(Chicago, IL, August 6th & 7th, 2006)
by R. Joshua Shapiro, aka "Wolfman Shapiro")
PART III
(Special Interviews with Hank Smith & Bill Fenlon)
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Hank Smith
(Founder of the Star Tournaments)
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Q:
Hank, when did you first become interested in Strat-o-matic and in
particular the base ball game?
I
became interested in Strat-o-matic’s Baseball Game and ordered it when
their first ad appeared in a baseball magazine in about 1962.
I
was only 12 years old at that time. I had already played All-Star
Baseball and APBA. When I went to Strat-o-matic’s 40-year anniversary
convention I was the only person I saw whose nametag said “Valued
Customer Since 1962.”
Q:
What
is your background -- what do you do professionally?
After graduating from college with a bachelor’s degree in business
management at the ripe old age of 21 in 1971 I started a career as a
professional aviator that continues today. I served for seven years in
the U.S. Air Force and was a flight crewmember and attained the rank of
Captain. After leaving the Air Force with an honorable discharge I
worked continuously to this date as a certificated flight instructor
(CFI) (since 1978) and/or airline pilot. After being an airline captain
I went back to flight instructing full-time. I also have my California
State Real Estate Licenses as a Salesperson and Broker. Through August
12, 2005 I had sold three apartment buildings and one home in 2005. In
addition, I am currently working on two aviation accident cases as a
consultant. Should one or both of those cases go to trial I would expect
to be called as an expert pilot witness. I am proud of the fact that I
have never been fired from any job in my life. I have always moved on to
the next project when I have met the goals I set out to achieve on the
previous project.
|
Here we see the
"Proud Papa" (Hank) with Mark Giddings, who had just won the Star
National Championship in January of 2005 in New Orleans. Also Hank
is proudly showing Glenn Guzzo's new book "Stat-o-matic Fanatics"
(that just came out at that time).
|
Q:
How
did the idea for the Star Tournaments start? What is its history?
Players
became disenchanted with the former organization (Editor's Note: These
prior tournaments were called The Tournament Baseball Assoc-iation or
TBA) for a number of reasons. In 1996 the majority of the active members
decided it was time for a change. And, I volunteered to be the new
commissioner for the first season in 1996. Among other things I agreed
with a number of players that tournaments should be run by local
players. Before Star, players paid for a commissioner’s airfare and
hotel room out of the prize fund. I became the first commissioner who
did it for the love of the game rather than compensation.
Q:
How
were you able to organize the tournament in so many cities?
I got on the phone and started
calling players living in those cities where we had played tournaments
in the past. I knew these players from competing against them from 1982
thru 1995. I asked players that I felt could succeed as tournament
directors to run tournaments and (they) gave me their moral support to
be commissioner for one year. I guess I did some things right because
after the first year the membership elected me to a two-year term as
commissioner in 1997 and 1998.
Q:
What
elements or aspects to the tournament itself, did you personally add --
some rules or regulations perhaps?
I
supported the idea of changing tournament rules to be more closely
aligned with those recommended by the Strat-o-matic Game Company. The
first rule I was successful in changing back was that if a one-hitting
pitcher got a hit you didn’t have to re-roll. Over the years other rules
have changed from Star Tournament rules back to SOM Game Company rules.
When I was Commissioner, I put rule changes to a vote and enforced the
membership’s vote whether I agreed or not.
Q:
What
was your goal for creating the Star Tournaments?
My
goal in creating Star Tournaments was to provide a national tournament
organization that supported fair play and good sportsmanship over just
playing to win. In addition, I wanted to maintain an archive of results
that gave Star and its players a history of which to be proud. From the
beginning it was important to me to attract players with tournament
experience as well as league players and new players.
Q:
What
is your connection with the Star Tournament at this time?
I am the unofficial liaison with the
Strat-o-matic Game Company. Almost every year they call me to be sure
the people calling Strat-o-matic for discounted tournament cards are
authorized.
Q:
Is
the Star Tournament achieving the goals you set out originally?
For
the most part I would say Star Tournaments has evolved to where it has
met my goals and exceeded them. Occasionally I see or hear about someone
displaying unsportsmanlike conduct and it disappoints me. I’m pleased
that the board of directors has instituted a Code of Conduct. The most
recent tournament I played in was Chicago in August of 2005. I was glad
to see Bill Fenlon, the Tournament Director, spend a little time at the
start of the tournament emphasizing the importance of good
sportsmanship. Whenever a tournament director does that there are fewer
displays of temper. And, that was certainly the case in Chicago.
