The purpose of the Experimental league was to determine if the new league could succeed.  The standings were inconsequential, statistics were optional, and there would be no post-season.  The four teams would play each of the other teams ten times, for a total of thirty games each.  After the conclusion of this season, it was believed that enough data would exist to predict what kind of problems would exist with the new league.  How right we were.

Tuesday nights, it was decided, would be the perfect night for Strato night.  This was a tribute to the Tuesdays of Mike, Dan, and Joe’s youth, when they would spend the day competing in miniature golf tournaments, slugging down Big Gulps, and taking long walks (either to the mall, Jamesport, or various other locales on Long Island).  The meeting place would be Mrs. Agostino’s basement in Medford.  This was a convenient, private location, and since it was also where Louis was living at the time, it would be the ideal place.  Since Louis was generally transportationally-impaired, there would also be no threat of anyone being held hostage by the game’s elder statesman at the end of a long night.    

The Experimental league draft was held one Tuesday night and the season was underway.  It didn’t take long for the boys’ love of the game to come shining through.  One Tuesday night a few weeks hence, Mike, Dan, and Joe decided that this great love could only be consummated by playing games that really counted.  So with all but a handful of games remaining in the Experimental league, they decided that the mission of the league was accomplished; there would obviously be no reason to play out the remainder of the schedule.  When Louis got home from work they would tell him the good news: “Mission accomplished, let’s get this thing going.”  Louis came down and the excitement level in the room was even higher than it had been the last few weeks.  The guys let Louis in on the decision, to which Lou immediately responded, “No.”  What?  Did our ears deceive us?  Did we accidentally say we were going to stop playing Strato and just hang out with Mark Altner every Tuesday night, instead of ditching the remainder of the experimental season?  No, the decision had been presented clearly and concisely, and Lou didn’t agree. So Mike and Dan ditched the couple of games they had remaining with each other, and Joe went through the motions in his last few meaningless games with Lou.  

It was far from the last time the new league would be faced with controversy, and we all came to the sad realization that the innocence of the league was lost forever.