it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teals you can find everything on pinballprofile.com all your subscriptions past episodes and more check us out on our facebook group we're also on twitter and instagram at pinball profile and you can email us pinball profile at gmail.com it's time to go to boston it's time to pack your car and slap the flippers let's join mitch curtis right now hey mitch how are you wonderful jeff how you doing man oh there's no accent there come on you gotta thicken it up oh my i i grew up in massachusetts but i never got the boston accent um no i i was just like when i was growing up i'd see these people on the news with like the heavy like oh this guy just like blew up his car like and i I was like, oh, that sounds just kind of abrasive. So I never leaned into the Boston accent personally. Okay. Talk to Chuck. If you want the Boston accent, call Chuck Webster. He'll give it to you hot. Do I have to call Chuck, really? No, absolutely not. He's probably outside my house. It's funny we talk about accents, and I get some people abuse me all the time for the way I say out or sorry. I think it's delightful. I think you have the most quaint little Canadian accent. And, yeah, keep it coming. And it's funny because I obviously talk for a living. I can't hear. I don't know what's the proper way to say those words. It's abuse. No, no, no. I don't think I'm that. I think we just say our use a little more. But anyway, that all aside, good to talk to you. You can catch you on Instagram, Pinball Boston, and also occasionally on Twitch and YouTube and all these other things. But the thing that, unfortunately, we can't see your wonderful work anymore is a place that last June, I was fortunate enough to go to Flat Top Johnny's. And it's been a tough summer for so many places. It's devastating to see all these wonderful pinball arcades go by the wayside, not due to anything they did other than, unfortunately, the effects of COVID-19. And Flat Top Johnny's was definitely special. And you had a lot of games there as an operator. Yeah, that place is definitely very special to me and to the local pinball community. That was a place I started operating games like five, six years ago. It was right by my full-time job. It was a local pool hall where they always had beat up, destroyed games. And I got to know the owner and would always ask him, hey, can you get the operator to come in and fix up these games? And they never would. And when they did, it would be worse. So I finally convinced the owner, John, to let me bring in some of my games. I said, I'll get all the new stuff. I'll run tournaments. We'll get some people in here. And it took off from there. I think we started with two games. I started with like an Austin Powers and maybe a World Poker Tour. And then it got upgraded to, you know, Metallica and Jurassic Park and all the games. But by the time we ended there, I think we had 11 or 12 pinball machines. We were doing a weekly, our weekly New Robert Englunds Pinball League. We're part of the world's biggest pinball league. We were doing a monthly pinball series. We were doing all sorts of fun tournaments and events and launch parties. And as you said, you know, COVID hit and it just, the brakes were hit so suddenly and Flat Top tried to hold on. But the owner decided that he didn't really see a clear way to reopening anytime soon. So he said that it might come back in the future at a different location. But as for now, it's about keeping people safe and tough, tough news when that place shut down. For sure. And understandable, too. And that's kind of the hope, I think, of places like Flat Top Johnny's that someday when this is all done, come back. But, I mean, boy, the build-out and all the hard work and labor and the long hours. You know, I have a feeling if they do open up again, and that goes for any of these other places that have sadly closed, the pinball community will be there for them. Totally. You talk about the pinball monthlies and the Stern Army location, and there's just a lot of activity. And that was a real source for so many people to play pinball. And they need an outlet now. Where will they go when this all settles? It's tough to say. Right. You know, and part, like, I would say half the life was, like, operating the actual games, working on the games. But the other half for me was running the tournaments, getting people together to play. Like, I really, really love competitive pinball. You know, whether it be for, I mean, Whoppers are cool and everything in ISPA. I love what they're doing with the state and national championships and all that. But I just like to get together. Even we would do, I don't know if you know, the pinball poker format where you bet chips. Go ahead and explain that. Oh, really? Okay, sure. So it's like you have your people, you buy in, you get poker chips, and you're on a machine. And before you even start, you have to ante one of your chips just to get in the four-player game. So everybody antis, and then you play your first ball. And then depending on how you're doing, you can either check or you can bet. You know, the next person can either call or raise or fold. And then you go around. So some people can sandbag and not play well or just like, you know, on some of the modern Stern games, you can kind of build things up and then cash them in later. So it's just, you know, a different type of strategy. And then at the end of the poker round, that one game, the winner will take the pot or everyone else will fold. And, yeah, then that's