Q:
Why
was a prize of money introduced or a fee introduced?
The previous tournament groups had
prize money. So, we just followed suit. The fact that Star does not pay
out anything for the commissioner or the tournament directors meant that
there was a lot more money in the prize fund. There are still expenses
for things including meeting rooms, game cards, advertising, added money
for the regional tournament’s prize fund, and added money for the
national tournament’s prize fund. Still, if a player wants to they can
play for only $25 in local tournaments. What other entertainment can you
get for a weekend at that price? Or you can play for $100 in local
tournaments or $200 at the Star National Championships and be eligible
for the big prize money. Usually, the only player that might make more
money than their expenses in a given year is the one who wins the Star
National Championship held in January each year. The Star National
Championship is open to everyone.
Q:
Who's idea was it to place on the Star Tournament website key
information to help people participate and try to level the player field
so it is fair to everyone?
I
had as much as anyone to do with the idea of having an average pick
sheet (APS) to level the field. However, one of the current directors,
Stan Suderman, created the draft simulator (DSIM) and puts out a draft
guide each year. You can download the APS and DSIM off the
Startournaments.com website. And, Stan would be glad to email you out a
copy of his draft guide if you just email him from the website. I’m
pleased that to this day those people who run Star work so hard to
provide tools for new and experienced players to be competitive.
Q:
What
support have you received from the Strat-o-matic Game Company?
Since our first season the SOM Game
Company has inserted our tournament information including our schedule.
They have also given us a discounted price on cards used in tournaments.
I think we should ask SOM to recognize our Star National Champion as the
SOM National Champion and give the winner of our tournament in January a
trophy to keep signifying that. I think all it would take is for someone
like me to request such an award from the game company. So, I’ll do
that.
Q:
Related to the recent tournament held in Chicago (August 6th & 7th) --
how did you do and what experiences did you have? Were there any
special experiences or games? Did you learn something new or a new
strategy?
I’m
glad you asked! I had my best tournament of 2005 in Chicago. I finished
tied for third with Dave Hegg. In 2004 I won the Chicago Tournament and
Dave finished second. I’m proud of my 18-10 record and .643 winning
percentage in Chicago. Such a winning percentage is usually good enough
to win a Star Tournament. And, I’m proud to have won four Star
Tournaments. I really enjoyed meeting a lot of nice people like the
author of this article in Chicago. It was fun going to a White Sox game
with a group of the Star players the Friday night before the tournament
started. My most memorable game of the tournament was beating the
eventual champion Mike Cohen after being behind 4-2 with two out in the
bottom of the ninth, Joe Nathan pitching, and nobody on. I had four
straight players reach base for a run and then Derek Lee hit a walk-off
grand slam homer! As Yogi Berra liked to say about baseball games, “It’s
not over until it’s over!” So, for the tournament I beat Mike three out
of four games.
Normally, I like to manage like Earl Weaver did. That includes hitting
three-run homers. So, I usually gravitate to parks approaching Colorado.
I don’t like Colorado or a 20/20 park anymore because it’s too hard to
hold your pitching together. In Chicago I drafted on-base guys and
starting and relief pitchers with lots of diamonds on one side or the
other. I drafted Chris Carpenter, Pedro Martinez, Kiki Calero, and
Akinori Otsuka and played in San Francisco. Initially I took what the
draft gave me. And it gave me Jim Edmonds, Melvin Mora, and Ben Sheets
and I knew San Francisco would be my ballpark. I also drafted two
closers who could be successful in almost any park in Brad Lidge and
Danny Kolb. When I recently played in San Diego I waited too long to
pick my ballpark (26th round) and I didn’t get a park to fit
my team. So, in Chicago I picked my park in the 24th round.
In addition to getting the park I wanted I found out that low scoring
games can be every bit as fun as high scoring games and maybe easier to
win with this years card set.
Q:
Is
there anything else you would like to share about your role as the
creator of the Star Tournaments that you feel would be nice for other
people to know that has not been covered in the questions asked so far?
