# 030 - Over 40?  You Should Do This!

**Source:** Punk Rock Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-01-12  
**Duration:** 41m 47s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://share.transistor.fm/s/a33e0625

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## Analysis

Stephanie and Mike of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast discuss why adults over 40 should participate in competitive pinball tournaments, emphasizing friendship-building, social community, and inclusive welcoming culture. They provide practical guidance on finding tournaments via IFPA, the Punk Rock Pinball Facebook group, and the Pinball Map app, and encourage listeners to play at least two tournaments in 2025.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Punk Rock Pinball Association has organized 27 events with 365 players generating 12,425 points as of this episode — _Stephanie and Mike cite leaderboard statistics directly from their organization's tracking system_
- [MEDIUM] Pinball tournaments attract 98-99% welcoming and friendly people with minimal grumpy participants — _Mike's opinion based on tournament experience, stated as near-universal observation_
- [HIGH] Poor Bros monthly tournament had 18 participants, with 6 being first-time tournament players — _Mike and Stephanie directly attended and ran this tournament the day before recording_
- [HIGH] Punk Rock Pinball website will launch updated events calendar within one week featuring proper tournament director event creation — _Stephanie credits Nick Greenup with building the feature, scheduled to deploy 'tomorrow' or within days_
- [MEDIUM] Pinball is safer and less dangerous than pickleball for competitive adults, citing brother's injury from pickleball — _Mike shares personal anecdote about brother breaking rib and injuring knee in pickleball_

### Notable Quotes

> "if you're over 40, especially if you're younger, it's fine. But if you're over 40, you should start playing competitive pinball."
> — **Stephanie**, ~8:50
> _Core thesis of episode positioning pinball tournaments as ideal activity for adults in this demographic_

> "The reason why is because you're going to meet and make new friends... the number one reason."
> — **Mike**, ~9:30
> _Identifies primary motivation for tournament participation beyond competitive play_

> "I think everyone, every American should be required to play pinball together... the world would be better if everyone played pinball together."
> — **Stephanie**, ~33:00
> _Expresses deeper conviction about pinball's social bridging capacity across political/cultural divides_

> "Pinball is just as fun and less dangerous [than competitive sports]. Super fun competition, not dangerous."
> — **Mike**, ~31:00
> _Positioning pinball as accessible competitive alternative for aging athletes concerned about injury_

> "what you're going to find at a pinball tournament, 98% of the time, 99% of the time, is a welcoming and friendly group of people"
> — **Mike**, ~19:00
> _Core claim about community culture that counters tournament intimidation barrier_

> "If you play one and you're like, I don't know if that's my thing, then find a different one at a different location and go there. Give it two chances."
> — **Stephanie**, ~37:30
> _Practical encouragement addressing risk of single negative experience discouraging participation_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Punk Rock Pinball Association | organization | Host organization running 27 events with 365 players; has 12,425 total punk rock pinball points awarded |
| Stephanie | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; pinball tournament player and organizer; 51 years old; placed second at Poor Bros tournament |
| Mike | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; tournament organizer; helped recruit new tournament players at Poor Bros event |
| Punk Rock Pinball HQ | organization | Physical location in Bloomington, Illinois hosting monthly tournaments and league play; nearly at capacity with ~30 pinball machines; has steep wooden stairs at entrance |
| Poor Bros | organization | Pinball arcade/bar venue in Bloomington, Illinois hosting Second Sunday monthly tournaments |
| IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association) | organization | Major sanctioning body for competitive pinball with thousands of tournaments yearly; searchable at ifpapiball.com |
| Pinball Map | product | Mobile app allowing users to locate pinball machines by location and filter by specific game titles |
| Joe Sharp | person | Number 1 ranked player on PRPA leaderboard from Peoria, Illinois |
| Shelly Sharp | person | Number 2 ranked player on PRPA leaderboard from Peoria, Illinois; tournament organizer and co-host of Punk Rock Pinball HQ |
| Kat Davis | person | Ranked 6th on PRPA leaderboard with 12 events played (most of any competitor); 159 points |
| Nick Greenup | person | Developer of Punk Rock Pinball leaderboard and website; ranked 5th on leaderboard with only 3 events played; building updated events calendar feature |
| Paul Baker | person | Community researcher conducting survey on impact of pinball communities on players' lives |
| Brad Tharp | person | Pinball enthusiast with $5,000 budget looking to purchase first pinball machine; father of baseball player coached by Mike |
| Star Wars | game | Pinball machine used at Poor Bros tournament; played by multiple competitors; Stephanie and Mike both struggled with it during qualifying |