it. Have you ever played that one before? No, that's neat. I love hearing all these different formats. But you're right about sandbagging, too, because a game like Munsters, you know, that's a total third ball game. And a game like Guardians, you can have a great first ball and no one will ever catch you. Right, exactly. So it's just, and when we were doing these tournaments in Cambridge, like, everyone knew the games really well and was very good. We had a lot of very good players. So it just, like, it was just fun to really go the distance on some of these games. And you get, you know, your heart rate up and you're playing really well and you have that great ball. And I miss that, man. I miss it a lot. That's thrilling. It seems like you're one of those players that loves the community and obviously the leagues and the people. I mean, that's what I really enjoy, too, is the people. The pinball just kind of brings us together, but it's the fun little games and side things that you do, and I love that, and we'll get back to that. But you're a pretty good player for a guy who doesn't say he cares about the competitions. You do quite well. Thank you for bringing it up, because usually I have to bring it up and tell people. So thank you. Well, let's, okay, for those that don't know, Mitch in 2018 at Pinberg made the A playoffs. That is ridiculous. So 840 players. He's in the top 40, finished 34th. There are so many great players you were ahead of. I mean, that had to be a pinnacle for you. Yeah, I'm two for two at my Pinbergs as far as like going there and getting into the A finals. I've got a whole, I've got a complicated relationship with Pinberg. I love it. It's the best tournament in the world. But I feel, because it's, as you said, the best players in the world, and just the intensity of that group match play all day long, I am just such a ball of stress. And I'm playing well, but I'm just walking around so pissed. So I drain that one time. I'll still win the group, but I'll be pissed that I lost my ball too. And I'm going to bed early. I'm not hanging out with people. I'm just by the last day, I'm ready to just pack it up and just I've got I've got a little bit of a tradition. I get to the A finals. I'm all pissed off. I play poorly. I get the hell out of there. I take a bus to some shopping plaza. And the two times I was there in Pinburgh, there was a new Mission Impossible movie. So I pretty much get drunk at lunch, go see Mission Impossible, start screaming at Tom Antonio Cruz. and then I come back for whatever, after Pinburgh is basically done. And like the last time out there, Chuck Webster was hosting the Trash Talkers Tournament, I was basically belligerent for that. Oh, I remember, I remember. Oh good, good. You had to represent Boston just by cracking bottles over people heads Well for those that don know your nickname is Funkatron and it really relates to the style of play You very animated when you play Explain Funkatron. Oh, Funkatron is a frame of mind, Jeff. No, it's just a longtime nickname. It's just, you know, I can get a little loud and crazy sometimes, and then, you know, in my personal life, And then when I'm playing pinball, I can be a fairly animated player. Like, I do a lot of pretty good moves, like a lot of slap saves. Like, people will say I play too rough. But once I started operating, I changed my style of play a lot because I didn't want to be as rough with the machine. So now I'll do big moves that don't affect the machine that much, if that makes sense. I've really dialed in my slaps and my bumps. You're making it sound like you've never done a death save. Come on, Mitch. Ooh, ooh, ooh. not in league play? Actually, probably that's not even true. Dude, at home, I have my games on carpet sliders, on carpet, and the desk lathes, oh my goodness. Because you can do a desk lave and barely get a warning here. But don't do that on location, folks, when we reopen. Or in competition. You can do that. If you're playing me in competition and you want to do a desk lave, go ahead. I would love it. The IFPA does not endorse this message. Sorry, President. I forgot. Well, that's your style of play, and I know you're an operator. We're going to talk about that more in just a second, but as a player and as a collector, we see many people mod up their games. It might be little things here and there. You take it to a whole new level, and what I'm talking about are things like The Walking Dead. No, no, no, no. Think Michael Jackson. Think Moonwalking Dead. Oh, that sounds good. Star Trek. Chuck Webster kind of had an old Star Trek Next Generation game done with cats. Well, Mitch is going to do one better. Star Trek Stern Pinball, also with Cats, which I saw at Pintastic last June. Where did you get this idea? How does this come about? Are you printing them yourselves? And how do we all do it? Because it's pretty cool. So the first game I ever modified was Walking Dead. It was a game that I loved. John Borg is my favorite designer. Lyman Sheets is the best coder ever. So I was in on that game as is. And before I had it out on location, I was playing it at home. and I was like, that Well Walker toy was just kind of not, that stuff was ugly. Like I watched the show, like I got the game without ever having to watch the show. So I spent, my wife went away one week and I spent the whole week and I would go, I'd play a game, watch an episode, play a game, watch an episode. So I could like know what the CDC meant and what the barn thing was all about. And I mean, that show is gruesome. It's just