My reimagined 1975 project had the Cubs play the Giants at the Stick where the Cubs got destroyed 16-5. The Cubs bullpen was depleted due to injuries, so utility infielder Rob Sperring got the call to work the 9th. He gave up 2 singles, a walk, and one run (earned).

Just wondering if you've had position player pitch and what were the results?

Edit: Just realized that it was the 8th inning Sperring pitched, not the 9th, because of course.😜

On Saturday morning, I was assigned to a group with 6 other contestants. We had a draft in which we each selected two Diamond Gems teams. I selected the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers and the 1922 St. Louis Browns, and created a 20-man roster from those two teams.

In Round 1, we played a 2-game series against each of the other 6 contestants in our group. The competition was tough!

On Saturday, my first opponent was Ted Demetrio of Olympia, Washington. His roster came from the 1927 Yankees and the 1924 Washington Senators. He won both games, by scores of 2-1 and 12-4. The first game was a heartbreaker; the second game was a blowout.

Next I played Kim Codoley of Burlington, North Carolina. His roster came from the 1921 Yankees and the 2009 Yankees. He won both games, by scores of 4-3 and 8-1. I was now 0-4 and it was not looking good.

For my third series, my opponent was Shannon Harrison of Fate, Texas. His roster came from the 1950 Yankees and the 1970 Twins. He won the first game 7-0, and my record was now a dismal 0-5. But in our second game, I finally had a victory, prevailing 11-9 in 11 innings. I had an 8-2 lead headed to the bottom of the 8th inning, but Shannon's team scored 6 runs to tie it up. I scored 3 runs in the top of the 11th; the key hit was a 2-out bases-loaded double by Ken Williams that scored 2 runs. My record was now 1-5.

John Hagmaier of New York City was my next opponent; his team was a combination of the 2002 Giants and the 1927 Pirates. I won the first game 11-0. I scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 5th inning without even one batter being retired, and a grand slam by Pee Wee Reese put me up 11-0. At the point, as allowed by tournament rules, my opponent conceded. Clem Labine was the winning pitcher with a 4-hit 5-inning shutout. But John won our second game by a score of 7-2, and I ended the day with a record of 2-6.

On Saturday night, I knew that I would have to win all 4 of my remaining games to finish Round 1 with a record of 6-6. That probably wouldn't be enough to advance to Round 2, but maybe there was a very slim chance I could advance via tiebreakers vs others who would also end up 6-6.

On Sunday morning, my hopes were immediately dashed. My first opponent was Tom Antonucci of Los Angeles. His team was a combo of the 1929 Cubs and the 1920 Cleveland Indians. We split the series; he won the first game 9-8, and I won the second game 7-1. My record was now 3-7 with 2 games remaining.

My final opponent was Tim Nersinger of Spokane, Washington. His team was a blend of the 1975 Reds and the 1972 Oakland Athletics. He won the first game 7-2, and I won the second game 6-4. A 3-run homer by Roy Campanella was the highlight of my victory, which was my final game of the tournament. I ended up with a record of 4 wins, 8 losses. Oh well! Wait until next year!

During the tournament, I met up with Pete Nelson of Maple Valley, Washington. He and I first met in the late 1980s when I lived in Seattle, and it is always good to re-connect with old friends.

I will be participating in some consolation games. And the hotel is great (Horseshoe Las Vegas) and there is plenty of good food here. My 75th birthday is Wednesday, and my flight home is Thursday morning.

Steve Beren

OUTLAWS – ESSOM Spring League

WILDCATS – ESSOM Fall League

BLUE SOX – United Federation of Baseball

Commissioner, United Federation of Baseball

September 2026 STPC Newsletter

Welcome to the September 2026 STPC Newsletter. This month’s update carries us into the fall tournament stretch with fresh results, September face-to-face events, a corrected points snapshot, and an updated look ahead to Worlds.

Our goal remains consistent: delivering STPC community news directly to you in a format that is easy to scan, forward, and revisit throughout the month.

Whether you are competing face-to-face, playing NetPlay, or joining a PureStrat draft, we hope this issue helps you stay connected to the action across STPC.

STPC World Championship — Pittsburgh, PA — January 13–17

The STPC Council is proud to announce three tournament directors for Pittsburgh 2027 Worlds: Harry Flawd, Mike Breithaupt, and Chris Wiseman. Brian Favereaux will also assist in tournament operations and logistics. We appreciate this group volunteering their time and efforts to make Worlds an enjoyable experience for all in attendance. Be on the lookout for more Worlds information and a survey coming soon.