I
took a leave of absence from my job spent hundreds of hours and
thousands of dollars the first three months of 1996 to get Star
Tournaments off to a good start. I never expected to get reimbursed and
I never did. I really appreciate the fact that author Glenn Guzzo, who
was the creator and editor of Strat Fan when Star was started,
documented that in his wonderful book “Strat-o-matic Fanatics”. I would
say that Glenn’s book should be required reading for anyone who wants to
know more about Strat-o-matic, Hal Richman (SOM’s Creator), Star
Tournaments, and Hank Smith. And, I would be remiss if I did not add the
disclaimer that Star Tournaments is not affiliated with Strat-o-matic
Game Company or The Tournament Baseball Association (or TBA). I
sincerely hope that after reading my comments any SOM player who was
thinking about playing in a Star Tournament will make that leap of faith
and invest a weekend playing in a Star Tournament. I hope he also checks
out the Star Tournaments website at www.startournaments.com for
the schedule and lots more information. He’ll be glad he did! I can
guarantee that any SOM player that participates in one of Star’s
Tournaments will go home a better player.
There can only be one winner but EVERYONE can have a good time.
Q:
Do
you have any comments about your contact with the rookie contestant
Joshua Shapiro (aka formerly known as Wolfman Shapiro) that you wish to
share?
Yes,
I feel Joshua “Wolfman” Shapiro really got what I envisioned as the Star
Tournament’s Experience. Joshua came out and immersed himself in a
tournament for a weekend. He took that leap of faith. I believe he found
out that Bill Fenlon, the Chicago Tournament Director, was genuinely
glad to have each and every player at the Chicago Star Tournament. And,
I think that every experienced Star player realizes that new players are
the future of Star Tournaments and should be welcomed and helped in
their first tournament so they come back again and again.
If
any readers of this article would like to get in touch with Hank to ask
a question or send a comment, please feel free to email him at:
Hank9050490504@hotmail.com.
(Note:
in 2013, we lost this great ambassador as he passed away - we will be
honoring Hank in the "Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter" in various
issues in 2014, to join our newsletter and follow our special reports on
Hank, please go to:
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com (to sign up and read all our
issues).
-------------------------------------------------
Bill Fenlon (Chicago Star Tournament Director)
-------------------------------------------------
Q:
Bill, when did you first become interested in Strat-o-matic and in
particular the base ball game?
I was introduced during my freshman year of High School in 1978.
Q: What is your background -- what do you do professionally?
I
work with computers.
Q:
Bill, I understand the TBA tournaments occurred before the Star
Tournaments, what can you tell us about the TBA?
I
used to play regularly in the old TBA tournaments.
The TBA was
a centralized tournament organization prior to STAR. I believe Tim
Johnston was the original founder and he ran tournaments for a little
over a year and then sold the entity to John Kreuz.
John ran
tournaments beginning in 1986 through the mid 90's (I believe 1995 was
his last year).
I have always said
I felt the "high point" of tourney strat was in 1987. John ran the
tourneys. He only played to "round out the field" as there was no
DSIM
back then. If he played he never advanced to the playoffs. The only
tourney that year he would play and advance was the World's. During the
1987 year (using the 1986 Replay Card Set) getting over 30 entries was
not uncommon and the World's held in Chicago in January of 1987 drew 70
people.
During the time
that Tim Johnston ran the TBA before he sold it to John Kreuz there was
a slight downtime that another organization Pro Strat was formed based I
believe in New York that ran a few tournaments.
Q:
How
did you get involved in the Star Tournaments, when did you first hear
about it and which tournament did you play in first? Then how did you
decide to actually run the tournament in Chicago?
When
they (The Founders) were first forming STAR I was asked by both Sal
Caridi and Hank Smith if I would like to get involved and run the
Chicago tourneys but I had to decline as my wife was expecting our first
child.
I
believe I played in one of the original STAR tourney's in Chicago in
1996. I didn't play again until Orlando in 2002.
Then STAR ran
a tournament in Chicago in 2003 which they again asked me to run but I
again declined. At that tourney, Stan (Suderman) announced if they could
find someone local they would have another in 2004. I told him if they
couldn't find anyone else I would agree to run them in Chicago under
a few conditions -- Stan told me he wasn't looking for anyone else.
Q: Do you like being the coordinator of a tournament or prefer
being a participant?
