RIP Bill Strickler: Age 57

Post Reply
User avatar
Greg Ambrosius
Posts: 40282
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2004 6:00 pm
Contact:

RIP Bill Strickler: Age 57

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:05 am

It is with a heavy heart and sadness that I announce today that a veteran NFBC player has passed away. Bill Strickler of Holiday, Florida passed away last week at the age of 57 due to a heart attack.

Bill was having the best season of his career in the NFBC, having led both the Rotowire Online Championship and the Cutline Championship at the same time this summer. He made the "final table" of the Cutline Championship and is still ranked in the Top 5 overall of the Rotowire Online Championship. He has multiple Rotowire OC teams that are either leading their leagues or are second in the league.

Bill first joined the NFBC in 2006 when he drafted in the Main Event in Tampa. He drafted live in Tampa again in 2007 and has been a serious player in the NFBC and NFFC every year since then. He drafted the Main Event in Orlando in 2008 and 2009 and then went to St. Louis to draft the Main Event in 2010. He drafted Online after that, but just loved the NFBC community and talked often with NFBC veteran Dave Clum. Bill LOVED BASEBALL and he loved the Cutline, Online Championship and Main Event formats. In the last three years alone, Bill had won at least 14 Cutline league titles and four Rotowire Online Championship league titles.

He participated in the NFFC through the years and had some success, winning multiple Cutline and Rotowire Online Championship league titles the last couple of years, but he definitely loved baseball more than football. In fact, he didn't sign up for any football teams this year and I figured it was because he was so immersed in baseball this year. I usually talk with him multiple times a year, but I hadn't talked to him during this baseball season and didn't want to jinx him after seeing how much success he was having.

I never met Bill, but talked with him multiple times on the phone. He would sometimes call and say "where do you need help, I can do a few more teams" and I'd tell him we'll be fine. But he would always take another Cutline or Rotowire Online Championship team to help us out because he just loved our contests and wanted to see them continue and do well.

His wife contacted me on Saturday with the news. She told me they were married 19 years and the obituary says that she was the love of his life. She told me "sports were his mistress and I didn't mind sharing him with sports. His happiness was the most important thing to me. He would tell me that your drafts were the Best of the Best."

In March at the Las Vegas live events, I said in my speech that we should "never, ever, ever, ever take this for granted." What I meant by that was that we should never take getting together for fantasy baseball drafts for granted. That we should never take drafting at the Bellagio for granted. That we should never take being alive and healthy and with so many good friends for granted. That we should never take having baseball available to us for granted. I meant all of it and it still holds true today when someone just 57 years old passes away.

We lose friends all too often, but hopefully we appreciated every moment we had on this earth together. It's way too early for someone like Bill to pass away, but I know he appreciated the competition and the camaraderie he had with all of us. RIP Bill and Godspeed.

Here is Bill's obituary:

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituar ... r-10931580
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @GregAmbrosius

User avatar
Tom Kessenich
Posts: 23904
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2004 6:00 pm
Contact:

Re: RIP Bill Strickler: Age 57

Post by Tom Kessenich » Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:50 am

Absolutely terrible news. Like Greg, I never met Bill. He was always an Online player. But I spoke with him countless times on the phone and communicated with him hundreds of times over email throughout the years. He was always a warm, decent person and always looking to help us out in any way he could. And as Greg noted he was having an outstanding season this year in the NFBC in multiple national contests.

You're never prepared to hear news like this and it always takes you by surprise and reminds you how fragile life is and how we should never take for granted any of the things we have or those we share our lives with. It all means so much.

RIP Bill. You will be missed by all of in the NFBC family.
Tom Kessenich
Manager of High Stakes Fantasy Games, SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @TomKessenich

JohnP
Posts: 627
Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:00 pm
Contact:

Re: RIP Bill Strickler: Age 57

Post by JohnP » Wed Sep 21, 2022 1:52 pm

oh man. Sad news for sure. Thanks for sharing it. I remember Bill from the live St Louis event at Pujols 5 or whatever it was called. That was such a fun time and I remember talking to Bill. We didn't have a ton of room at that venue and Bill was a bigger guy....ha, he was having some fun with how tight things were. Excellent drafter! Condolences to his family and friends.

Texas Connection
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:00 pm

Re: RIP Bill Strickler: Age 57

Post by Texas Connection » Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:40 pm

Hate to hear that. I personally didn't know Bill but I always saw his name at the top of the Cutline leagues. I tried to avoid him in my leagues. I would probably rank him in the top 5 all time Cutline players if not Number 1. We lost a great competitor. Condolences to his family.

User avatar
Baseball Furies
Posts: 2704
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:00 pm
Contact:

Re: RIP Bill Strickler: Age 57

Post by Baseball Furies » Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:36 am

Extremely sad news. Bill was one of the many great guys and awesome competitors who I had gotten to know over the years through texting and many shared leagues together. Gone too soon, and he will be missed. My deepest sympathies to his family.
"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base." ~Dave Barry

Post Reply