| Bells and Chimes | organization | Women's pinball league/tournament series with chapters in multiple cities including Peoria |
| CJ | person | Punk Rock Pinball community member; helped setup games at Landmark venue; owns pin crawler equipment for transporting machines up stairs at HQ |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Adult tournament participation and recruitment, Pinball community culture and inclusivity, Resources for finding tournaments and machines, Punk Rock Pinball Association events and leaderboard, Pinball as social activity and friendship building
- **Secondary:** Punk Rock Pinball HQ venue and operations, First-time tournament player experiences, Pinball as bridge across political/cultural divides

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.92) — Hosts express enthusiastic, encouraging tone throughout episode. Positive framing of tournament experience and community culture. Minor tension between hosts during tournament operation discussion, but quickly resolved and overall sentiment remains upbeat and promotional.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Minor operational stress during Poor Bros tournament with Stephanie running event solo; tension resolved quickly, highlighted importance of co-organizer support (confidence: medium) — Mike notes Stephanie 'got a little stressed out' running tournament without Shelly; Stephanie apologizes for being grumpy; acknowledged as stress from event management, not interpersonal conflict
- **[community_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball Association has grown to 365 players across 27 events, demonstrating significant expansion of tournament participation and community infrastructure (confidence: high) — Stephanie reports '365 players have played in 27 events. They've generated 12,425 punk rock pinball points.'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Tournament experience consistently positive for new players; minimal dropout from first tournament and high likelihood of continued participation (confidence: high) — Hosts cite multiple examples of first-time players (Ruben, Angie, Deanna, Rob Carroll) who are now regular competitors; Stephanie had Stephanie and Chris recruit ATM withdrawal to pay entry fee, indicating strong initial interest
- **[community_signal]** Hosts actively recruiting and mentoring new tournament players, with 6 of 18 Poor Bros tournament participants being first-time competitors (confidence: high) — Mike recounts recruiting Stephanie, Chris, and Jack into tournament play at Poor Bros; emphasizes welcoming culture and coaching new players through process
- **[market_signal]** Pinball positioned as ideal social activity for adults 40+ seeking community and competitive engagement without physical injury risk (confidence: high) — Core episode theme; contrasted explicitly with pickleball (injury) and other social activities (quiz nights, bass fishing clubs) that lack welcoming culture
- **[event_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball Association scheduling major expansion with multiple Wisconsin events launching (Tap-On Tower, Vegas Pub Milwaukee) representing geographic growth (confidence: high) — Stephanie lists multiple new January/February events including 'the first Wisconsin Punk Rock Pinball Association event' at Tap-On Tower in Superior
- **[market_signal]** Potential new home pinball buyer in Brad Tharp with $5K budget seeking guidance on machine purchase (confidence: medium) — Mike mentions Brad Tharp contacted him wanting to buy pinball machine with ~$5K budget; hosts plan future episode on best machines in this price range
- **[technology_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball website infrastructure upgrade launching updated events calendar with improved tournament director tools (confidence: high) — Stephanie credits Nick Greenup with 'countless hours' on feature deploying 'tomorrow' or 'within the next week or so' for proper event creation interface

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## Transcript

Hello. We got a dog here. Hey, Marshall. Marshall wants to be part of the show. This is the Punk Rock Pinball Podcast, episode number 30. I'm Stephanie. And I'm Mike. We're the hosts of the show. We're the hosts of the show, and that's Marshall Dog. He just ran away. Oh, wait. And he's back. Don't spill the drinks. He really wants to. He just, he wants to be the star of the show. Uh-huh. He does. Oh, you little Snoopy dog. What a week it has been. It's been a big week. It's like a week that, it's like the first full week of January. I feel like January is already over in my mind. Yeah, it's January 11th. Sunday, January 11th right now. Our dogs really put out that he can't be on this, and he just gave a look of disgust and went up the stairs. We need to get a little chair for him. He'd love that. Yeah. Okay. A little Marshall chair. Yeah. Yeah, it was a big week in our little corner of the world. Huge. um we should talk a little bit about um punk rock pinball association there were a bunch of events yeah i didn't write down the ones that had just happened well we just got back from one we just got back from one there were two that we hosted in the last week but there were others all over the world all over the world i think we talked about ord on the last one but the the one in St. Charles happened yesterday. Mm-hmm. I think there was another one. The Pueblo, Colorado results are finally in. Those are in, so you