The AAABA Tournament lost one of its leaders with the recent death of Philadelphia franchise representative Mike Gossner.
Gossner had more than 30 years of experience in assembling and leading teams in the Johnstown tournament.
His Philadelphia Bandits franchise consistently was among the top competitors in the AAABA field.
Gossner is a past national president of the AAABA, serving in 2020 and 2021, helping the tournament through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the cancellation of the 2020 event.
“In 30-plus years of coming to Johnstown, Mike put together some very good teams,” said George Arcurio III, president of the Johnstown Oldtimers Baseball Association.
Philadelphia has appeared in 60 AAABA tournaments dating to the inaugural event in 1945. Gossner managed the team to AAABA Tournament runner-up finishes in 1998 and 2014.
In more recent years, he moved into the role as franchise representative.
With the loss of Gossner, the Philadelphia franchise will not participate in the 80th AAABA Tournament Aug. 4-9 in Johnstown. Tournament chairman Bob Mingo of Youngstown said the Bandits organization is taking steps to return, possibly as early as next year.
“He’s been a first-class gentleman the whole way from the beginning to the end,” Arcurio said. “I nominated him to be president a few years back and he did a great job as the national president in the AAABA. We are going to miss him badly.”
Read The Tribune-Democrat story on Mike Gossner.