a gruesome show. So I'm like playing it, loving the actual game. And I'm like, you know, it's zombies, but so gross. There's gotta be a better looking zombie out there. And I'd be like, oh, it'd be funny if it was Michael Jackson from Thriller. Like, I grew up a huge Michael Jackson, like, specifically Thriller fan. So I just thought it made sense. So I just started with that negative idea. Like, all right, get this Well Walker out of here. Put in Michael Jackson. And then with the Pinball browser, the software where you can edit all the sounds and video clips, I was like, all right, maybe I'll just replace, like, the main theme with, like, the riff from Thriller. And then I just got carried away. I guess, like, every song is different. like there's a lot of Michael Jackson music in there and like some remixes I really like and a lot of sound clips like Michael Jackson from interviews from videos and it just it came together like I think it's hilarious I just uh as I said I'm a big fan so I just I get delighted every time I don't think Stern is ever going to make a Michael Jackson machine call me crazy but I don't know Michael's had some bad press lately yeah so I'm going to put that at maybe a 50-50 chance they make a Michael Jackson game are you in on an LE Jeff are you going to get an LE with me Well, I definitely want to play your Moonwalking Dead. There's no question about that. Was it not a flat-touch when you were there last year? You know, it was, but I was playing with Josh and Mark Joshua Henderson, and so playing one game is like an hour. We were playing Black Knight Sword of Rage. Oh, my God. Oh, he would play that for five hours. But, you know, God bless him. He got the Grand Champ, and he put my name on there. He put Red on there, which made me happy. That's cool. So when it was on vacation, people loved it. People got a good kick out of it. And I took it home after there was an HBO documentary about Michael Jackson. Apparently, he was a huge creep. Yeah, let's not go there. We decided to take the game off vacation, so I brought it home. And now my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter looks at it and be like, zombies? What is happening here? So we had to, no, that one's in the garage. But there was something else I noticed at Pintastic, and it was the old game Bad Girls, but it wasn't quite Bad Girls. It was a nice tribute to the Boston Bells. Yes, the Boston Bells is the best great group of women here in Boston that were organizing monthly tournaments. You know, public and private locations, they were growing a lot. And I think it was, yeah, I had a Bad Girls, a Gottlieb Bad Girls, which is a pretty decent game if you've ever played it. It is a good game. Isn't it basically 8-Ball Deluxe, just reversed? Yeah, reversed and with a cool multiball and a neat little spinner thing. I would just play it for its fun. I wasn't trying to keep track of score or anything, but it was like every shot was fun on that game. Anyway, so I knew I wanted to bring it out in location for one of the Bells tournaments. So I asked them for a group photo that they took at Flat Tops. Actually, I think the Moonwalking Dead game was in the background of the photo on Bad Girls, just to be extra meta. And so, yeah, and then one of the Bells, Stephanie V, she did, she mocked up the Translight, and then we had it installed, and it looked awesome. So they played it. It was at Flat Tops for a while, and then it went to Pintastic, where someone from the Vermont Pinball Club purchased it for Bad Girls. I think they had a couple of that era Gottlieb, which, you know, those are pretty good. I'm trying to think of some of the other, like a Genesis of that era. Those are just cool games to have, so they wanted it. But it was the best. Bought the Bad Girls for a while, and it was sweet. And you got some help from a great little arcade in Ohio, didn't you? That's right. For Moonwalking Dead, Super Electric in Ohio. They helped me design the trans light for Moonwalking Dead, which is one of the images of Michael Jackson surrounded by all the zombies from Thriller. It's like the Walking Dead logo. Yeah, they helped me a lot with that. And then David Schumacher, a collector up in New Hampshire, he's a mod whiz. He helped me do a lot of the LED lighting, add in the Michael Jackson Well Walker toy, help me with my topper, which is the sequin glove. Yeah, I got a lot of help from these things. Basically, I'll start with a crazy idea and people will be like, that's a really stupid idea. I want in and that's how we take it from there. Is it pretty safe to say whenever you get a game, you're looking at how you can mod it up? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Uh, one of my favorites, one of my favorites is a stern NBA. And I, well, you guys on your other pockets have like most underrated games, people trash on NBA, but it is a fantastic game. And when I got that, it's like from 2008 and the music package was like, it kind of sounded like hit songs, but changed just enough where it wasn't, it wasn't any like licensed music. So I swapped out all the music on NBA for some really, really spicy 90s dance songs. And then I made it into like a dedicated Boston Celtics Larry Bird on the Translate. I got the little action figure. Remember starting lineups? The little toys? Oh, yeah. So Larry Bird and Kevin McHale are playing hoops inside the NBA pinball machine. Yeah, I try not to do anything that is irreversible. Even on the Moonwalking Dead, like that can still be converted back. Now on that starting lineup