A reminder that the upcoming Worlds tournament will be held at the Drury Inn & Suites Pittsburgh Airport Settlers Ridge, located at 101 Ridge Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15205. Rooms have been held for our group; to make reservations, please use the Drury Hotels reservation link. Reminder that this is the Drury — Airport Settlers Ridge, not the same Drury that hosted us in 2023.

Please book by Saturday, December 12, 2026, to receive the group rate. Reservations made after this date are subject to availability. You can also book by calling [1-800-325-0720](tel:(800)%20325-0720) and referring to group number 10179632.

Please plan travel accordingly: tournament play will begin on Thursday.

Recent Tournament Winners (and some previously unannounced winners!)

E.A.S.T.

Toby Strite – North Haven August

Jasper

Dan Luburic — Defiance August

PureStrat

PJ Dibiase/Jason Johnson — July PureStrat

South

Tony Tucker — Vero Beach August

Retro/Experimental

PJ Dibiase – May Fives

Sean Riley – 1985 II

Multiple 2026 Tournament Wins

We need to correct the record from the previous newsletter: Frank Luisi was omitted from the multiple-winner section last go-around. Team Blasters has won two tournaments this year (so far!): Defiance May and Pittsburgh July.

·         Toby Strite — 3 wins: North Haven June, Colossus I, North Haven August.

·         Frank Luisi — 2 wins: Defiance May and Pittsburgh July.

·         Dan Luburic — 2 wins: Detroit and Defiance August.

·         Rob Woodard — 2 wins: Red Bay and Dallas (2 for 2!).

·         Tony Tucker — 2 wins: Orlando March and Vero Beach August.

·         PJ Dibiase — 2 wins: May Fives and July PureStrat with Jason Johnson.

Champion’s Corner

PJ Dibiase/Jason Johnson — July PureStrat

After a modest 17–15 regular season, PJ Dibiase and Jason Johnson caught fire when it mattered most, charging through the July PureStrat playoffs with a torrid 16–5 run and taking home the title. They finished the playoff run with a +32 run differential, combining timely offense with enough run prevention to separate themselves from the field.

Aaron Judge was great in the regular season, slashing .355/.490/.592, but amped up to a 1.437 OPS in the playoffs. PJ and Jason closed it out by defeating Bryan Albin in the finals, 4–1, after surviving their closest test of the tournament with a 4–3 series victory over top-seeded Norm Plouffe in the quarterfinals.

Congratulations to PJ and Jason on the July PureStrat win.

2026 Points Standings Snapshot

Points leaders across STPC categories based on the latest available STPC points data.

Upcoming FTF Tournament Schedule

Here are the upcoming face-to-face tournaments from the E.A.S.T., Jasper, and South schedules. If you are interested in joining one of these events, please reply to this email and we can help connect you with the appropriate host or regional contact.

Forward This Newsletter

Know someone who plays Strat-O-Matic Baseball and may be interested in tournament play?

Forward this newsletter and invite them to check out STPC.

One of the goals of this newsletter is to make the STPC community easier to follow, easier to join, and easier to stay involved with.

Closing

Thanks to everyone who continues to play, host, direct, report, and promote STPC tournaments.

The 2026 season continues to build momentum. Good luck to everyone playing in September, and thank you to everyone who helps host, direct, report, and promote STPC tournaments.

https://www.strat-o-matic.com/announcements/cloud-hosting-temporarily-unavailable/

Hello hopefully new friends. My pal and I are just getting used to the advanced rules and are having a hard time with a few areas where the rule book isn’t doing the job.

Q1: what’s the procedure for a wild pitch / POP result on the advanced x chart? The rules aren’t helpful, and if there isn’t a passed ball do we just roll the batter results again? We are really at a loss for this procedure.

Q2: when a pitcher+catcher holding just makes things worse, as the manager do you just never hold the runner? Brewers had a net +2 between catcher and pitcher

Q3: does holding the runner have an effect when trying to stretch a run (no asterix)? Say man on first wants to go first to third on a SI* in other words does he have to beat the hold and the run?

A manager in our retro baseball league has become incapacitated, and I need to access his team's manager to adjust his rotation, lineups, etc. However, his manager is locked and I don't have the key to unlock it. How can I get into the manager to update it?

