By Scott Benjamin
NEWINGTON – The tables are filled with game boards and banter.
War Hammers, Bolt Action, Magic The Gathering. At other times there is a Pokeman League and a Star Wars group.
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A report indicates that people spend 4.5 hours a day looking at their iPhones. But at these tables, they’re rolling dice, smiling when anyone utters a guffaw and catching every expression of competitive consternation.
It is mid-winter, and Tabletop Gaming appears to have a venue for everything except the Dexterity Society in which the contestants play Jacks and attempt to go from onsies to tensies before the end of Spring Training so they can earn their eye-hand coordination diploma.
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At the Strat-O-Matic Baseball table, Barry Rahmy says, “I love coming to this place. Look how active and crowded it is. It is really amazing that something like this still exists. It costs nothing. However, they would prefer that we buy a drink once in a while.”
“It is great to talk baseball, but it also is great to talk life,” commented Rahmy of Simsbury, who is retired after a career as “a director of the graphics department” at ESPN.
He and other members of the Connecticut Strat-O-Matic Baseball Club regularly meet for lunch, go to dinner or the theater with their wives and even a Hartford Yard Goats game.
A day earlier he stood in line the way that fans do to see Cyndi Lauper at Caesers Palace.
But there are no Roman towers near the Strat-O-Matic headquarters in Glen Head, Long Island.
Rahmy said, “It is off a railroad siting. A cinderblock warehouse. There is nothing attractive or glamorous about it. But there’s a bunch of guys waiting in line to pick up their cards.”
The coordinator of the Connecticut Strat-O-Matic Baseball Club, Brian Favereaux of Cromwell, has attended opening day more than 20 times.
“There are practically 150 guys there in line,” Favereaux said regarding this year’s rush to get the new Strat cards.
Favereaux said there were customers from Florida, Texas, Seattle.
He said he bought 28 sets, three for himself.
“You tryto get home as fast as possible to start separating” the cards,” said Favereaux.
Hal Richman, then a math major at Bucknell University, invented Start-O-Matic in 1961 and still operates the business. Strat-O-Matic sells board, online and app games for baseball, football, basketball and hockey.
Each player is represented by a card with ratings that correspond with the numbers on the dice roll.
Jeff Edelstein of The Trentonian in New Jersey wrote: “The idea is simple: You roll dice, you glance at the player cards, whatever happens, happens, and you manage your way around it.”
Favereaux said that on opening day a school bus of students from St. Anne’s School – fourth- through eighth graders – arrived from nearby Garden City, Long Island.
“They got to play against Hal inside,” Favereaux said, noting that Richman gave them Strat-Matic Baseball sets.
How will the local teams fare in 2026?
On the Mets: Favereaux said, “I don’t think they’re as good as last year. I don’t think that they have the pitching staff,”
“I don’t think they are any better than they were a year ago,” said Strat-O-Matic player Kevin Kelsey of East Granby said of the Mets.
Last June 13 the Mets had a 45-24 record, the best in baseball. Yet they failed to make the playoffs after reaching the National League Championship series on 2024.
They no longer have such marquee names as Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz, Brandan Nimmo Jeff McNeil.
However, they did Bo Bichette Freddy Peralta and Luis Robert Jr.
“The clubhouse is going to react to all the new players and the ones who have left,” commented Kelsey.
Baseball Digest has them finishing second, behind the Phillies, in the National League East.
ESPN Senior Baseball Insider Jeff Passan has stated that Nolan McLean, who was impressive over the final weeks of the 2025 campaign, “will rocket up the list of the best pitchers” after he learns “how to harness his otherworldly stuff,.”
Regarding the American League East, Favereuax said that any of the five teams – “including the Rays” – can win” the division.
The Rays are a low payroll team. However, between 2008 and 2024, they had the third best accumulative record in the major leagues.
The question that lingered through the off season: Why weren’t the Yankees making more moves to bolster their roster?
Yes, they re-signed slugger Cody Bellinger, but the only notable new acquisition was pitcher Ryan Weathers, who will probably begin the season in the starting rotation.
However, the Bronx Bombers rebuilt their bullpen staff last summer. Among their starters, 2023 American League Cy Young Award Winner Gerrit Cole will be returning by late spring after missing 2025 following arm surgery. A year ago, Cam Schlittler was barely on the radar screen of General Manager Brian Cashman, and now he is a prime part of the rotation after striking out 12 Red Sox last October to clinch the third game of their Wild Card series.
Favereaux remarked, “Their rotation is pretty good. They have a great pitching staff.”
Are the Yankees being underestimated?
If they’ve improved their pitching since the start of 2025, and they led the American League in home runs (274) and runs scored (879) last year and they tied with the Dodgers for the second-best run differential in the major leagues.
“It all comes down to who has a roster that stays healthy,” said Kelsey. “You lose a couple of key players and you can fall from first to fourth.”
Consider that the Yankees were a meager 82-80 at the end of 2023 after Aaron Judge missed nearly two months with an injury. There was discussion that manager Aaron Boone, who lives in Greenwich, and General Manager Brian Cashman, who resides in Darien, should be replaced.
A fervent Red Sox fan, Favereaux said they “have one of the best pitching staffs.”
“The Red Sox didn’t get as far last year because of the pitching,” commented Favereuax. “This year they have the pitching” – with Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray joining 2025 American League Cy Young award runner-up Garrett Crochet near the top of the starting rotation.
