Issue #3, April 2013
(Help us keep our newsletter Free,
visit our on-line Collectibles, Baseball & Athletic Gear Store)
**
Jeff Polman, an extraordinary writer and
Master of the Season Replay
**
(interview conducted by the Wolfman)
(Notes from the Wolfman:
Normally for an editor of a
newsletter, you have to seek out and find interesting people to
interview, or at least this is the way it works with a new
publication. However in the case of Jeff, once he heard we
existed, he contacted us. Now I have to humbly admit I wasn't
sure who Jeff once when I received his first email but then I
discovered that Jeff was the other person on the Strat-o-matic
website that the game company was granting permission for
articles to be published there along with Glenn Guzzo. But
what Jeff does which is amazin' dear members, is he is a time
traveler. He writes his blog and books about living in the
past and writing as if he is experiencing some of the great
baseball seasons from before. He has a book about 1924 and the
his blog we have listed in our resource page covers 1958. So I
am sure you are going to enjoying meeting Jeff, another unusual
and unique member of the SOM Baseball community. Take it away
Jeff!!)
Jeff Pictures
from his Blog about re-living
the 1958 Baseball Season, you will like it! |
Wolfman:
Jeff
Polman, thanks for this chance to interview you and also
for joining our newsletter. So let's start at the
beginning. How did you first get involved with baseball,
at what age did you become a fan? Did you play baseball
yourself, who was your favorite team and player or
players?
Jeff:
It all
began in 1963, when I was eight years old, and my dad
took me and my older brother to Fenway Park to see the
Yankees play the Red Sox. It was a Thursday matinee, May
30. Maris and Mantle played, and the Yanks won the game
6-5 in ten innings. I was instantly hooked, and began
following the awful Boston team.
That same summer,
my brother ordered the Strat-O-Matic game and the box
arrived when he was away at summer camp. I opened it,
checked out all the cool-looking cards, and played with
him in earnest when he returned. We had a bunch of
neighborhood friends in our western Massachusetts town
we played wiffle ball with, and suddenly we were all
playing Strat on the backyard porch, too. Mays and Aaron
cards were always popular, but around 1967 (naturally),
Carl Yastrzemski quickly became my all-time favorite
player. It wasn't just because he was a Hall of Famer
and had an amazing season in '67, it's because he
singlehandedly made a generation of New Englanders Red
Sox fans again. Their teams and attendances were awful
for a long time leading up to that magic year. |
And no, wiffle ball, a
short, bad Little League career and later softball are the only
times I've played the game. I am a fan first and foremost,
though I do appreciate how extremely difficult it is to play the
game well. Just look at Michael Jordan.
Wolfman:
What is there about
baseball that catches your fancy Jeff?
Jeff:
The timelessness
of the game, the way its history is reflected in practically
every aspect, the peacefulness of the green field, the signature
batting stances and windups of every player ever that never
leave your brain, the vast, ever-growing library of wonderful
baseball non-fiction, the endless compilation of statistics that
makes it easy to compare one era to another, the daily
standings, etc., etc. One reason there are very few great
baseball movies is because the drama on the actual field is
often better than anything you can invent in Hollywood.
Wolfman:
Now moving on to
Strat-o-Matic Baseball, you mentioned in one of your emails that
you first became involved in 1964 - how did you find the game?
What is it about SOM that makes you a fanatic and also you
called yourself an Ambassador?
Jeff:
Well, I mentioned
a few paragraphs ago how I was introduced to the game. I think
my brother clipped out a Strat advertisement from an annual
baseball magazine. What makes me a fanatic is that I can't stop
playing the sucker, and don't really want to. It's now tough for
me to watch a ballgame on TV without playing a Strat one on my
coffee table simultaneously. For a while I was a little ashamed
of my excessive hobby -- it did wreck a couple relationships and my
first marriage -- but I have been re-married to someone who accepts
it for over twenty years, and I now see it as an honest part of
who I am.
The "ambassador" comment has to do with my fevered desire to
promote the game any way I can without actually working at the
company, and the best way I've found, kind of organically, is to
do it through my fictional replays. It really is the greatest
tabletop game ever invented that not enough people seem to know
about. I've been in a few Rotisserie-style fantasy leagues, and
they don't hold a candle to Strat baseball as far as being fun,
as well as a great learning experience. Stats guru Bill James
has said there a handful of big league field managers now who
wouldn't stand a chance in an expert Strat league, and I fully
believe that.