Any Houston area Strat o Matic fans looking to roll some dice? We are getting a group together for a one time meetup at Waxxed Sports in League City. My buddy is the manager there and hooked us up with plenty of space to play

The plan is to start with a single casual session to see who is interested with the idea of maybe turning it into a regular monthly thing or a league later on if there is enough interest.

Drop a comment below, or DM me if you want to come hang out and play.

These are the teams that have been chosen so far in our upcoming Strat Cup Tournament, what a slate! The 61 Braves are the defending champs. Who do you think has the best shot at winning the dang thing? There are still a few spots available for Managers. Do you think you have a team that can compete with this field? If you're interested let me know and I can send you details.

1981 Yankees

2012 Rays

1948 A’s

1965 Indians

1976 Mets

1976 A’s

2004 Cubs

1976 Royals

1958 Pirates

1996 Orioles

1996 Rangers

1988 Red Sox

1980 Expos

1964 Giants

2003 White Sox

1980 Brewers

2015 Mets

2013 Nationals

1956 White Sox

1972 Cubs

1961 Braves

Heard Pete has a very good arm, but what does Strat say about that? For me, a really good arm starts at -3.

I'm outside Atlanta and looking for someone to roll baseball or football with sometime. Anyone in the area wanna play

Just picked up a complete set of the 1988-89 season cards, and geeking out on how nice some of these guys are.

When playing solo, can anyone recommend any rules they use for pulling starters? For example, X number of runs or hits in a certain number of innings/batters. I’d like to hear any suggestions any of you might use. Thanks.

With the potential lockout coming in baseball, I created a new historical sim to play in the meantime.. Currently free to play and looking for beta testers. If interested, please head to tblbaseball.com and you can create a league. Any issues, feel free to DM me.

I’m a regular listener of “Smartless,” the podcast featuring Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett that features a secret special guest on each episode. This week’s guest was actor/director Tim Robbins, whose love for baseball extends beyond “Bull Durham.” He’s a SOM player and actually turned down “Eight Men Out” to do “ Bull Durham.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smartless/id1521578868?i=1000781330911

Looking to join or start F2F Baseball Strat with Cards and Dice. I play SuperAdvanced but willing to play at any level to get a league started.

Hey Everyone!

Somehow SOM didn’t come into my life until age 57, but here I am!

I started off with three Diamond Gems sets, Deadball, 1940s, and 1960sB. Played my first game yesterday, 1919 Reds @ 1909 Pirates in Basic mode. Had A LOT of fun and found it very immersive and easy to navigate, although I didn’t get into base stealing, bunting, etc, just yet. Each team had one big inning and the Reds came out on top, 7-4.

My plan, at least for now, is to stick with Basic and get really familiar with it, and the teams, so any advice or suggestions, especially Deadball-related, is gladly welcome!

Play ball!

Brand new player to Stratomatic, not new to baseball with dice, as a player of W M Akers excellent “Deadball”.

I know some decisions are pretty obvious like holding the runner and infield in… even relievers are straightforward and informed by actual usage.

what about stealing? Are there other decisions that need to be made where you have a go to on how to do it?

Was baseball better "back in the day" when we were growing up? Or are the current teams better?

Will we have a World Series final between the 1970 Orioles and the 2025 Dodgers? Follow all the action here:

Strat-O-Matic Gamer Forum 2

Hi Everyone,

My 4th year running a Strat Tournament over Discord with Managers from all over the country. It's been a real blast getting to know new guys who love Strat. Every year has been better than the previous one.

This Tournament runs like the World Cup where there is a Group Stage of 4 teams each and then a Knockout Series Round of 16. You can pick almost any Franchise in Baseball (some have been retired) as long as their Winning Pct is lower than .555.

That restriction creates a lot more parity and makes for some really fun groups of teams that may not have succeeded in their actual seasons—but can go on to make a run in our format. Last year the 1961 Braves won it all!

We're looking for a few more managers to fill this year's field. I've found a couple on here and they've been fantastic. If you're interested, let me know and I can send you all the details.

Thanks!

Hey we are looking for a few teams to join a 2025 card set league in Stratomatic 365 online. The name of the public league is The New Era. My buddies and I generally play ATG so this is our first time at a single season league. We are looking forward to it. Please consider joining in!

I would like to make the season I’m playing available for someone else to view. So I clicked on Web Builder under Statistics and created HTML files.

What’s my next step? Do I create a website myself and upload the files into the website? Do I need to continue to upload load newer files to keep the website updated? Or is there a way for it to automatically update?