figurine of Kevin McHale, are the shorts legal? Oh, God, no. They are dangerously short. It's hard to play the game because you're just staring at the right. And the socks go up higher than the shorts. I don't know how they did it. It's a good look. He was ahead of his time because, you know, when we all turn about 70, 80, 90 years old, that's the look we're going for. Hey, man, as long as you get the ball in the hoop, I didn't care what you wore. Hey you know what I asked Todd McCulloch what he would wear on the court I see him in some of those shorts Oh boy that funny Well you know you reached out to me when I had Todd on back in the late summer there because we were talking about an event you had, and it's kind of the new thing you're opening up, the Fresh Aircade, and you had this payday in the parking lot. I was so thrilled to see the videos I saw of it. Chuck Webster was there and Brian O'Neill, I think, won a nice little Munsters play field. But what it was was all these games of yours outside, they each had like individual tents or they were under a garage, super distanced. Everyone was wearing masks. Mitch, that was my favorite thing I've seen in the summer. Oh, man, thank you so much. It went really well and everyone, it was received really well by everybody. But yeah, here in Massachusetts, arcades are not allowed to be reopened like in any form. You know, restaurants can do indoor dining. Our casino is open for people to go inside and play, but they are adamant about keeping arcades closed. That seems so hypocritical. Oh, don't even get me started. This podcast will be five hours long. Anyway, I operate another location called A4cade. It's a grilled cheese restaurant with an arcade bar behind it, and we've got about, I think, nine pinballs and a bunch of video games there. And they wanted to reopen. They were like, all right, we want to do indoor dining. But because they had the games, they weren't even allowed to do the indoor dining thing. It's just, yeah, there's no consistency. But anyway, so as a pinball operator, collector, tournament director, you know, back when it was a thing, I was the ISPA state director. Like, I just loved running tournaments and having people get together to play. And it was just killing me not to be able to do anything, to not be allowed to do anything. So just, you know, in listening to your podcast, how people are getting on in life and times of COVID just always has my wheels turning on. How can I do something interesting in Massachusetts where people can be safe, people can have fun, people can play new games? And I came up with the Fresh Air Cave, which is my own house, bringing the games out to my driveway, keeping the games covered, keeping the groups small. And for like, I think we had four people in two hour blocks. Like you would come in, it was treated as like a free play arcade. People were required to wear masks. We had sanitizer and wipes. And again, everything was outside in the fresh air. And that worked really well. The payday in the parking lot piece of it was each game had particular challenges. Like Brian O'Neill, who won the Munsters play field, he beat the Jurassic Park challenge of escaping Nublar. And I think he did it in like under four minutes. It might have been under three minutes, but he's an animal. So he won that. It was just, again, it was just fun to get together, to talk pinball, to play pinball, and just feel like we were in our normal lives again. And it was great. It was great. Mitch, why that was my favorite thing of the summer was because I just thought of the joy you brought those people playing to get together. Because we've certainly missed people over the last few months to give some sort of competition and keep it in a safe environment. But that all aside, the manpower just to get all those machines out there, to put up all these tents, to set up all the sanitation sites. And think about, too, you're putting it outside on your driveway and things like that. So now you've got to level all these games. That took a lot. You've clearly never been to one of my locations. Yeah, and fingers crossed, you've got to pray for good Carl Weathers. I really shouldn't be talking about it, but I'm trying to put together an underground pinball fight club where people can, in small groups, get together and beat the crap out of each other on pinball machines. So I had a small fresh arcade outdoor tournament, a very small amount of people doing head-to-head match play. And Chuck was there. We were playing outside. Again, it was four machines, and we were tracking the Carl Weathers, and we had a thunderstorm. storm. You've never seen machines and tents get packed up and move back inside of garage so quickly. But we wound up finishing the tournament at the foot of my garage with the door open. So I guess it was inside, but outside with it pouring rain in the background. Chuck beat me on my turtles game and I was so mad. But then Augustus Eustace beat him in the final. So I felt better about it. But yeah, to answer your question, yeah, the Carl Weathers can be unpredictable and a bit of a bear to deal with in the outdoor environment. So I got to think of something to do next time, find a better location. That's the thing. You're trying to set up more and more of these and it's because of your love of the hobby. But here you are, one of the many people that has seen what's happened and your kind of world crumbling around you as a pinball operator. That is a major source of income for so many people. And one thing that you and I have been saying