
where the Baseball Field used in the so-name film is located. After the film was
finished, the Lansing family who owned the farm, had the choice
to either have their land put back the way it was before the
movie or to keep the Baseball Field as is
and this is the choice they made. Little did they know how
many visitors they would see over the years (the movie was
released in 1989).
Recently
though, the farm and field was sold and purchased by an investment group now called "Go the Distance
Baseball, LCC" (in December of 2012), but this group had to agree to keep
the field as is before the Lansing Family (specifically Don
Lansing), would sell it to them. Thus, in this issue is the first part of a two
part report of our experiences at the Field, a chance for me to
perform one of my own dreams and the various interviews with key
people I could do. I got
interested to visit Dryersville, when the commissioner of MLB
along with Hall of Famer, John Smoltz began a summer baseball
tour there. When I checked out the website for the
Baseball Field, I
was amazed at all the activities which are going on around it
during the year, that is when the weather is good and "Play
Ball" can be announced.
Anyway, I think you will get a kick out of this first part of
the report with the second part to show up in our August issue.
Note - we did send out a
bulletin to all our members earlier, we still request keep your prayers
and good thoughts for W. P. Kinsella, the author of the book, "Shoeless Joe",
who has now gone through his surgery and is recuperating.
When we hear any news or updates, we will let our members know.
Well, as
I talked about in our last issue (May of 2016), I have been
playing with the 2016 Chicago Cubs and to some degree as they
began their decline in June and July, I experienced the same
with them using Baseball Daily. Anyway for July I have included a new
report how I am performing with "My Boys", and just as I was
beginning to type and write this
page for the newsletter (July 25th) I heard the Cubs got Chapman
from the Yankees via a trade. So there is no doubt in my
mind, these
Cubbies are truly going for "it", and I think they have a great chance.
They picked up two other relievers and by the time I go to
press, may find that OFer to replace Schwarber. I also
discuss a slight glitch that came up for Baseball Daily during the
All Star Break and how to get around it if you didn't have time
to contact the game company.
Other
parts you will find in this edition of our newsletter is we hear
from two more league commissioners that I found once again via Strat Draft -
Mark Simons (who runs 4 leagues, unbelievable ..) and Scott
Leitner from the Illinois Vallley Strat League. Then we
have two of our key contributors return with new stuff including
the Commish, Mark Wasserman with his column "Strat Wise" giving
suggestions on League Enforcement and my old strat buddy from
the 70's, Larry Braus about how he did with the Strat Players
Tournament Club's tourney in Chicago, our old stumping ground.
Quickly, one other quick story that came up recently with our
members: One of our members contacted us as he was
moving permanently to Phoenix named Fred. He asked if we
knew other games there, and via the service we use, Aweber, that
stores the names and email contacts of our members, those who
decide to sign up with us, we can see which area our members
live. So we emailed those members near Phoenix on behalf of Fred
(not sharing any personal details) and he linked up with Rick.
Here is a quick note from Rick:
Yes, Fred and I have spoken on
the phone. He is moving from Tennessee to
Scottsdale, Arizona, within weeks. Seems like he
rented a home about 10 miles from me. We may be
playing some basic Strat using cards and dice, which
is fine with me. Thanks much for the connection.
Rick
If other members are seeking SOM gamers in
their area, to play some games and not feel
isolated, we could offer this service going into the
future. In this case it was an experiment to
see how it would work. Let us know and its
another way to help with some donations that
compensate for our costs and time. Think about it
and we will keep on this story in Phoenix.
--------------
Anyway,
next
month, you will get the second part of my Field of Dreams Report
and if all goes well I may have a very known ex-Major Leaguer
you will hear from along with all our other normal stuff.
And also if all goes well, I plan to get back to our 360
Baseball expert, Marc Pelletier and finally use his system to
make our team. So as you all know, there is always
exciting stuff going on here at your Ultimate Strat Baseball
Newsletter.
**
Additionally, we wish to encourage any member to possibly consider to
become a contributor to this newsletter. Truly, the success of our newsletter is through its co-creation
by all of us and variety is the spice of life. We all have
our special Strat Baseball story to tell. Please, think
about it, we can help to edit your materials too if needed.
Once
again, as always, any donation you can give, no matter how small
does help us to keep the newsletter going without pressure. So,
if you really truly are enjoying each issue of the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter and you are able to help us with
such a donation (not
donation is too small),
we are so grateful. We are
very appreciative especially to
those members who have given us such donations, with even a few
individuals are doing so with a contribution each month now (wow!).