Wolfman:
We asked Glen Guzzo
in his interview if he had any tips on how to improve one's
success at playing the baseball game. Do you have any play tips
for our readers?
Jeff:
I would say #1
would be to learn the cards of your players as fast as
you can, especially if you're playing with the advanced side. A
lot of people I know write detailed safe/hit chances on the left
and right sides of their cards to help them make in-game
decisions. I never do that, because I've have been playing for
so long I can now "eyeball" which side of the card is more
productive with a glance or two.
#2 would be to put lots of time into setting your
lineups. I do everything humanly possible to avoid grounding
into double plays, which means putting guys with lots of walks
right at the top, even if they're slow and have groundball A
chances. The second hitter should have virtually NO groundball
A's. Your best hitter is third, your most powerful fourth,
another guy with no groundball A's is good fifth, sort of like
starting another lineup cycle down there, and so on.
#3 is don't steal unless the chances are really good.
I find stealing kills more rallies than it helps. And obviously,
never steal with two outs if the guy coming up has a bad clutch
rating. Of course, if you're playing with the 1965 Dodgers and
it's the only way they can score runs, you have to give in a
little.
#4 is don't yank a good pitcher unless he's fatigued.
Sometimes you can get angry and treat the card like it's alive
and hates you, and you want to get it off your game table as
quick as possible, but it's important to keep in mind these are
pieces of cardboard without feelings, and unless they're
fatigued, they can calm down and pitch well again before you
know it. I've played managers who burn through their entire pen
by the sixth inning because they lose faith too quickly in their
starter.
Wolfman:
It seems from your
blogs and articles I have read you love doing replays? What is
there about replays that gets you excited? I guess you wrote a
book about your 1924 replay and invented some fictional people
who were doing this replay as if it was really happening. Can
you talk about this?
Jeff:
Certainly. I was
doing a season-long write-up on the Strat Fan Forum of a "Best
of 2007" replay, where I took the best 16 teams and played a
full season with a 1930s schedule (fabulous fun project, by the
way) and getting a lot of great feedback from the readers. So I
thought, hey, maybe I should try to take this even further, and
came up with doing a separate Web site blog for the new 1924
set.
"1924 and You Are There!" ran at least five days a
week for a little over a year, and featured Vinny Spanelli, a
17-year old Phillies fan, reporting the NL action from old Baker
Bowl, and Calvin Butterworth, a Detroit newspaper man, telling
us about the AL games. Stories developed naturally, with most of
the plot dictated by what happened on the Strat tabletop. It was
really fun to write, and I received a lot of good attention from
the blog. It inspired me to do three more of these replay blogs:
Play That Funky Baseball (1977), The Bragging Rights League
(1941 white all-stars vs. five teams of the "Negro Major
League"), and Mystery Ball '58, a "baseball murder mystery" set
mostly in San Francisco during the Giants' first year out there.
"1924" is also available in book form now, and can be bought on
Amazon.
Wolfman:
Have you ever met any
professional baseball players? Have any of these players played
SOM Baseball?
Jeff:
The only player I
can say I've truly met is Bill "Spaceman" Lee. When he
pitched for the Expos in 1979 (and won 16 games in their pennant
drive). I was doing a newspaper interview with him after a game
in Montreal, and we had a few beers together. He didn't play
Strat. The only big leaguers I know who have played are Lenny
Dykstra, Keith Hernandez, Curt Schilling and Morgan Ensberg (the
online version) and ex-Expos hurler Denis Boucher.
Wolfman:
Since I am also a
writer of books, and articles sometimes, when did you start
writing? How did you develop this gift? Are there future writing
projects you have linked to Baseball or SOM? What is there about
being a writer that appeal to you?
Jeff:
I started writing
short stories when I was around 13. First one was "Camp
Hawkeye," a murder mystery set in a summer camp. This was well
before the Friday the 13th franchise, mind you. I took creative
writing courses in high school and college, but basically have
always been working on something fictional. Wrote two novels
when I was in high school and foolishly tried to get them
published. They were pretty lame. Majored in filmmaking at college
and after seven years or so as a journalist moved to L.A. to try
my hand at screenplays. Wrote about twenty of those and had two
low-budget thrillers sold and produced.
Aside from my monthly column for the Strat Web site, I do have
some other SOM-related projects in mind, but won't reveal what
they are yet. That would take the fun away.