Of Crochet, Favereaux said, “I think he is consistent. He looks like he isn’t overdoing it.” Game One of the American League Wild Card series with the Yankees: “He didn’t look tired.”
He said that chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, a Connecticut native, has assembled an offense that is built for the way the game looks to be shaping.up. Putting the ball in play is good. Swing and miss is not the way to do it.”
Kelsey said Boston also “worked very diligently” to improve their infield defense,
Most notably, they acquired first baseman Wilson Contreras in a trade with the Cardinals.
Steve Phillips of MLB radio has predicted that Oakland first baseman Nick Kurtz, the 2025 American League Rookie of the Year, and Anthony will be competing for Most Valuable Player awards in the coming years.
Commented Favereuax, “I agree with that.”
However, he added, “If you look at Kurtz’s Strat [card], he’s not very good against lefties.”
Jim Bowden of MLB Radio has said that Phillies director of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski will go into the Baseball Hall of Fame. As an executive he had helped guide the Marlins, Tigers, Red Sox and Phillies to the World Series.
Remarked Kelsey, “I didn’t like the way he goes about it. He will vacate your minor league system in order to get aplayer he thinks might help. Every team he has left had the worst minor league system.”
Rahmy said he grew up as an Orioles fan, but with family members now living in Washington state, he suffers from some “sleep-deprived nights” following the Mariners on the Pacific time zone.
“I’m proud to say when I filled out my major league baseball search last year, I said that the most exciting player in baseball is Cal Raeigh. But I didn’t anticipate that he would hit 60 home runs” – the most ever for a catcher, Rahmy declared.
He emphasized that Jerry Dipoto, the president of baseball operations, and Justin Hollander, the general manager, deserve gold stars. Sports Illustrated described them as the “dynamic duo.” Dipoto was voted the major league executive of the year for 2025.
The Dodgers are the first team in a quarter century to garner consecutive World Series Commissioner’s Trophies. At the start of 2025 with a raft of MVP winners they appeared destined to approach 120 victories. They tallied 93 wins – four less than major league leader Milwaukee. There were three other clubs with more victories – the Phillies, Blue Jays and Yankees - during the regular season.
Despite finishing first in the National League West they had to play in the wild card round. From there, they performed like a 120-win team in annexing the National League Pennant and then struggled at times in the World Series against the Blue Jays, before winning the title in an epic seventh game.
For 2026, MLB Radio’s Jim Bowden has said they have so much pitching talent thatthey will start the season with a major league rotation at their AAA Oklahoma City Comets affiliate.
Said Favereaux, “I think they’re still the favorite to win the whole thing.”
Phillips of MLB Radio has said the Dodgers designated hitter-pitcher Shohei Ohtani isthe most dominant player in pro sports history. Who else has been a unanimous MVP four times?
Favereuax commented, “It looks too easy when you watch him play. It looks like he’s playing WIFFLE Ball in the backyard.”
However, he said he agrees with Wall Street Journal sports columnist Jason Gay that Ohtani’s contributions are limited, since except for his pitching assignments he doesn’t play in the field.
In 2024, when due to an arm injury Ohtani only was a designated hitter.
He became the first player to collect at least 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in the same season.
At the time, Gay argued that his output wasn’t the same “as playing in the field.”
He stated, “It’s less work. It’s less hazardous, even with the steals. He has significantly less stress and responsibility in the course of a game.”
Favereaux remarked, “I don’t want to say hypocritical, [but]everybody complained when [Red sox Hall of Famer] David Ortiz had some really big years, that he can’t be the MVP because he’s only the DH. Ohtani has won as only a DH. Ortiz’s numbers weren’t as big as Ohtani’s. However, he was having as good a yearas any other offensive player.”
Ortiz’s highest finish was second in 2005 to the Yankees Alex Rodriguez.
Nevertheless, does Ohtani deserve the Greatest Athlete Of All Time trophy?
“I still think that Bo Jackson is the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen,” Favereaux exclaimed.
Bob Costas said in 1990 in an interview with the late Dick Schapp, the sports journalist who co-authored Jackson’s autobiography, that because Jackson did not specialize in either baseball or football, but played both, he was not one of the top 20 baseball players or among the best 10 players in the National Football League.
Schapp replied that although that was the case, Jackson “is the best highlight film that’s ever been invented.”
After the 2026 World Series, Strat-O-Matic may be the only place for fans to turn to.
The current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires December 1 and there is unrest over installing a salary cap, which could delay the start of the 2027 campaign.
Favereaux commented, “I think they absolutely need to have a salary cap. I think they also need to have a salary floor. The teams that are getting the luxury tax moneyneed to be focused on spending the money they’re getting on the rosters and not just pocketing the money.”
Kelsey remarked, “The players will not agree to a salary cap if they don’t have a salary floor.”
Exclaimed Favereaux, “The other major sports have them.”
However, Rahmy said, “I’m a capitalist at heart. I think the Dodgers – whether you like or hate them – are good for baseball” with their high spending.
He remarked, “I think the salary cap plays into the hands of the owners. My dad was a union steward for the Postal Service. I am a pro-union guy.”
Resources:
https://www.wsj.com/sports/baseball/cam-schlittler-yankees-red-sox-91b
https://www.si.com/mlb/mariners/onsi/justin-hollander-and-jerry-dipoto-dynamic-duo-in-mariners-front-office
Passan's MLB season preview: Predictions, fantasy tips, more
NBC’s Later Bob Costas, December 11, 1990.
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/strat-o-matic-baseball-goes-numbers
