RIP Bill Strickler: Age 57
Posted: 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
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