to each other back and forth on Instagram is that it sucks right now, but it will come back. Yeah, I believe that. I 100% do too, because of the loyalty of the pinball players, the community, we want to help out. And I think we've seen people do that, buying gift certificates, showing up when these places are open, buying t-shirts, whatever you can do. What are your thoughts of how this is going to get better? Well, I think in the immediate future, being extra safe about it. If you're going to get out and play, you've got to be safe about it. I think it was a Josh Sharpe on your show the other day in Tennessee with the bar that was getting together for league, and then someone got sick. I mean, that would be devastating. So the desire for people to play pinball is going to be there always and to compete and get together, but you've got to do it safe. So in the immediate future, as long as people take that seriously, I think there will be a road to recovery. I think in the future, if there are arcades, they're going to have to be bigger. They're going to be bigger in the sense that the games can be spread out. I think it's going to be a long time before there are crowded places like my A4K, my location, another location, Cambridge. You could barely play pinball. You're just jammed in there so tightly. I think those days are unfortunately over. No, no, no. I don't because once we have a vaccine and some proven results of that, we will get back to normal. It just seems so far away right now with what we've been used to over the last six months. But I do believe we'll get back to that. Oh, man, I hope so. I hope so. Because, I mean, just thinking back to Flattops, when we would have events, you were there. I mean, that place would get so filled up. I mean, I loved just seeing everybody there. Even though it was like almost hot and uncomfortable, people were still having a blast and talking and playing. I'd miss that, man. But yeah, once we have a vaccine, we'll be good to go. You mentioned you're an IFPA director for your state, so obviously you have a vote in that. Massachusetts has done quite well as far as COVID numbers. I know it's a struggle everywhere, but that state seems to be pretty responsible. I mean, you get to vote. I don't know if it's monthly or certainly have that communication with the quote-unquote president of IFPA, Josh Sharpe. Quote-unquote. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's just the clerical president. I think that's a better term. Not my president. He's not the people's president. You're darn right. But anyway, he is doing a wonderful job with this because of people like yourself, Mitch, and getting that communication all across the world, not just in the States or North America, but everywhere, and what their status is. So you have to be on top of what's going on in the community. Because Josh has even said to me personally that even though he personally isn't ready to compete until there is a vaccine, If Illinois is at a stage where it is acceptable to play in these arcades and even 95% of it is okay to go, he would vote for Illinois to bring back the IFPA. But it has nothing to do with personal. It really has to do with the stats. So I guess you're looking at that. And, again, as we mentioned, Massachusetts is one of the better states for responsibility. Yeah, we cracked down as quickly as possible. And we've been riding it out, and the numbers are looking good. but it's still out there, unfortunately. And you see what happens when people open up and then those numbers rise. And I mean, who knows what's gonna happen in the fall and winter. Like I'm making sure my home collection is tight and ready to go for the winter because I feel like we might get locked down again. So it's just so hard to predict the future. And it almost like week to week around here is what is okay and what the future looks like But I will tell you this Jeff as the state representative of Massachusetts I will be having a state final It going to be at the Fresh Aircade It's going to be the top 16 people of like the three tournaments we had in Massachusetts at the beginning of the year. But we have our top 16, and if I remember correctly, they're all pretty local players. So I'd be thrilled to host that here at the Fresh Aircade, get people outside. Again, if people tell me I'm crazy and they don't feel safe, I'm not going to push it, but based on what I've learned on the few events I've had here at the house outside, I think it can be done in a safe way before, you know, winter makes it difficult, you know, as far as the Carl Weathers is concerned. So I'd like to do a fall state championship, you know, not for points, just for fun and maybe a trophy. Just for pride and, again, just for that kind of bringing the community together, which you do so well. And, yeah, you mentioned normally it's in the third week in January. Well, that's not going to happen with the Carl Weathers you get there in New Robert Englunds. But, you know, there's a lot of events there. I mean, obviously, the New Robert Englunds paintball league is massive. Oh, yeah, we didn't have our finals. It was supposed to be like the end of March. Our finals would have been a huge dumping of whoppers in Massachusetts, which is not the worst thing to happen during COVID. But I remember that was right at the beginning of the lockdown. I was a kick in the pants for everybody around here. They're like, you know, more than half the people didn't feel safe with the finals, but that was still at the time where it was like, let's just