League Fun
ST. LOUIS - 2010ST. LOUIS, MO. -- 2010 LEAGUE GET-TOGETHER - FACE-TO-FACE ACTION. THE WINNER OF THE "BIGGEST LOSER" AWARD, ANDREW PHELPS (CAROLINA CATFISH). IN BETWEEN SITE SEEING IN ST. LOUIS, ANDREW MANAGED TO COMPILE A RECORD OF 4 - 17 (.190 PCT) AND WAS "FORCED" TO WEAR THE "LOSERS" HAT AND DISPLAY HIS MARK McGWIRE "TROPHIES". .... WAY TO GO ANDREW!! (face-to-face results are listed below)
PEGGY ROMANO PROVIDED A DELICIOUS CAKE THAT
WELCOMED EVERYONE TO ST. LOUIS! EVERYONE ALSO RECEIVED
A WECOME BASKET IN THEIR ROOM WITH G.U.S.S.O.M.O., BASEBALL and
ST. LOUIS THEMED COOKIES IN IT.....
LEAGUE CHAMPION, JIM PHELPS (L) AND RUNNER-UP, WILL POLUMBO (R)
SHOW OFF THEIR 2009 AWARDS. (BTW... LET'S START A "COLLECTION" FOR
WILL SO HE CAN GET A NEW SHIRT TO WEAR... LOL!)
JEFF WADKOWSKI AND SON MATHEW
TAKING IN THE ACTION AT BUSCH STADIUM
LARRY AND ELAINE STEINBERG WATCHING THE ACTION
AT BUSCH STADIUM...BUT WISHING THE "SOX"
WERE PLAYING.... AND NOT THE A's
2010 "IN YOUR FACE" SCOREBOARD - ST. LOUIS, MO.
TEAM WON LOST GAMES PLAYED WINNING PCT. SEATTLE PILOTS
20 4 24 .833 ALBANY INTERNATIONALS
24 13 37 .649 MICHIGAN MAD DOGS
26 17 43 .605 ANTIOCH COAL MINERS
44 34 78 .564 ITALIAN STALLIONS
16 14 30 .533 MISSISSIPPI BIG ORANGE
22 20 42 .524 INDIANAPOLIS CLOWNS
12 12 24 .500 MISSOURI MUSTANGS
22 23 45 .489 MEMPHIS RAMPAGE
12 15 27 .444 PINEY CREEK PALOOKAS
13 17 30 .433 McHENRY CYBERMEN
18 24 42 .429 CHICAGO MOB
17 25 42 .405 GOTHAM CITY BATMEN
18 33 51 .353 CAROLINA CATFISH
4 17 21 .190
DENVER 2009
PHOTOS OF "LEAGUE MEETING" AND AWARD CEREMONY IN DENVER, CO (JUNE 2009)
RALPH POLUMBO (above) RECEIVING HIS "2008 CHAMPIONSHIP" AWARD
WILL POLUMBO (above) TELLS HIS DAD.... "THAT IN YOU FACE AWARD SHOULD HAVE BEEN MINE!"
JEFF F. (above) PRESENTING WILL POLUMBO WITH HIS "2008 RUNNER UP" AWARD
(Above....FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ---- ALICE POLUMBO, SYDNEY FLEISCHMAN, JIM PHELPS,
PATTI and LARRY BYK, EVAN STEINBERG DAVID KUKAFKA'S SONS, MIKE LEFKOW,
LARRY STEINBERG and TONY ROMANO
"THE WOMEN OF G.U.S.S.O.M.O." (above)
L to R -- PEGGY ROMANO, ALICE POLUMBO, PATTI BYK, ELAINE STEINBERG and ROBYN FLEISCHMAN
LEAGUE MEMBERS (above) ENJOYING SOME BACKYARD COLORADO BBQ.....
L to R..... EVAN STEINBERG, WILL POLUMBO, JIM PHELPS, LARRY STEINBERG,
LAWRENCE GREEN AND NICK ROMANO
AW SHUCKS.... WE FORGOT TO GET THE GREY POUPON!