all have your punk rock pinball points. Yeah, they just had their ladies league yesterday because I looked at it for a second on Twitch. Oh. And they did the same format of the- Price is Right? Price is Right. It looks super fun. That does look fun. Oh, so fun. We've got to schedule one of those. Mm-hmm. and then I feel like I'm missing one. If I'm missing one, I'm sorry. One that just happened. There's a lot coming up. I have the list of what's coming up here. Just this month, there's a whole bunch. You got Tuesday, January 13th at Midwest Aleworks in East Moline. Cool. You've got Tuesday, January 15th. I'm sorry. Tuesday, January 13th, that's Midwest Aleworks. Okay. Thursday, January 15th at Punk Rock Pinball HQ League Session 2. Oh, yeah. This Thursday. The last one we had 18 players. Then you have Friday, January 16th, Tap-On Tower in Superior, Wisconsin. Cool. That will be the first Wisconsin Punk Rock Pinball Association event. Welcome, Wisco. And then Saturday, January 17th, you have two opportunities, depending on where you live. You have the monthly tournament at Punk Rock Pinball HQ in Bloomington, Illinois. Doubleheader. That's a doubleheader. Saturday, January 17th at Starlight Arcade in Richmond, Michigan. If you're near Richmond, Michigan, you can go play a Punk Rock Pinball tournament. and then, oh, Friday, January 16th, Tap on Tower, I got that one. Tuesday, January 20th, in Milwaukee, Vegas Pub, I think that's how you say that, V-E-G-G-A-S? Yeah. Vegas Pub in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dory's doing that one. Dory's hosting that one. I want to see the boys from Avenues, the band. I'd like to see those boys show up. I'd like to see Mike Muse, from the band Malva. I would like to see Mike show up to that one, if you would. Please? I don't know if any of them listen to the show. Maybe not, but Mike did respond on Facebook. He said he was going to bring a friend. He's also married, and his wife is very fun. Yeah, she's a great friend. That's a built-in friend. Yeah, you have a built-in friend. Take your wife, Mike. Mulva and Avenues, both bands, you can see videos of theirs on this channel. Yeah, that's true. if you just type in like mulva rock room or avenues rock room you'll those videos will come up uh friday february 5th microphone brewing outgrow village illinois our friend cheryl is hosting that one that's at 6 30 i like to see james and vince griff attend that one if they would yeah it's kind of like um i feel like the stern is right by stern that's kind of their like hang out that's also right in the neck of the woods for um ruben and angie to go play go get your punk points and then february 16th there's like a weekly league at joe and shelly's house the event is in the in the facebook group you'll have to contact shelly to rsvp and make sure it's not full they have it's a house so it's limited capacity but that's a lot of stuff coming up and we just finished up the poor bros monthly tournament today just about an hour ago our second sunday tournament our second sunday mike dafforn winner yeah except for the punk rock pinball i i did it without the finals so tom eaton winner tom eaton and i was second place in that one nice job honey and i was not second place after qualifying well i made it into qualifying also and did not make it into the second round, the finals. Did not. We both crapped out on Star Wars. We were not like the Bears. The old Star Wars. Yeah. We were not like the Bears. We didn't play like the Bears. We did not. I played great in qualifying. Yeah, you did. I did not. I got a bunch of first place and a couple fourth. but but that was really fun we met some new people we had a good turnout was it 18 people um and six of them were first-time tournament players wow isn't that cool yeah and that kind of leads us to what our topic is today where and not the funny thing is not all these people fit this age demographic, but we're saying if you're over 40, especially if you're younger, it's fine. But if you're over 40, you should start playing competitive pinball. Absolutely. Not just playing pinball, but you should play in pinball tournaments. So tell me, Mike, why? Why? Top reason. Top three reasons. The reason why is because you're going to meet and make new friends. Mm-hmm. That's the number one reason. Just like we did. We did. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. So if you're, and I know the word tournament is like, it's intimidating. Very. But we met these new folks tonight, Stephanie and Chris. and our Stephanie roped them into playing. Very gently. Gently. Just a nudge. Right, because they came up and they talked to you. Yeah, and they said, oh, we're just going to watch. And I was like, just enter in. There's lots of new people. We love new people. Everyone's super nice. We'll help you out. We'll tell you how it all goes. And there was another new guy, Jack, who was kind of like, how does this work? I'm like, we will guide you through the process. We love new players. We want to play with more people. So you're here. You're doing it. So she was cute. She was like, okay, I don't have any cash. I'll be right back. And went to the ATM to get money for the entry fee as well as it was a coin drop on this at Poor Bros. And they had a blast. They did. And Stephanie won her in the first round. It was Stephanie and Mike D and me and one other guy. I forget his name. And she won. She won the game. Star Wars. Star Wars kicked my butt. And she almost was