Fellow list members:

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

This message was sent as a "special notice," meaning that you got this
in your e-mail even if you don't normally get messages from this
group. This annual special notice is my way of detecting which e-mail
addresses have become deadwood, so I can cut them loose. It's also a
way of reminding those who aren't getting e-mail the rest of the year
that they are still members. I presume those who forgot they are
members and don't *want* to be anymore know how to unsubscribe. :-)

Anyway, as long as I'm writing anyway, I also wanted to point out the
four articles that appeared in Strat's official Strat-O-Sphere article
section on Dec. 15 and 22:

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/sphere.html

The "2006 Baseball Range Ratings Preview" has preliminary fielding
ratings of the still-unreleased 2006 season. This is useful if you
want to see how your favorite team did defensively, but for a good
summary on defense ratings, check out the article "Solid Gold." It
points out who's hot (Derek Jeter, Omar Vizquel, rookie Ryan
Zimmerman) and who's not (A-Rod, who fell all the way to a "3"; plus a
lot of longtime "1"-rated players who dropped to "2," including Jim
Edmonds and Todd Helton.)

And then there's the self-explanatory article titled "1951 is next."
As of 2008, those of you who are so inclined can see if the Giants can
steal the N.L. championship again.

I don't know yet if I'll be inclined to buy this set. It's not as
exciting to me as the soon-to-be-released 1971 season, but I like 1951
a lot more than 1957, the past-season offering from last year.

One thing in 1951's favor is that both leagues had close races, with a
handful of teams only a season or three removed from one of their
respective truly great years. In Cleveland's case, you get a team
that's sandwiched three years apart from *two* great seasons. But
despite the Indians' great pitching and 93 wins that year, the team
could only come in second. (Hmm, sounds familiar somehow...)

Anyway, 1951 also has the highly touted rookie seasons of teenage
rookies Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle; in fact, 1951 was the only
season that Mantle and DiMaggio played together. Too bad that
DiMaggio's last year was not exactly up to DiMaggio standards. You
also can get Ned Garver from the season he won 20 games with the
52-102 St. Louis Browns, and came in second in the MVP balloting to
Yogi Berra, who himself was one season off his career year.

But that's for later. For now, I'm looking forward to the 2006 and
1971 sets!

-Gary