Opening Day 2001
Gary Altman

Opening Day 2001 saw partly cloudy skies, temperatures in the middle 40’s and only a slight breeze. Since the cards were just minutes from being handed to Jim Hassay and Earl Lane, both of Youngstown, Ohio I had a chance to talk to some of the many people waiting on line in the very un-February temperatures.

I arrived at Strat-O-Matic in Glen Head at about 11:50am, and immediately saw an old league member, and Star Tournament veteran Mike Cohen. We reminisced about old times and caught each other up to speed on things that have gone on in our lives over the past year when we last saw each other. His partner in our Face to Face (FtF) league was Eric Ruskiewicz, who now, I believe, lives in Minnesota. Eric, if you’re reading this, drop me a line.

Also there was John Lamanna’s beautiful wife Terry. John had some important issues that needed tending down in Florida and I’m sure he missed being up here in New York as much as I missed seeing him here this year.

I met some interesting people on line and the pictures I took will be posted to the SOMWorld website as soon as I get them scanned. Here we are in the year 2001 and the photo developer I choose doesn’t have the capability of handing me a diskette with my pictures.

As I was handing out SOMWorld Flyers outlining the features of Strat-O-Matic’s newest version, I came across George DesRoches (jstrmblde@aol.com) who ventured up from Rhode Island. This was his 19^th trip to Glen Head, which isn’t the longest running pilgrimage that I came across, believe it or not. Joining George was Dave Franco who has made the trip since 1983 and also from Rhode Island, Donald Desjarlais and Leo Garceau. They’re all part of a semi-new FtF league. Right now the league doesn’t have a name but George is thinking about calling the league either the XSL or the Millennium League. Drop him a line and help him make a choice. They also plan on introducing using Strat Interactive on www.stats.com for the first time this year for league play.

George did relay a story to me that his league had the first female player in it (at least as far as him or I know, it’s the first). Forbes magazine interviewed Lori Ann Robbio at Opening Day 1990 in Glen Head. Due to the popularity of this interview, she had to change her name. But here, in this article, for the first time, I will reveal her name to now be Lori Ann DesRouches. George, in his own words stated, "She plays strat, there’s no way I could let her go!" Good job George.

As I made my way through the line I came across Al Ringland of Eastern Pennsylvania and Bob Pettipaw of Central, New Jersey. Al has been coming to Opening Day for the last 11 years. They’re both in the ARBA league, which has 24 teams and 16 managers. The league has 2 Divisions (Continental and Federal). This league uses Salaries, Free Agents, and a rookie draft. Without getting into too many specifics with Al and Bob about their league, it appears that the league does use a salary cap of some sort. Al was talking about selling Ken Griffey Jr. That should fetch a pretty penny, huh?

The way Al and Bob met was when Al moved from Levittown, NY. For those of you not from New York, Levittown is about 25 minutes from Glen Head. Both Bob and Al have been teamed up since the mid 1980’s in the ARBA league. Al and Bob are both veteran’s of board games. Al has been playing since the mid 1950’s and Bob since the 1960’s. But the one who "showed" Al the light of Strat-O-Matic was his son, Warren. Warren is now a High School teacher and football coach in Pearsall, Texas.

I next came upon Chris Potter of Little Falls, New Jersey who traveled and hour and fifteen minutes to Strat Headquarters. Chris only found SOMWorld only 2 weeks ago and is still making his way through all 150 plus articles we have. "SOMWorld is great for rainy nights and rainy days", Potter said. Chirs is also in a FtF league that currently has 9 members and is seeking a 10^th. If you’re in the Little Falls area and want to play in a league, drop Chris a line at coach54@webspan.net. Let him know that you found him through SOMWorld.

As I keep handing out flyers and greeting the people on line, I come across what I believe to be the group that traveled the furthest; J.C. Plante, Steve Dufresne, and Marty LaFrance from Montreal, Canada. Steve found SOMWorld through the old Strat Web Ring a year ago. "I really like the website", was DuFresne’s comment about SOMWorld. They’re in a FtF league with 8 teams. They’ve made the annual journey since 1987. The trip took 7 hours. After I commented with "Wow!" Steve, without missing a beat said to the amusement of us all, "We’re diehards, what can I say?"

Now I come up to someone else that I know, but previously only online. Jay Zucker. Jay was part of the NABS League contingent with Steve Alterman of Boson, MA, and Larry Salay or Port Chester, NY. Larry is a former member of the NABS league, which plays an AL season in the Fall and Winter and a NL season in the Summer. The NL has 12 teams while the AL has 10. Joe Duffy, a former Strat-O-Matic Club of Long Island member is a member of the NABS league and wasn’t able to make it to Opening Day.