in the cutoff for the finals. I know. And then she DQ'd herself and she plunged. She plunged Kat's ball. Yeah. And that is, I know the feeling because on Tuesday night in our Champagne League, I did the same thing. I've done that twice here in our tournaments at the house. So, Stephanie, you're probably not watching, but it's okay. We've all plunged someone else's ball. Almost all of us have at some point in the tournament. Yeah. Because maybe if she'd not been DQ'd that round, she might have made the cut. it's possible Mike D wouldn't have made it he qualified in 8th and then he won well that's how how it all fell into place tonight but yes everybody sometimes plunges someone else's ball or plays out of turn it happens it happens to everybody at some point but if you're over 40 or under 40 because the fellow Jack that we met He was like 23 years old or something. And he had a great time. I think he's coming to a monthly tournament next week. But I think mostly for folks, you know, it could be in your late 30s to early 50s, even 60s. Especially like if you're a couple and your kids are growing up. You spent your whole life like doing this stuff with your kids and getting them to their sports getting them to their activities And now maybe they off in college or they living on their own And, like, what are you doing, like, on a random Thursday night or a random Sunday night, like, binge watching Netflix? That's cool. You know, that's fun. Sometimes you want to maybe try to do something different. Put yourself out there. Yeah, and, like, find a group of, like, I know it's really hard. We had a hard time when we moved down here. We didn't have a lot of friends down here. We had, like, no friends down here. Well, family. Zan. And Zan. And, like, some of my family lives down here, but, like, no just, like, casual friends to, like, go hang out with. And there's not a lot to do. I know that if you live in the city, maybe you can go to rock shows and things like that. But even things like going to rock shows, it's not like super social. No. It's not really a super social event. You're going to just go with the person that you're with and hang with them. Or if you go to the movies, you're going to go with the person you're with. You're not going to meet people at the movies. Yeah, we tried a few different things. We tried to do like a quiz night. And we tried, but that wasn't our people. At least the one we went to was not our people. We joined the bass club. Joined the bass club. Those are not our people. I love bass fishing, but bass fishermen, grumpy. They were real grumpy. So grumpy. Not welcoming. Not welcoming. Because what you're going to find at a pinball tournament, 98% of the time, 99% of the time, is a welcoming and friendly group of people, the majority of them. Yeah, somebody's always having a bad day. There might be one or two grumpy folks. Tonight, I don't think anybody was grumpy. I think maybe me. Were you grumpy? I got a little stressed out. Well, you were running the show. And I didn't have Shelly. You didn't come off as grumpy. I feel like I did to you, and I'm sorry. Well, I mean, but you didn't come off as grumpy to anybody else. Well, I'm sorry, though. I was grumpy at you at the end. I'm sorry. That's okay. I didn't. Shelly is like my safety net. And I was flying without a net tonight. You're just trying to get the, you're just trying to keep the tournament moving. Anyways. Yes. Most people are not grumpy. And they want you to have fun too. And they want to help you. And sometimes they might want to try to help you a little too much and share so much information that you just can't comprehend it. And it's so sweet. and all you need to know is keep the ball in play and try to hit some flashing lights maybe and if you don't, that's okay too. So if you're an adult person and you're looking for some friends and some people to have fun with, I think pinball is the best thing you can do to find a new social group. There's no other activity that is more social than a pinball tournament because you're going to be playing multiplayer games with them. And when it's not your ball, you're going to be standing right with them and you're going to just converse about different things. I have to say, yeah, the first time you and I went together, we had a buddy, each other, and that makes it easier. But I also went by myself to the Bells and Chimes in Peoria. So I've gone twice not really knowing anyone because I didn't know anybody. CJ was like, you should go, Shelly. Oh, well, CJ was there. He was setting up games. He had just moved them over to Landmark and it was the first time they had a tournament there. And they weren't even where they ended up being set up. They were in like a banquet room. It was really super weird. And it was a weird setup and people weren't really socializing in between the games because the setup was so weird. Right. They were sitting at like these huge banquet tables. It was very weird. And so I almost didn't go back. Huh. But you made me go back. Yeah. I didn't make you go back. No, but you really encouraged me to. I encouraged you to go back. Yeah, I almost didn't go back. But if I would have gone to a regular setup tournament, I think the experience for the very first time, the experience would have been different. Yeah. I mean, people were very welcoming. Shelly stood and talked to me for a really long time. And then we went to their house after that. Yeah, that first setup at Landmark was just