Steve Gardner Wins Inaugural Baseball Daily Media Experts LeagueStrat-O-Matic to make $1,000 donation to The Michael J. Fox Foundation
GLEN HEAD, NY – June 28, 2016 – Steve Gardner, a fantasy sports editor at USA Today, won the inaugural Strat-O-Matic Baseball Daily Media Experts League, defeating ESPN NBA reporter Marc Stein in five games in the championship round. The Postseason MVP was Jon Lester, who mirrored his recent stretch of real life dominance with a perfect 3-0 record and 1.59 ERA in the simulation. Lester was the winning pitcher in the series-clincher, hurling six innings and allowing one earned run on just four hits. Buster Posey, the regular season MVP award winner, hit .242 with three home runs and six RBIs in the postseason, including a clutch 3-run HR in Game 2 of the finals that helped Gardner overcome an early 4-0 deficit and changed the momentum of the series.
Strat-O-Matic will be making a $1,000 donation to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Gardner’s charity of choice.
The Baseball Daily Media Experts League launched on Monday, April 25 and included a group of 12 notable sports media members, all of whom had prior experience playing Strat-O-Matic. Some of the managers included former Major League Baseball player Doug Glanville, San Francisco Giants play-by-play announcer Jon Miller, and Strat-O-Matic Founder and CEO Hal Richman.
“It was a blast playing with such a great group of sports luminaries. I was thrilled to be included because I’ve watched, read and listened to all of these people and respect their knowledge so much. As it turned out, it was a dream season for my team,” said Gardner.
The four playoff team managers were Gardner, Stein, Joe Posnanski (NBCSports.com) and Joe Sheehan (Sports Illustrated). Posnanski finished with the best regular season record at 95-67 but was swept in the first round by Stein, the wild card winner. The league featured remarkable parity, with just two teams winning more than 88 games and no team finishing with less than 71 wins.
Some of the highlights from the regular season included a no-hitter by Max Scherzer (Sheehan), a five-hit, nine-RBI game by Victor Martinez (Chad Finn, The Boston Globe), and a 21-inning marathon won by Richman.
In a tribute to his alma mater, Stein managed the entire season with six former Cal State Fullerton Titans: Christian Colon, Khris Davis, Dustin Garneau, Vinnie Pestano, Kurt Suzuki, and Justin Turner.
“This whole experience has been as fun as anything I’ve done for ages. I’m addicted all over again,” said Stein.
Fans can join their own Strat-O-Matic Baseball Daily League by going to strat-o-matic.com and clicking on the “Baseball 365” graphic. New players can sample the game with a free trial team, or they can take advantage of a two-team, new member special for $14.95.
About Strat-O-Matic
Strat-O-Matic was invented by 11-year-old Hal Richman in his bedroom in Great Neck, NY in 1948 as a result of his frustration with the statistical randomness of other baseball board games. He discovered that 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 online at strat-o-matic.com, manufactures the top selling sports board games and realism/stats-based sports digital games. The Company publishes baseball, football, basketball and hockey games to play both on and off your computer and mobile screens. “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. At the start of the 2016 MLB season, Strat-O-Matic introduced Baseball Daily, its first product featuring digital player cards that update every day to reflect real life current player performance as the season progresses.
The Company has a loyal celebrity following including a bevy of sports broadcasters such as Bob Costas, Jon Miller and Dan Shulman, former MLB players Keith Hernandez, Doug Glanville and Cal Ripken Jr., and sports super fans including Drew Carey, Ben Bernanke, Bryant Gumbel, Spike Lee and Tim Robbins. More information is available at strat-o-matic.com.
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