Giovanni Strassini: A Football Fantasy

Work in progress

 

Yes, I'm logged in from Germany right now. Why does it matter in this context?

Because the information being supplied makes no sense whatsoever.

You think I'm trying some sort of scam, Clarity?

C-dawg has seen some very interesting things on his site.

 

On his Facebook page he is showing off something intresting, tho:

No. 89? Wasn't that Lenny Willis' number?

There is no Strassini anywhere in the media guide that I see. Not a letter winner, not a single reception in any of the Rose Bowls during that period, and not even a listing in the section covering all jersey numbers.

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/graphics/pdf/m-footbl/1112_guide_7history.pdf

From pg. 173 of the PDF for his years

#89
Ferguson, Bryan........................ 1976-77
Powell, Theodore...................... 1972-73
Willis, Leonard.......................... 1974-75

 

Because the information being supplied makes no sense whatsoever.

I know it doesn't. Yet it is not my information. I'm only posted what I found there. It puzzled me as much as anyone.

 

Because the information being supplied makes no sense whatsoever.



C-dawg has seen some very interesting things on his site.

And for $49.95 (regular $77), someone will tell you all about it...

 

So I googled Giovanni Strassini and stumbled upon the same info stated earlier in this thread, but also noticed that his name kept popping up in Wikipedia under certain things like 1976 Baseball All-Americans and Ohio State All-Americans. However, once I visited those pages his name was nowhere to be found, so I did a little digging through the page edit history because he was obviously on those Wiki articles at one time.

I dug back through the edits on this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_Varsity_O_Hall_of_Fame and found the edit that added his since deleted name to the list. The edit was made by an anonymous user and not a member, so the IP address was displayed with the edit. The IP address for the edit was 108.75.66.86, which of course happens to trace back to Charlotte, NC. The update that added his name, which again was later removed, to this wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_Buckeyes_baseball#All-Americans also comes from a Charlotte, NC IP address.

One thing I did find that supports this is a real person that attended OSU is this Classmates.com page for Giovanni Strassini (link) which states he attended Ohio State from 1973-77 after attending Cleveland Heights for High School.

I don't want to accuse anyone of fabricating a story like this, but it does appear that this person, or someone near him, is trying to write himself into the Ohio State record books via Wikipedia, IMDB and the Charlotte Buckeyes website. The ring does bring up some further questions, as does the Sporcle quiz, but as of right now all of the original information is looking less and less believable.

Edit: I know it was mentioned above, but Ted Powell was #89 TE for the 1974 Rose Bowl. Not Strassini.

 

The guys also got an IMDB credit for playing himself in a TV movie entitled: 1976 Rose Bowl.

it does appear that this person, or someone near him, is trying to write himself into the Ohio State record books via Wikipedia, IMDB and the Charlotte Buckeyes website.

Hey, lets not sell him short on his Oscar-worthy performance in 1976 Rose Bowl.

 

Well, there appears to be a "John Strassini" from Charlotte who's been in some legal trouble for fraud in the past. Not a smoking gun, but seems plausibly related.

To corroborate his fictitious professional history and to generate funds for his businesses, Strassini fabricated federal income tax returns, Forms 1040 for himself and Forms 1120 for his two businesses. With these returns, the defendant claimed that he was the founder and CEO of multi-million dollar construction enterprises. He also sought the services of reputable accounting firms to create financial statements for his corporations. Strassini used these documents to secure loans and lines of credit for residential construction projects.

Link

 

Is this the same Giovanni Strassini who helped found NAMBLA?

 

Yes, I'm logged in from Germany right now. Why does it matter in this context?

You think I'm trying some sort of scam, Clarity?

I spend a portion of each day sorting out who is here for worthwhile purposes and who is not. You were a perplexing registration. Didn't show up as a problem in my normal checks, but Germany is unusual enough and having a first post full of external links was another red flag.

As I said, you've done nothing wrong -- but it would be an understatement to say that I wasn't sure what to expect when I cleared your registration for posting privs.

As it turns out, you seem to be human, and your links (and discussion) appear to be benign. I'm the person most pleased with the fact that you appear to not be a spammer, phisher, griefer, troll, or hacker. Every new registrant is closely scrutinized, I only commented about it earlier because even after your first post I *still* wasn't sure what to think and wanted to share the pause I had regarding the external links (which, again, appear to be safe).

Carry on.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...280206.-2207520000.1368827595.&type=3&theater

His own comment on the image gallery at his facebook:

you know that same 76 Rose Bowl that I caught the touchdown pass in...the coach for UCLA was Dick Vermeil...when they beat us that year he went to Philadelphia and lost in the Superbowl to the Raiders but then 20 years later he beat Tennessee in the Superbowl to become the only coach in history to win a Rose Bowl and a Superbowl

Complete bull shit. Or bowl shit.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...280206.-2207520000.1368827595.&type=3&theater

His own comment on the image gallery at his facebook:



Complete bull shit. Or bowl shit.

He apparently monitors his facebook quite closely. I called him out on his crap and my post was gone within 10 minutes.

 

Here's the ring posted on his facebook page:

Here's the ring that I found when I googled Ohio State 1974 rose bowl ring:

The year is written differently, the stone is different, and the ''Ohio'' written across the stone is different.

 

Just go to this shithead's page and report it as a scam. With enough of those reports, they'll pull the page entirely.

 

I don't want to accuse anyone of fabricating a story like this, but it does appear that this person, or someone near him, is trying to write himself into the Ohio State record books via Wikipedia, IMDB and the Charlotte Buckeyes website. The ring does bring up some further questions, as does the Sporcle quiz, but as of right now all of the original information is looking less and less believable.

I think Hype hits the right tone here. As suspicious as all of this seems, we simply don't know. Surely there are people around here (although it's the off-season) who either will know as a simple matter of fact, or have contacts who can confirm or deny with a high degree of confidence.

This isn't quite some schlub claiming to be a CMH-winning former SEAL or something, but around these parts it's not THAT far off.

--edit--
Great doxing, all. It's a pretty interesting situation, and someone somewhere is going to some length to write Gio in. To what end?

 

Yes, I'm logged in from Germany right now. Why does it matter in this context?

You think I'm trying some sort of scam, Clarity?

I would like to purchase a Giovanni Strassini jersey. Do you have an offshore account that I can wire money to? Do you accept Bitcoin?