awkward. It was weird. I didn't even go when they were set up where they were for that. No. Because he very quickly moved them into that other space. But you're going to find typically a very welcoming group of people, even if you come alone. Someone's going to talk to you. If you have questions about the games, almost everyone there will kind of coach you through what to do on a different game. They'll talk about all kinds of things. So you might say, okay, I do want to play in a pinball tournament. How do I do that? How do you, Mike? Tell me. How do I find a tournament to play? There are many ways. the best way, of course, I would say join our Facebook group, Punk Rock Pinball Facebook group. Click on our events, the events tab in the group, and there's a bunch there. If there's nothing near you in our Facebook group, what you're going to want to do. Well, I would say this. If you don't see any event listed in our Facebook group, do a post and say, I live in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Yeah. is there anybody in Kalamazoo? I'm really interested in maybe doing a tournament. Yeah, and that will get responses. Somebody's going to say something. Somebody's going to say something. Because it happens all the time. It happens all the time, and it makes me so happy to see that. Just these people from whatever local community tagging each other. And, yeah, it just kind of is a little glimpse at how supportive everybody is. Yeah, so that is one way. If you're afraid to make a post in the Facebook group, there's a very easy way to find a tournament near you. If we don't have a Punk Rock Pinball event near you, very soon you can go to punkrockpinball.com and click on our events. We have a janky calendar right there, right now, but that's going to change like tomorrow. Thank you, Nick. Thanks to Nick Greenup, who's worked countless hours on this. plug in but tomorrow we're going to roll out like the proper way for our tournament directors to create the events on the website so within the next week or so that should be full of the punk rock pinball events but in any case you could go to ifpa pinball.com and then hit i think it's tournaments and then you put in your city and search and it's going to spit you out because ifpa is the the big sanctioning body for competitive pinball there are thousands of tournaments every year odds are if you type in your city or your zip code and you hit search there's probably going to be 10 plus you're going to look down the list find one close to you and go it's that easy it's that easy and you don't worry about it you don't worry about i've not even played pinball it doesn't matter it doesn't matter like maybe if maybe you want to find an arcade near you and go play a few games just so you know how to push start and how to hit the flippers so how can you find games near you well mike i'm so glad you asked this question my favorite app the pinball map app super cool open it up it automatically kind of knows where you're at if you allow that to connect to your or your cell phone or your computer or whatever and not only will it tell you what arcades or bars or whatever any kind of location with a pinball machine it'll let you know where it's at but what i think is really cool about that is if you're looking for a specific game you can filter by that. So sometimes you have to zoom out really far to find something. But if you live in an area that might have a ton of pinball, it's kind of cool to try to find a game that you haven't tried yet. Maybe you want to find an Evil Dead, because those aren't everywhere. Or when Beetlejuice comes out, maybe you want to try to find that. Because usually you can find all, like most locations are going to have the new sterns but some of the barrels of fun games or the evil dead machines might be harder to find you can put that in the app zoom the map out refresh results and see if you can't find one yeah and i feel like the pinball map app is pretty accurate and up to date because operators want you to find find those games so they're pretty good at keeping those up to date yeah and when you click on a location i'll tell you when it was like last updated so if you want to find pinball to play if you if you want to play before you play in a tournament like maybe you haven't played in 20 years maybe you've never played get the pinball map app find some machines near you a lot of breweries throughout the country have them so go support a local brewery throw a few bucks in the machines support the operator get a vibe on how to play once you do that a couple times you go to our facebook group check our events or you go to ifpa pinball.com search near you tournaments pick one and go do it just do it just do it it's 2026 for crying out loud yeah because it gonna satisfy like if you a person that has a competitive nature it gonna satisfy your craving to compete that why I love that about it Like I competitive I played sports growing up I was a skateboarder, and I skated in competitions. And I'm not going to do competitive sports now. I'm 51 years old. I don't want to injure myself. We were doing pickleball for a little bit, and my brother broke his rib. Yeah, and punctured his skin. and like sliced his knee open. So I'm like, okay, maybe I don't want to play pickleball anymore. Pinball is just as fun and less dangerous. Yeah. Super fun competition, not dangerous. And you don't have to be competitive to like it. You can just use it as a social event. Here's