For the second time in two seasons a brand new member joined the league. Like Glenn in Season IX, Matt Franco came aboard for Season X. But Season X wasn't about beginnings. Season X was about endings. For this season would be the last season of Strato as we knew it.

As with most seasons to this point, things started out moving along quite nicely. Matt even pulled off the most lopsided trade in league history, duping Glenn out of not only Mickey Mantle, but his 4^th round pick at the following season's draft. Unfortunately I can't recall who Glenn got in return, but I do remember it being a player of far less ability than Mantle alone.

Mike, Dan, Glenn and Matt were able to attend most Strato nights. But Eugene and John's rotating schedules made it difficult for them to attend regularly. Add in Frank's general disinterest and the season was headed for disaster. The four regular members played most of their games against each other and were left with the prospect of having most of their remaining games against the three teams that were generally not around. Combined with the fact that when these three teams did show up, they would have a plethora of games to play amongst themselves, Mike and Dan grew more and more frustrated. This season could literally last two years, they reasoned. Furthermore, the fact that they were ready, willing, and able to play each week, worked against them, as they were now caught in a logjam. Something had to be done.

It was with this in mind that Mike and Dan decided they would start a separate season. They would purchase a single-season's card set and have a draft. Since Glenn was the only other member who made the effort to show up every Strato night, he would be invited to join Mike and Dan. Thus, on nights when only Mike, Dan and Glenn were around they would not be deprived of playing the game they loved. Games for this new league would only be played when the possibility of playing Season X games did not exist. All that was left was to decide which season would be played and to come up with a name for the new league. The 1930 season was discussed as this was one season for which we did not have the cards in the player pool for the regular league. But after further discussion the 1941 season was agreed upon. It was Glenn who came up with the name for the new league - Classic Strato.

The 1941 set was purchased and some rules were discussed. The most important of these rules concerned scheduling. Each Strato night each team would play three games against each of the other two teams. This would ensure that all teams generally had the same amount of games played at any given time. For the first time in league history we could get a realistic grip on the pennant race, as there wouldn't be one or two teams with 20-30 games in hand. On August 19, 1997 in Mike's kitchen in Holbrook, the first draft of Classic Strato was held. One week later the games began.

Almost instantly, Mike and Dan fell in love with the new format. The games were competitive and more closely resembled real baseball than the old all-star format. This was due to the fact that everyone didn't have a "1" at every position and you could actually feel pretty safe carrying a 3-run lead into the late innings. But the most important difference was the fact that they got to play every week as opposed to waiting around for one of the other league members to show up. On the nights that either John or Eugene or Frank or Matt did show up, Mike, Dan, and Glenn would play their Season X games. But after a couple of weeks of having played Classic Strato, they were basically just going through the motions in those Season X games. One late-September night John showed up to play. On this night I believe he won about six straight games. I remember sitting across from John playing our games while Dan and Glenn played a set of Classic Strato games. I was playing John but I would have preferred to be playing Classic Strato. It was that night that we knew the old league was over. We informed John that the old league would have to be shut down as we wanted to move in a new direction. A dumbfounded John was taken aback but understood the decision. So on September 29, 1997 Mike Aquilina and Dan Falcone (for all intents and purposes the leaders of the League Elders) declared the League to be officially dead. It was, indeed, an inauspicious ending to what had been, in its heyday, one of the most successful stories in the world of sports. But it wasn't the end of Strato, it was only the beginning.

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