Several years pass, and the "Pappas" league slowly dies away. But once the game is in one's blood, the desire to roll the dice is tough to resist. The perfect opportunity to form a new league arises in October of 1985, when Joe, Mike, John and Strato rookie Dan Falcone decide to rent a luxurious four-bedroom beach-front house on Long Island's North Shore.

The boys took possession of what affectionately came to be known as "The shit-hole" on November 1, 1985, They moved in their stuff, which consisted of about two boxes each, ordered a couple of Domino's pizzas, got a couple of cases of Budweiser, and held the inaugural draft of the Rocky Point Strat-O-Matic league. The league started out strong, but Dan moved out of the house after about 20 minutes, and a heartbroken John followed shortly thereafter. The many miles separating John and Dan, back in Holbrook, and Mike and Joe, in Rocky Point, made it impossible for the league to survive. However, the Rocky Point league did make one valuable contribution to the history of Strato: the Bernie the Plumber story.

The water pressure in the Michelos house was not up the standards the boys had become accustomed to in the big city of Holbrook. An emergency call to the plumber was quickly made. Bernie the Plumber would be stopping by to fix the problem. Meanwhile Bernie Carbo is patrolling leftfield for Dan's team. Dan, even in the infant stages of his Strato career, was making a name for himself as a master nicknamer. Bernie Carbo became known as Bernard Cardboard. Bernie the Plumber shows up to fix the shower in the bathroom, while the boys are in the adjoining kitchen playing Strato. The worlds of pipes and wrenches and dice and x-charts are about to collide. A dilemma presents itself: If we say the name Bernie or Bernard, the plumber may think we're talking to or about him. To avoid any embarrassing confusion it is determined that we should refer to Dan's leftfielder simply as "Cardboard." All threats of confusion are eliminated, the water pressure vastly improves, and the games go on uninterrupted. Is there no end to these colorful vignettes?