April 11 saw the league finishing up a two-bank rotation of Athena and Hera (I picked those names and I’m going to use them damn it). We also had the return of most of the new members who swelled the league’s ranks for our first league night, meaning we didn’t scare (most of) them off, as well as having another new member join. Our new member is named Mark (H.), so I told him he was going to have to be “Other Mark” since we already have a Mark (C.). We also had the return of a couple of past members who had been absent several seasons, Jim J. and Jimmy R.
Other Mark came to us all the way from Traverse City, believe it or not, and turns out to have been an employee at Pinball Pete’s in Ann Arbor back in the day. He and Derik got to reminiscing about the old days at Pete’s and I chimed in a little bit with my recollection of when there was a Pete’s location on Packard (I had a friend who lived in some apartments almost across the street).
The Tuesday Night Smackdown game was Guns N’ Roses which somehow I won. Really, I’m in such disbelief that Joseph just now had to tell me that I won, and I didn’t believe him until he pointed out the champion button that was still sitting on the dining table. Jason won the Undercard division along with also taking home a replacement trophy from his Zen championship in Season 16. The trophy shop had accidentally given us the wrong size trophies and while I didn’t really care that much, when they found out they felt bad and made us replacements. That’s what Jason is holding in his Smackdown winner’s circle photos.
This was our last meeting before the big Michigan event of the year, Pinball at the Zoo. A lot of people were planning to attend and some of us had designs on coming home from PATZ with trophies. Unfortunately despite being the #2 seed in Women’s and getting to drive the bus in semi-finals, I drove the bus straight off a cliff, so I had to rely on hometown favorite Derik to bring glory to the league. Derik made it to finals in the main tournament and took 4th. Although he didn’t get the win we were hoping for, he did garner a huge crowd reaction with a glorious Lazarus ball on Flash Gordon that he not only lifted out of the drink successfully but sent straight up the ramp!
Our next meeting is in (checks watch) a little over an hour so I hope to see you all soon!