I love writing because all you need is your brain and a pencil
and pad to get started. If you have an imagination, there's no
limit to where you an go. It gives you a sense of private,
creative empowerment that few other things can do.
Wolfman:
Every SOM gamer has
special moments or experiences, unbelievable games they were
involved with. Can you share with our readers one or two of your
special moments?
Jeff:
There's probably
too many to remember. But my 2004 Curt Schilling did throw a
perfect game against the Indians in another "Best of" full
season I never finished. I had a Reds and Giants pitcher each
throw no-hitters through nine innings in a 1978 game at
Candlestick that I think the Reds won 1-0 behind Frank Pastore's
no-no in ten innings. And I just rolled a game last Saturday in
a new draft league I joined in which my team won 17-2 and hit
nine homers, with Mike Trout going yard four times and
Encarnacion three. Of course, it was in Cellular Field so it was
a little tainted.
Wolfman:
You said you were
involved with a league that has existed for 35 years - what is
this league - if it is that old is it a face to face league or
was it a mail league - how many
of the original members are still with the league?
Jeff:
The league is
called the ECBA, or East Coast Baseball Association., though it
is nationwide. I've only been in it for four years, but yeah, it
started in like 1973. Not sure exactly how many original guys
are still playing but it has to be at least four or five out of
the 12. They meet up once a year at a very large country house
in Maryland for a 4-5 day convention of Strat and wiffle ball
playing. I've only been able to attend once so far, but did
write a Strat column about it.
The ECBA uses the basic side of the cards, with the
super-advanced fielding, and naturally doesn't bother with
clutch/ballpark ratings or WP/PB/BALK stuff. Mainly this is
because many of the games are played through the mail using the
honor system, and lefty/righty instructions would get too
time-consuming. We play a 160-game schedule and speed is pretty
essential.
Wolfman:
Now, how were you
able to get the opportunity to do posts on the SOM Game Company
website? I know Glenn Guzzo also does this but he seems to be
working with the game company to help them develop the cards.
Are you supporting the game company in some way as well?
Jeff:
To be honest,
I've forgotten how I got it started. I think I just sent an
e-mail to the PR guy at the time with a column idea when I saw
their site was growing.
Wolfman:
Have you had a chance
to meet Mr. Richman? Can you tell us about your contact with the
creator of the game we love - do you speak with him from time to
time?
Jeff:
I met him on the
air for the first of a short-lived number of Strat podcasts on
the Seamheads network called "Tumbling Dice". Seamheads founder
Mike Lynch and I interviewed Hal for about half an hour, and he
was great. Then I met him personally for another quick podcast
live interview during their 50th anniversary event in New York.
Super nice guy, and still very sharp.
Wolfman:
Is there anything
else you would like to share with our members, that you haven't
been asked in a question from before that you think is
important?
Jeff:
I realize Strat
makes changes to their game very rarely these days, but there's
a couple I'd love to see implemented. One is a clutch pitching
symbol on the super-advanced pitcher cards. Just as there are
hitters who perform better or worse with people in scoring
position with two outs, the same can be said for certain
pitchers. My 1941 replay had a Yankees team that badly
underperformed, losing the pennant by four games when they were
supposed to win by 17, and one big reason was a lack of clutch
pitching. Yankee starters walked a LOT of people that year but
were great at getting out of jams. Without any clutch pitching
ability, this hardly ever happened in my replay.
The other fun addition could be HBP chances on pitcher cards, to
honor the guys who do hit people more.
And of course, any time they'd like to overhaul the catcher's
fielding chart again is okay with me.
Wolfman:
How can our members
contact you if they would like to speak with you?
Jeff:
I don't give out
my phone number, but Strat fans can email me at:
jpolman54@gmail.com
(Wolfman's Note: Please note since Issue #2, in our
recommended
on-line resource page, we have links for Jeff's column on
the SOM Game Company website and his blog, if you wish to read
some of the other fine information Jeff shares as one of the
early SOM ambassadors.)
Wolfman:
Thank you Jeff for
this change to speak to you, and for our members to get to know
you a wee bit better and find out more about yourself and who is
sharing interesting posts on the SOM website, to our readers
check out the wisdom of Jeff Polman there!
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 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 WILLY
DOMINQUEZ,
January 2013 STAR Worlds
Champion
♦
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
co-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)
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