STRAT-O-MATIC TO CONDUCT DAILY SIMULATION OF LOCKED OUT 2011-12 BASKETBALL SEASON
Company Will Give Fans Pro Hoops Action By Posting Detailed Box Scores, Standings and Player Statistics Daily
GLEN HEAD, NY – October 24th, 2011 – There may not be a professional basketball season played on the courts this year, but the scheduled games will be played. Following the Commissioner’s announcement that the first two weeks of the season are cancelled, Strat-O-Matic Media, LLC revealed that the Company will run a daily simulation of the entire 2011-12 season. Daily box scores, standings and player statistics will be posted on the Company’s website at www.strat-o-matic.com. Strat-O-Matic will also make the data available to other websites and publications that are interested in publishing the results. The popular hoops-related website, BasketballProspectus.com will not only be posting the results, but writing detailed game summaries as well.
“While Strat-O-Matic is best known for its unparalleled realistic simulations of past seasons for all four major sports, this simulation will serve as a way for basketball fans to get their daily fill of pro hoops action,” said Hal Richman, the Founder of Strat-O-Matic. “We’ll run the simulation for as long as the lockout lasts. Basketball fans will not be denied of their favorite sport.”
The simulated games will be played in accordance with the 2011-12 schedule. Box scores, updated standings and player statistics will be posted the following day – just like a daily newspaper. The first three simulations (Chicago at Dallas, Houston at Utah and Oklahoma City at LAL) will be posted on Wednesday, Nov. 2, the day after the season’s opening night triple-header was supposed to take place.
With free agency frozen due to the lockout, Strat-O-Matic will run the simulation based upon last season’s rosters with a few exceptions. First, the handful of players who have made binding commitments to play overseas or have retired will not be included in the simulation. However, to fans’ delight, many of the top rookies who were expected to make a big impact this season will be added to the rosters of their new teams. Rather than basing the rookie cards off collegiate statistics, the Strat-O-Matic Basketball research team has collaborated with a variety of hoops experts from BasketballProspectus.com to create projection cards for the rookies, a first in the history of Strat-O-Matic Basketball. Lastly, the limited number of pre-draft/draft day trades that took place will also be reflected in the simulation rosters.
Strat-O-Matic simulations have been used in place of cancelled games in the past. When baseball went on strike in the middle of the 1981 season, many newspapers ran Strat-O-Matic simulations for all of the missed games and would print the box scores daily. One radio station even broadcast the games live. When the 2002 MLB All-Star Game ended in a tie, Strat-O-Matic simulated the rest of the game for the fans.
In the event that labor negotiations are resolved and the season resumes with a delayed start time, Strat-O-Matic would simulate the rest of the regular season and playoffs and post all of the results at once.
About Strat-O-Matic Basketball
Strat-O-Matic Basketball was first launched in 1973, with the release of its original basketball board game (the current format for the board game debuted in 1981). The company developed its basketball computer game in the early 90’s and debuted a netplay feature in 2005, allowing gamers to compete online against friends or strangers. This past May, Strat-O-Matic collaborated on an “Ultimate Basketball Draft” project with Sports Illustrated, in which a team of ten writers drafted 12-man rosters consisting of the greatest players in basketball history. Strat-O-Matic then simulated an entire regular season and playoffs using these rosters. The company recently released an All-Time Greats: Hoops Top 120 Roster set for its computer game that includes all 120 players from the simulation.
About Strat-O-Matic
Strat-O-Matic was invented by 11-year-old Hal Richman in his bedroom in Great Neck, NY in 1948 because he became frustrated by the statistical randomness of other baseball board games. He discovered the statistical predictability of dice would give his game the realism he craved. Over the next decade he perfected the game at summer camp and then as a student at Bucknell University. After producing All-Star sets in 1961 and ‘62, he parlayed a $5,000 loan from his father (and made a deal that if it didn’t work out he would work for his father’s insurance company) into the original 1962 Strat-O-Matic Baseball season game. Needless to say Hal never had to take a job with his father.
Strat-O-Matic, based in Glen Head, NY and on the Internet at www.strat-o-matic.com, produces the top selling sports board games and is the leading producer of realism/stats sports computer games. The company publishes baseball, football, basketball and hockey games to play both on and off your computer screen. “Strat-O” games are known throughout the sports community for their statistical realism and accuracy. The company has the world’s greatest sports game stat libraries with top-of-the-line seasons dating back to the early 1900’s. On the Internet, the company has partnered with The Sporting News to create innovative fantasy/simulation games and previously with Sports Illustrated Kids to produce a line of new fantasy sports games for a younger demographic. Recently the company released Strat-O-Matic Negro Leagues, the first sports simulation game to accurately reflect more than 100 Negro League players who never had the chance to show their skills in the major leagues. All Strat-O products are available in both board and computer game formats.
The company has a loyal celebrity following including a bevy of sportscaster and sports journalists like Bob Costas, Buzz Bissinger, Jon Miller, former MLB’ers Keith Hernandez, Doug Glanville, Cal Ripken; and sports super fans including Bryant Gumbel, Tim Robbins, Drew Carey and Spike Lee. More information is available at: www.strat-o-matic.com).
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