another idea. Maybe like you and your significant other or a couple friends, this is a great thing to bring like a gaggle of people to doesn't just have to be you no or you and one friend or you know your your boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife or whatever you can like if you and your friends are looking for something different to do go to a pinball tournament it and just go in and it will be hilarious and you will have so much fun And that kind of makes the barrier a little bit lower, too. If you go with like kind of a few noobs. Yeah, like maybe you and your friends are planning to go out to dinner. Well, maybe go out to dinner and pinball. Yeah. A lot of pinball places have food. They do. A lot of people are eating during the tournaments. Yeah. So that's my encouragement to you as a listener. If you have never played a pinball tournament, I would like to ask you to play at least two pinball tournaments this year. Can we count on you? Can we count on you? Do you have what it takes? Play at least two. Yeah, for sure, two. Because if you play one and you're like, I don't know if that's my thing, then find a different one at a different location and go there. Give it two chances. Yeah. Because maybe we've played a lot of different tournaments all throughout the country. I've enjoyed them all, but I've enjoyed some more than others. Totally. So you've, because I mean, pinball people come from all walks of life. That's part of what I love about it is it isn't just one sort of person. Right. It is all walks of life and people with all kinds of different backgrounds and all different sorts of views on things. But it doesn't matter during pinball. No. It doesn't matter. like wouldn't the world be such a great place if like what happens at a pinball tournament could just like be society yeah one of the beautiful things is of it is that i know that you know the the political climate right now is very heated all the way around i'm not going to make a commentary on how we feel about that but you could have pinball friends that you play 100 tournaments with and you won't even know which if they're liberal if they're conservative like it's it's just like a community around pinball and like the talk at the tournaments is usually focused on pinball it's awesome and so it's like an escape from the there's a ton of craziness in the world happening right now and it's like a total escape from that like you're just walking into this group in a place in a scene where it's just like for a few hours that doesn't exist i mean that could also be different depending on your location yeah you know if you're in you know yeah if you're in a certain location it may just naturally attract a certain group of people but we've played we've been playing in places that are kind of just very they they aren't really catered towards a specific audience of people yeah so we we get all walks of life which is super cool yeah because i think in a lot of the breweries because like most breweries aren't really one trying to attract they want all people they want all people to play and i i think it's healthy no matter which side you sit on like politically it is very healthy to socialize with people that feel differently even if you're not engaging in talking about those things but you can become friends with people and see like okay well this is a fellow human being and they have good qualities and they have bad qualities and i think the world would be better if everyone played pinball together and i think there people would find more common ground on like all kinds of issues because it humanizes everyone so it's not like they're this and they're that and And so I think everyone, every American should be required to play pinball together. Okay. Yeah, I love this. That's the new thing. Okay. Do it for America. Do it for America. Yeah, play pinball for America. Or really everyone in the world. And then everyone in the world from all different countries should be forced to play pinball against each other. I mean, there is a world championship at the FDA, but I want this for all people. Like the populations of the world should be required to play pinball against each other. Oh, my God. That's so great. New international law. Before it's discussed, you must play pinball. Before it's discussed, let's play pinball together and then let's hammer out these. Whatever agenda items. These treaties and trade deals between our nations. Yeah. Play pinball. First you have to play like five rounds of pinball against each other. See how that goes. Put it in match play. Start the match. That's really funny. Yeah. Just bring it to the world. Just bring it to the world. Pinball is great. Yeah. Oh, there is somebody in our group. I forgot the person's name, but they did a post this week about they're doing some kind of research on pinball players and how pinball has affected their lives. Yes, I need to answer that. He's got a survey. Is there a way for you to pin that post? Let me find it if I can. But he, I think it's a, I don't know. I can't remember what the person's name is, so I don't want to assume. But this person said, please fill out this form if pinball has changed your life. And I think he said, I know it has for Stephanie and Mike. But it really has. Paul Baker. Paul Baker. How come I can't pin this post? Look for B-A-K-E-R. Yeah, B-A-K-K-E-R. B-A-K-K-E-R. Six days ago he posted. Paul, I'm sorry, I have not filled that out yet. But I do want to... I've