It's a mixed bag
for me because on the one hand, I like seeing people have a good time
which I get to do as the Tournament Director but I do believe it hurts
me from a competitive standpoint. Since I have tried (successfully I
think) to expand the Central Region (as it looks like next year we are
going to add Indianapolis and Milwaukee), I would say that I probably
enjoy running the tournaments a bit more. However, I really want to win
the World Tournament (this is the World Championship Star Tournament
held each year) before I am done playing strat.
Q:
What
thoughts do you have on the originator of the tournament, Mr. Hank
Smith, how did you meet him?
I
met Hank at the TBA World's in January of 1987. I think Hank was
instrumental in taking STAR originally to the National level. I think
what best epitomizes Hank is his phrase concerning each tourney "There
can only be one winner but EVERYONE can have a good time."
Q: Is the Star Tournament in Chicago achieving the goals you
hope for on a personal level and for the participants?
From
a Tournament Director standpoint I would say absolutely. I take
tremendous pride in the number of "return" players that we have from 1
Chicago tourney (or 1 year) to the next -- especially those that come
from out of time. It makes me feel like I am achieving my goal of
putting on event that the participants want and are enjoying.
From
a contestant standpoint I would like my performance to be better than it
has -- but that is probably something you would from hear from almost
any competitor in any tournament.
Q: How do you feel about an entry fee and cash prize being given
to the participants?
I
think the structure that is in place works well for everyone. You have a
small entry ($25) that basically covers the expenses, a medium entry
($50) that lets someone play for a small amount of prize money if they
so desire and a full entry ($100) for those that want to play for a
larger prize.
Q: Related to the recent tournament held in Chicago (August 6th &
7th) -- how did you do and what experiences did you have? Were there any
special experiences or games? Did you learn something new or a new
strategy?
I finished in a
3-way tie for 1st in my division in the regular season. I lost in a
couple of shoot-outs (tie breakers like sudden death) to finish 3rd and
didn't advance to the best of the 1st-Place Bracket.
I got knocked out
in the 2nd round of the 3rd-Place bracket so I probably finished about
tied for 7th when everything was all said and done.
If any games stand
out in my mind, it would probably be my games against Ben Leong. My
record was 7-1 (through the first four rounds and in 1st) and then
played Ben on Saturday and he swept me (a series is two games). He
started Johan Santana in Game 1 and Jason Schmidt in Game 2 and they
struck out 26 batters over the 2 games. I had to play Ben again on
Sunday and Santana threw a 1-hitter at me (combined with the relief
pitchers after I broke up the no-hitter).
Q:
Is there anything
else you would like to say about the Star Tournaments to the readers of
this article that has not been asked before?
I just hope that
if any reader is considering to give a face-to-face tourney a chance,
that by all means they do it (especially our tournaments). With the
draft simulator (DSIM) and the average pick sheets and everything else
(all the other information) that is put by the Star Tournaments on a
National level, they really are trying to reduce any apprehension for a
potentially new participant.
In Chicago, we
also try and make it a fun weekend for everyone. Whether that means
going to a baseball on Friday, just having a group of us go out to
dinner, some of the guys playing poker after they are eliminated or
whatever, at least here in Chicago, we want people to feel welcome and
(more importantly) to enjoy their experience whether they have won or
lost. I really try to follow the adage espoused by Hank Smith,
"There can only be one winner but EVERYONE can have a good time."
Q:
Do you have any
comments about your contact with the rookie contestant Joshua Shapiro (aka
formerly known as Wolfman Shapiro) that you wish to share?
I enjoyed meeting
Joshua ("Wolfman") and his enthusiasm for the hobby is infectious. Now
if only he didn't win that game against me ... (LOL)
If
any readers of this article would like to get in touch with Bill to ask
a question or send a comment, or join a Chicago Tourney, please feel
free to email him at:
BillFenlon@aol.com.
To
Go Back to
Part I
(click above)
To correspond with the "Wolfman" feel free to send him an email at:
wolfmanshapiro@gmail.com
To view the leagues that the "Wolfman" is competing
in, feel free to visit:
THE CBA (www.cba-bb.net
-- check out the Skokie Wolfmen)
THE PSBL (www.psbl.us
---- check out the Skokie Cubs, 2005-2006 seasons)
To read the article entitled "The Wolfman's Return to SOM", which deals
with his first computer league the CBA (as shown above), please click
on:
http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/WolfmanReturns-PI.html
Good luck everyone with your Strat-o-matic Seasons
................ the Skokie Wolfman
