Where did Mike P. go?  He just stopped showing up on Strato night.  Several inquiries into his where-abouts were made.  Phone calls to his place of residence were attempted.  These calls were usually answered with vague references to Mike P. not being available due to some dog-walking emergency.  Hours would pass and follow-up calls would be attempted.  We were informed that he was still walking the dog.  Finally we came to the sad realization that the league had lost Mike P.  For the first time in league history a team had disbanded before the end of the season.

But as disastrous as the disbanding of the Conundrums was to the league, it had nowhere near the impact of Frank Panasci’s actions which soon followed.

For a few weeks it appeared that Frank too had disappeared.  We knew that he was in the process of moving, so we figured that would cause him to miss a couple of weeks.  But then some more time went by and Frank still didn’t show on Strato night.  We again followed standard operating procedure and attempted phone calls (usually threatening ones made by Eugene).  In this case at least we were able to get in touch with the party we were calling directly.  Frank evaded the issue though.  “I can’t make it this week.”  “I’m busy next week.”  “Two weeks from now?  That doesn’t look too good either.  I’ll be in touch. (click).”  Our suspicions increased until finally our worst fears were realized.  Frank finally informed us after about two months that the unthinkable had happened.  He lost his team.  HE LOST HIS TEAM.  His mother, during Frank’s move, was helping out by doing some cleaning.  Among the items that found their way into the trash were approximately 30 pieces of cardboard that looked, to Mrs. Panasci, to be as useless as her youngest son. 

Suddenly we were faced with the prospect of coming up with a contingency plan for closing out the season without two teams.