Next up was the longest running Opening Day migration that I met Sy and Sue Duperson with Ray Sylvester of the Strat-O-Matic Mecca, Rhode Island. When I pointed out the first contingent that I came across from Rhode Island, they didn’t seem to know each other. Sue was the first woman on line at Opening Day. Her reason for the trip was just slightly different than Sy and Ray’s. Sue wanted to have a nice meal at the Iron Horse just down the block. For the last 27 years (after a little quick math, this equates to circa 1976). Ray worked the night before from 11pm till 7am, and quickly shot over to Sy’s. By 8am they were on their way and four and a half-hours later were standing in line just behind the Montreal contingent. Their league is also a FtF league started with 8 managers, then grew to 16 and due to lack of dedication of new managers scaled back down to 8.

Paul Weltchek, a local from Massapequa Park Long Island made the trip north and stated, "It’s great to see people I haven’t seen in a year". Paul is a member of a FtF league on Long Island, which has 11 very high skilled managers. Others from this list that showed up to pickup their cards were Bob Ballot, Kenny Tyrrell and his beautiful daughter, Don McCoun, and Steve Tepper. I’ve played in this league for a couple of seasons and missed a few other managers, like Pete Miller, Make Galit and Rick Goldberg. If anyone is looking for a FtF league on Long Island, contact me direct and I’ll pass your names onto the league.

I finally hit the end of the line, and handed out all 125 flyers that I had printed up. With part one of my SOMWorld duties completed, I now had some extra time to snap some photos of the line and interview a few more people randomly. I went back to the front of the line and met up with Marty Bender and Bruce Young, of Rego Park, Queens NY. They have a 10-team league that happens to be looking for one more manager. They play a 162 game set schedule. You can contact Bruce at brucelyoung@yahoo.com or bendermarty@yahoo.com. Marty wanted me to add one thing to my interview as after he picked up his cards came over to me and said, "We’re not a money league in case some one asks." Thanks Marty. A lot of managers do have that as a question and I should have asked that as people were mentioning their leagues and setups to me.

Now, the doors to Strat have opened and a collective roar was released. This was IT! Show Time, if you will. 2 minutes after the doors open were the first people to leave with a package in their hands. It was Jim Hassay and Earl Lane of Youngstown, Ohio. They arrived at Glen Head around 5am, in their 10^th year of making the annual trip. Jim was very proud of the fact that he was first, as he should be. Who remembers #2, right? They drove 7 ½ hours, spanning 400 miles. When asked if they stayed within legal speed limits, with a twinkle in his eye Hassay said, "Yea, within speed limits." At this point I let him get in his car and head on home.

Then after chatting with Terry Lamanna for a bit and catching up on the goings on over the last year and how our families are doing, Billy Vanson of the NYPD gives Terry a little "care package".

I finally went in to pickup my order. I’m invited inside the door into the inner workings of Strat-O-Matic. I start chatting with Hal and tell him that later I have a football game to play. He asks if it’s two-hand touch or flag football. I tell him, "No, it’s Strat". He pauses to think about it for a moment and then we both laugh. I’m in a franchise football league and have the Giants. I played the Steelers and lost the game 17-14 as Phil Simms throws 4 Touchdowns.

Getting back to what I see inside is Lenny handling and checking out the orders. Hal answering the phone and having his lovely daughter Ann at his side. Ann was taking pictures for Strat-O-Matic and capturing pictures with Hal and people coming from outside the Tri-State area. Judging by the people I met, Ann must have went through at least two rolls of film. I had to manage not to get in Rita’s way as she was scurrying with orders for people who just continued to come up to the window.

Hal can now stop putting in 80-hour workweek as the first ever release of the cards and computer game, Version 6, has been released on time and together. One could tell that Hal was quite proud of the accomplishment and had a sense of relief.

Just before I walk out the door, do I see a man in a Texas Rangers cap and his two children walking out the door. I peek at his package and see a name that has been very familiar to me but I've never met personally before even though we live about 15 minutes apart. We were in the SOMWorld League together and is a veteran of some of the many mail lists available to the Strat players. Paul Sauberer. We chatted for a while about some of the goings on and problems of the mail lists out. We wished each other well, and went about our business for the rest of the day.

All in all it was a good time. I met for the second year in a row Jim Furtado. Jim has some big plans for this year and anything we can do to help you Jim, don’t hesitate to ask. I hope because of this article that more of the readers express and interest in coming to New York next year for Opening Day. It would be great to meet some of the people who post online, subscribe to SOMWorld, or have been playing the game for years experience an Opening Day. This was my 9^th consecutive Opening Day, and I’d have to rate it one of the best I’ve been to. Everything worked out perfectly. Weather. Cards. Version 6. What more could be asked?

Even though there is a surplus of information available to everyone prior to Opening Day, the turnout was tremendous, showing that this IS an event. The type of talk on line might have changed, but one thing has remained constant, Strat-O-Matic is alive and well!

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