However for those of you who do make
such a contribution for the newsletter this month, we continue
to offer two special spreadsheets
I have personally created to prepare for the two leagues I am
currently a
member in for this year. I would be happy to send one or both of
them to you as my personal gift in
appreciation for your support. These two spreadsheets are based
upon MLB.com's future
projections on over 800 players for 2016; and a spreadsheet with
all the minor league stats for all the Major League American
farm teams, as it shows every player who played for those teams
in 2015.
For a donation of just $3 you can request either "2016
Predictions" or "Minor League Stats" which I will personally
attach your spreadsheet of choice to an email or for a $5
donation or more, I will email you both spreadsheets. Here
is how to get the spreadsheet(s) you wish:
As you
know, on each page of the newsletter, we have a little area called "Support the
Cause" where we ask for your donations.
Just click on the "DONATE" button which takes you to paypal, and
if you do a $3 donation, write in the message to us which of the
two spreadsheets you wish. Obviously with a $5 (or more)
donation we know you want both. This is our way to thank
you for this help.
Note (our
monthly reminder): Once
again, if you have just joined us recently or haven't had a chance to
read all of our bulletins and prior newsletters (since January
of 2013), you can find
everything you desire by visiting our archive webpages at:
http://archive.aweber.com/stratbaseball
So here we are go
again,
as the MLB season is really getting intense and in full swing, the trade
deadline nears and we watch some new amazing young stars coming on the
scene thinking about how we can get these guys on our draft
league team for next year ... enjoy the July issue of your newsletter!!
To a glorious 2016,
success in
your leagues, replays and tournaments,
Wolfman Shapiro
on behalf of the team at USBN
PS --
If anyone has purchased the new DVD "Managing to Win" - The Story of
Strat-o-matic - we would like to hear from you what
you thought about this new documentary by the game company, feel
free to send us a private email. Also another member of the
newsletter, Dan H. sent us an email which shared the following
story linked to the Hall of Fame celebration that inducted new
members:
Longtime Boston Globe
sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy was inducted into the
HOF as a writer today...and he mentioned playing
Strat in his acceptance speech. Here is the link..
|
Support the Cause
If you are enjoying
the content and information our newsletter shares with you, why
not support us with your helpful contribution 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)
♦
FIELD OF DREAMS REPORT, PART I
with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
,
The "Wolfman" takes our members to the famous Baseball Field
shown in the movie "Field of Dreams". The Lansing family that
owned the farm that this field was created for the movie has
kept it and over one million people have visited. July 14th and
15th, Wolfman with his life partner Katrina visits where he has
one of his Dreams come true and he shares various interviews
including speaking to the author of the book who wrote the novel
the film is based on.
♦
STRAT WISE with MARC WASSERMAN
--
commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) continues
his new column sharing various perspectives on SOM Baseball. In
this issue Marc shares insights about how to do League
Enforcements by using a league he is in called the Great
Midwest Baseball League.
♦
ARTICLE with LARRY BRAUS,
Larry, an old friend of the Wolfman from Chicago and
periodic contributing writers shares with us about his
experience playing at the Strat Tournament Players Club
tourney held in Chicago in April of this year.
♦
SOM BASEBALL LEAGUE REPORT with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
--
the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA
Champion, talks to members of various Strat-o-matic
Baseball Leagues that he has discovered on the internet about
the history of their league and their experiences. This is the
first time we get to speak to a League Commissioner of a
Baseball Retro League and how these leagues are different than
the normal draft league. To read the interview, click on the link below:
INTERVIEW with MARK
SIMONS, Commissioner of 4 Leagues, P-VIII
(Computer)
INTERVIEW with SCOTT
LEITNER, Commissioner of IVSL, P-XI
(Computer)
♦
ARTICLE with WOLFMAN
SHAPIRO (linked with Baseball Daily),
This the Wolfman second report about the new "Baseball Daily" game play
with SOM Baseball as he continues to manage the 2016 Chicago Cubs
day by day. He shows you his results through the end of July
28th and give an analysis linked to the Cubs how they have been
playing and their chances to get to the World Series.
♦
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
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.
Contact Us for Questions or Submissions:
Wolfman Shapiro
co-Founder/Editor, the
Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter
email:
wolfman@ultimatestratbaseball.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)