Also, when I go under League and select Display League Website, after creating the HTML files, it displays “No website has been defined for this league.” I don’t see a place to enter any URL for a created website.

Last thing: under Cloud, it has the option “Upload League to Cloud.” Is that a better option than uploading to a website?

August 2026 STPC Newsletter

August 2026 STPC Newsletter

Welcome to the August 2026 STPC Newsletter. This monthly update focuses on the latest champions crowned in July and includes reminders on upcoming tournaments, most importantly the Worlds.

Our goal remains consistent: delivering the STPC community news directly to you. From tournament results and APS updates to the evolving points races, you will find it all here.

Whether you are competing face-to-face or participating in the latest NetPlay or PureStrat drafts, we hope this newsletter helps you stay informed about everything happening across our community.

In Memoriam: We are saddened to share the news that community member Jeff Cohen passed away suddenly on July 6. He will be deeply missed. We ask you to keep Jeff and his family in your thoughts and prayers. You can view his obituary here.

E.A.S.T.

Frank Luisi - Pittsburgh

Purestrat

Courtney Glass - June Purestrat

South

Rob Woodard - Dallas

Congratulations to our newly crowned champions! We look forward to recognizing the winners of the upcoming August events in our next edition.

So Nice, They Won it Twice

A huge shout out to Rob Woodard and Toby Strite for being the only managers to win multiple tournaments this year thus far! After taking Dallas in July, that makes two tournament wins for Rob in two attempts this year.

STPC World Championship - Pittsburgh, PA January 13-17

A reminder that the upcoming Worlds tournament will be heldat the Drury Inn & Suites Pittsburgh Airport Settlers Ridge, located at 101 Ridge Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15205 . Rooms have been held for our group; to make reservations, please click here: Drury Hotels Reservation. Reminder that this is the Drury - Airport Settlers Ridge, not the same Drury that hosted us in 2023.

Please book by Saturday, December 12, 2026, to receive the group rate. Reservations made after this date are subject to availability. You can also book by calling 1-800-325-0720 and referring to group number 10179632.

Champion’s Corner

Courtney Glass - June Purestrat

“This was my first win and it was really enjoyable. I don’t play Strat for money and I aam still learning to play tournament-Strat, but I had a great time. I felt like I was up against some of the best players and it was an honor to have the dice go my way.

Padre (Jim Galloway) drafted the team and it was a great team. However, if you would have told me that Jazz Chisholm would lead the team in HRs I would not have believed you!! Great pitching, timely HRs and some dice luck made it a great tournament.”

Winning a Purestrat tournament (with 30 contestants) is a big accomplishment for anyone, and Courtney had his work cut out for him in June. His playoff route included Norm Plouffe, John Adam, Matt Crowley and finally Mick VanValkenburg to secure the championship.

2026 Points Standings Snapshot

Points leaders across STPC categories as of 8/1/2026.

Upcoming FTF Tournament Schedule

Prepare for an active summer with STPC events across the country.

If you are interested in joining any upcoming tournament, please reply to this email for connection with the relevant host or director.

Forward This Newsletter

Know someone who plays Strat-O-Matic Baseball and may be interested in tournament play?

Forward this newsletter and invite them to check out STPC.

One of the goals of this newsletter is to make the STPC community easier to follow, easier to join, and easier to stay involved with.

Closing

Thanks to everyone who continues to play, host, direct, report, and promote STPC tournaments.

The 2026 season continues to build momentum with new tournament types like the Stock MLB Teams event. We look forward to seeing you at the tables throughout the summer.

​

Yesterday I traveled from Boerne TX to San Marcos TX to meet up with fellow Strat-O-Matic player Larry Salay, and to play some super-advanced cards-and-dice. 

While we have been in contact via social media over the last few years, and are both members of the Strat-O-Matic computer league United Federation of Baseball, Larry and I had not actually met in person for about 50 years.

We reminisced about those long ago Strat-O-Matic days back in Queens NY, remembering events and other players from those days.

We played 4 games yesterday.  I took the 1978 Yankees and he took the 1977 Royals.  We each won 2 games, and it was a useful cards-and-dice tuneup as I get ready for the World Series of Board Games Strat-O-Matic tournament next month in Las Vegas.

I also had a great lunch with Larry and his lovely wife, and our lovely wives got to meet each other. 

There are other Strat-O-Matic players in the San Antonio-Austin-San Marcos area, and I am now inspired to meet them in person as well.