been busy and then I've been tired and it's going to require a good bit of writing. Because I want to express it clearly how I feel about it. I don't know what he's doing with this. I don't know what he's doing with it either. But I don't care. I don't know why I can't pin it maybe because I need to make the post to pin it or something but six days ago in the group I think you can search who posted things in the Facebook group P-A-U-L-B-A-K-K-E-R Paul Baker and it's called, it's a survey monkey thing Impact of Pinball Communities well we both have a lot to say about that we have a lot to say about that And I bet a bunch of you who are watching probably have something to say about that, too. Yeah. Share it with Paul. Share it with Paul. Share it with us in the comments. Yeah. Even if it is, like, maybe not in real life, but if the pinball community is, you know, maybe it's online. Maybe it's through Facebook groups. Maybe it's through virtual pin tournaments because those aren't in person. person those are virtual on virtual machines so eric f yeah you probably have something to say about this yeah because i think he's there's like leagues and things on those vpins that he plays in yeah yeah so that's cool yeah so that's that's our thing we want you to play a pinball tournament um we want you to play two pinball tournaments this year if you haven't ever played yeah and then tell us how it goes tell us how it goes if you need a pep talk before that just let us know because we've had a lot of people play their first tournaments and they've really enjoyed it within the last year we like last 12 16 months like ruben and angie we had deanna deanna uh the griff brothers the griff rose jack my son jack is and uh there's more. Our friend Rob Carroll. Yeah. Now he's all in it. He's a member. He's a member of the HQ. Like new players all around. So if you've been listening to the show and you're kind of on the fence or you do play pinball, you haven't done tournaments, go do it. What are you waiting for? Get out there. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I think that all I had Well we should also we didn talk about the leaderboard Oh let me pull it up Leaderboard updates PRPA leaderboard updates Where is it? I guess we should have done this earlier in the episode. Next time we'll get the leaderboard. Sorry, Kevin. Earlier. Leaderboard. We are up to 365 players have played in 27 events. They've generated 12,425 punk rock pinball points. That's amazing. Number one is Joe Sharp. Joe Sharp. From Peoria, Illinois. Number two, Shelly Sharp from Peoria, Illinois. any relation to roger sharp no none number three mark mccolpin i think he's a kc guy he is number four jeff davis i think also a kc person number five nick greenup creator of the punk rock pinball leaderboard hit nick is still in top five they still have just three events in there i know nick's been doing tournaments so Are you counting these, Nick, your new tournaments? People would be dominating. Is he sandbagging? One day, is he going to dump like 10 of them in there? It's going to be a dump. It's going to get smoked. It's going to be a dump. Yeah. Kat Davis is up to number six. She's still played the most. She's played 12. If you're watching, Kat, I think you do watch sometimes. You did have your number went down of events played because I did notice there was a duplicate. One of the bells and chimes was in there twice. I deleted it. because it was in there twice. Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell her that. That's why your number went down, Kat. You still have played the most, and you're in sixth place with 159 points. She's in sixth place? Yes, she is. Oh, my God, Kat. Twelve events played. I'm so proud of you, Kat. Twelve events played. She's grinding this shit out. I'm in 20th place. Congratulations. Eight events played. Where are you? Way down there. How come? You are 40th with 95 points and nine events played. You can climb up the leaderboard this weekend with a doubleheader and with our league. You get three chances for more points this week. Yep. And now it is about 8.59. It's 34 minutes. We have to mix and edit this thing. So we should probably wrap it up. But I did hear from, I heard from an old friend today. Who? About pinball. Who? Brad Tharp. Oh, my God. How is Brad Tharp? Brad Tharp is great. He texted me. Wait, how did this happen? He texted me. He texted me, Coach Mike. Coach Mike. Brad is the father of Brandon Tharp, who was a baseball player on my Huntley Blue baseball team that I coached. He's just like, is this still your number? I want to talk pinball. That's amazing. So Brad Tharp was going to the Galloping Ghost. He's going to play pinball. He wants to buy a game. He's looking to spend about 5K. Cool. Yeah. Maybe our next episode. Is he going to come down? I don't know. I'll text him. Nice to hear from you, Brad. He doesn't listen to the show, I don't think. But maybe our next episode should be the best pinball machines to buy for $5,000. Would you like to hear that? Like, I've got a $5,000 budget. What machine should I buy? Yeah, that'd be fun. Let's do that. We also still have to do that request of I want to make a collective. Yes, we need to make a video about it. I want to get some B-roll from the HQ for that. Okay. We got you a little gimbal, like get some gimbal footage, make a little nice video of the HQ and what it looks like. Okay. And I want to like write some notes out for that episode. Okay. That sounds cool. Right. Like a bonus episode. That should be a full episode. but I want to have an outline you want to do it right I want to do it right some bullet points here's some things you should consider about the space and about the cost we've learned a lot we're still learning every day with the HQ because my one regret right now I love our space I wish it was bigger and I wish it didn't have stairs and it has stairs and the stairs are steep We almost killed ourselves. And thank God CJ has the pin crawler thing. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Oh, my. Yeah. It's six, seven stairs, wooden stairs. Steep ones. Up to the entrance. Oh, my God. But, I mean, the space is awesome. It's got this huge limestone wall inside. The ceilings are super high. It's fun. But I want a bigger one. Yeah. someday one day someday because like we're just under 30 games in there and like unless you reconfigure it in a way that i don't want to it's like almost full yeah it's once you get people in there like for the tournament this weekend i feel like we've got to move some of those high top tables around prob

ably it gets too gets jammed up yeah and i was also thinking the couch we have in there we should probably like move it upstairs or take it out and just put chairs yeah or machines oh we should put machines over there why not you could you could it feels a little bit not cozy over there but we could put like a rug down and make it more doesn't feel doesn't feel homey over there yeah but we could change that yeah we can change that i guess i mean we don't I have a lot more machines coming in right now, like JD and Rosie are bringing theirs. Is that going where Stranger Things is? That could go where Stranger Things is. Stranger Things is going out, I think, a couple days. Going back to the bistro. But, yeah, we could put machines over there. So much to do. Yeah. But I want a bigger HQ with no stairs, eventually. um okay well let's wrap this up one last thing i'm going to say big week in pinball we got league we got a doubleheader shelly sharp is playing in the women's state finals i'm on the bubble i'm going up there steps on the bubble first alternate jenny lambertson lambertson jenny and i are going up we named a lot of the people last time that We're playing good luck to everybody playing in the IFPA state championships. I'm so proud of you. You did great. Yeah. Lots of our friends. Lots of them. A lot of people we didn't know a year ago. Yeah. And they're our friends now. Like they're actual friends. Yes. Real friends. That's why you should go play competitive pinball. Not just go to the arcade with your buddy and play some pinball. That's fine. That's cool. but that's not gonna have the desired result well just on that note now we're like now kevin's like oh my god i know he is but on that note we've got two new club members yes tristan and jade yep and they were just playing at poor bros doing that playing in the arcade i think maybe they did one of the turn um the leagues yeah and they know someone who they know chris who is a member of the club and he brought him over and now they're in and they just did their first tournament tonight congrats to tristan and jade they did great they did yeah i think anyways it just it's jade was like right near the finals cut off really good like really i'm proud of them and so yeah go play in a arcade, but take it to the next level. Also, one other thing I want to mention is it is all about building community, and our friend Amber in Northwest Indiana is well, I mean, she's hooked. I think today she went down from, she went down to Lafayette to play in a Bells and Chimes. I don't know how it went, but she is starting a Bells and Chimes in like Chesterton County, Porter County? I don't know. Over there. So, I know she's going to start looking for ladies. Cool. Make your own community if it's not there. Make it. Yeah, find a location and say, can I host tournaments here? Mm-hmm. Maybe we need to do an episode on how to run a pinball tournament, how to create and host a pinball tournament. Yeah, let me figure out how to submit these scores correctly first before we tell people how to do that. We had some match play issues tonight. But, yeah, we could do a video on that. Shelly makes it look. We should have Shelly do it. All right, Shelly's coming on the show. She's going to walk us through Match Play. Maybe we can do a screen recording that you can edit in. Yeah. How to run a pinball tournament on Match Play events. Shelly, are you in? We've got to write this down. I've just rattled off like three episodes, and I'm going to forget all about what all of them are. In like two minutes. We're supposed to wrap up the show. All right, Kevin. This is like Kevin Johnson's worst nightmare. screaming at us right now rambling around also shout out to kevin for coaching me through the last ball on star wars if he would have done that on ball one i probably would have made the finals he did make the final you mean the final well he was coached were you standing there while he was coaching me through it yeah jenny lamberton gave me some tips and then she left and then kevin's like this is what you want to do now do this now do that and i was like Where were you before? Uh-huh. Uh-oh. Gotta go. Lights out. That is the universe telling us wrap it up. Wrap it up. Wrap it up. Okay, we're going to go. Toodaloo. Bye.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: b2868240-e4d1-41f1-9e04-18c36fc3f979*