(above) .... SOME "CALM" DISCUSSION DURING THE ANNUAL LEAGUE MEETING.....
(the following article appeared on the SOM web page, December 17, 2008)
They Have Lived and Loved the History of Strat-O-Matic
By Glenn Guzzo
What is likely the longest-running nationwide Strat-O-Matic league with founding members has completed its 37th consecutive season of baseball – and ballet.
GUSSOMO (for the Greater United States Strat-O-Matic Organization), formed in 1971, is so old that it is a self-described “generational league” – four of its members are sons of other managers and weren’t even born when GUSSOMO began.
“When the league began, Strat-O-Matic had only single-sided cards and the Major Leagues had only 24 teams,” said Jeff Fleischman, GUSSOMO’s commissioner since the end of its first season. “Though the 2008 season was the 15th since Carlton Fisk retired, and Fisk played 24 seasons before that, this Strat-O-Matic league was born before Fisk hit his first Major-League home run.”
The league has evolved in other ways. It began as a board-game league, of course, and now uses the computer. It has 22 teams, with the latest, two-team expansion this year (both new clubs piloted by sons of longtime GUSSOMO managers). It began as a stock-team league, but has been a draft league most of the time. Its members are spread across the U.S., but about half meet for face-to-face games. The managers are serious about Strat-O-Matic, but when the whole group convenes annually, they make social time with families, sight-seeing and more, such as the ballets.
When GUSSOMO was a stock-team league in 1971, the franchise names duplicated the real Major League teams. In Year 37, the class of the league with 107 wins was the Sin City Bounty Hunters, but only four games better than the Richmond Banshees. The Concord Grape and the Chicago Mob could not keep up.
The extraordinary thing about this league, said Ralph Polumbo, whose sons John and Will also manage GUSSOMO teams, is “its longevity and the average tenure of the members” who have “shared life events” in each other’s families, such as marriages and births.
“The personal relationships and friendships,” manager Larry Steinberg echoed, “held GUSSOMO together through some of the tough years in the past,” when other leagues might have folded.
Steinberg should know. He and Fleischman have been in GUSSOMO since the beginning, although other managers have been involved for 25 years and the average tenure is 20 years. His son Evan is one of the new managers this season.
“The fact that about half the league has been active since 1990 is remarkable in itself,” manager Vern Coffman added.The long-timers were in high school (even junior high school) when this began. Naturally, the memories are precious:
Fleischman, who lives in Colorado after a couple of moves, was on vacation when he first visited Polumbo in his Connecticut home. There in the kitchen was a son in a high chair. Today, that son is a GUSSOMO manager.
The “crazy teenagers” of GUSSOMO, riding the New York subway at 2 a.m. during the days of the 1973 Strat-O-Matic convention at the Abraham & Strauss department store.
Looong before the computer game, Fleischman (then living in Southern California) playing the first league game by phone with an opponent in Ohio. Each player rolled dice for his own team and announced the roll over the phone.
Since then, the many times that league members, while traveling, went out of their way to connect with nearby league members for face-to-face Strat.
Steinberg recalling that it’s only because of the annual GUSSOMO league meetings that he and his family have visited such places as Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh, Freedom Hall in Philly, Cedar Point in Ohio and the St. Louis Arch. “Best of all,” he recalled, “meeting Buck O'Neil and Double Duty Radcliffe in KC.”
The annual get-togethers, which has attracted league members (often half or more) to such sites as Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Denver, San Francisco/San Jose, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. The events typically include a “convention” hotel that includes a meeting room dedicated for intense Strat play – with laptops everywhere – but also a Major League Game, a family barbecue at the host manager’s home and more.
“While playing our games is what the get-togethers are all about,” Fleischman explained, “we have made it a point to promote a certain level of style and `culture’ for our members. Over the years, we have made time to attend some of the best local ballets, including the little-known, but very popular `Cowboy Show’ in Windsor, Ontario.”
The gathering in Detroit this past summer was the best-attended of all, suggesting that, like other things of enduring value, GUSSOMO keeps getting better with age.
