Monday, October 12, 2026
Strat-O-Matic got its start in 1961, when founder Hal Richman began selling an early version of the baseball game out of his basement. The first Strat-O-Matic baseball season was 1962.
The company is headquartered in Glen Head, not far from where Richman grew up, in Great Neck. Each opening day in February is a huge event for the store in Glen Head, and people travel from as far away as other states just to wait on line to get the season’s new cards.
In the 1980s, when longtime East Meadow Strat-O-Matic league member Jeffrey Weintraub was working in the job placement office of LaGuardia Community College, a woman working for him told him that she had met Richman’s wife.
“I looked at her and I said, ‘Get friendly with her, invite them over for dinner, and invite me,’” Weintraub recalled. “I’ve never done that before — I’m not an aggressive person — but she actually did it, and invited me over.”
Weintraub said that it was ‘just delightful’ to meet and talk with Richman.