do it. It was tough. That's what made it real for a lot of people. Yeah, I saw a lot of those New Robert Englunds Pinball League players in November at the Sanctum over the last couple of years. So, again, something else that we just can't imagine possible until we have a vaccine. Right. To the Sanctum, you've been there. That's a large space, and I think they've decided not even to do events there, even when a small capacity, and they're being extra cautious, and I applaud them for that. You know, and I think for them dragging machines outside to their parking lot, that would be a nightmare. I mean, I just think to see such a great place like the Sanctum that brought so many people together with such amazing machines and Jim and Mark and the whole crew there. And that, to see that place not be able to do what they were doing so well, just, it hurts, man. That's the thing, because that's kind of a collective place. and we see these collectives all over North America, even in Canada and Europe and other places too, that these pinball clubs have formed. The tough part is, and you talked about moving ahead in the future, if we were going to have mass people show up at arcades, maybe we have to distance them. Well, that onus goes on the owners of the bars or the arcades because that needs more square footage to have that and really a bunch of empty spaces, whether it be tables for restaurants, whether it be spaces in between pinball machines. So, again, that makes it more difficult. So I think we're probably looking at more of a vaccine solution to remedy and get us back to where we were prior to March. Yeah, a month or two ago, one of my ideas was like, all right, we have so many of these large department stores going out of business, a lot of these restaurants going out of business. I was like, maybe I can get one of these locations for not a lot of money to just do like a pop-up arcade, you know, bring some games in there, have them spaced out in a big, big way. And then I was like, all right, well, you can't have arcades. And I was like, well, maybe I can have it as a retail space. You know, because wasn't modern pinball set up as like a retail place, but it was actually an arcade? Do you happen to know? I think it was like some sort of like permitting. I don't know if that's like not supposed to be spoken about. Oh, sorry. It was a retail store. No, no, no. I mean, that's how they got around it. So, sure, that was creative or whatever. But it was an arcade, but it was also a retail space. And, yeah, that's a whole different story. Yeah, that's what I was trying to figure out a way to do that. But Massachusetts would shut that down real quick. So now we've got to keep it underground with our pinball fight club just popping up in various places. Boy, you certainly come up with a lot of new ideas, whether it's ways to compete, whether it's mods, whether it's. But you know what I do like, Mitch, is that you've got a great spirit about all this, too. I mean, we've all been kicked in the teeth by COVID, but you've still got a smile on your face. And, you know, you do see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There better be, Jeff, or things are going to get ugly. Yeah, you know, I try to stay positive. And, you know, throughout this whole time being locked down, you just got to find, like, the small positives in life, like having games at the house is great. I've got my healthy family. I've got my daughter that I was playing with. Even though I wasn't working, I still got to be with her full-time, like dad university. And, you know, that was a great time spent that it would have been cool if I was working. But I think just focusing on those little things, they can bring you joy. They can take you a long way these days. See, think about this, right? You know, your biggest worry probably before COVID was, will Tom Brady return? Was he dead already in mass now? They were one of them. Oh, wow. You must meet Drew Bledsoe. I think you're talking about Drew Bledsoe. He was our quarterback before camp. Oh, wow. Oh, that's funny. You know, I had to wait a little bit to do this interview with you. I know we talked about doing it in August, but I looked at the way the NBA schedule was going to match up, and because my Raptors were playing the Celtics, I had to wait until that series was over for this to air because, heaven forbid, I talked to a guy in Boston who obviously gives pinball profile karma to his Celtics. No, no, no, no, no. This airs after that series. Nice try. It was a good series. We got our championships last year, but congratulations to your stupid, I mean wonderful Boston Celtics. The better team won. The Celtics are unstoppable. Basketball was born here in Massachusetts, okay? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'll give you that. It was in Springfield, Mass. I'll give you that. But it was a Canadian, James Naismith, who invented the game. From Massachusetts. He's Massachusetts, baby. Don't try to take credit for our invention, Phil. Listen, he saw this country south of the border and said, they are hopeless. They need some help. So I'm going to bring my intellect, my Canadian intellect, and I'll help this poor state, and I'll give them this wonderful game of basketball. That, I believe, is the origin. In 1891, maybe. So I went to the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts Open, and I went there yesterday. And the story is, May Smith was in Canada, and he looked around and said, Oh, this country is garbage, and I am not reaching my full potential up here in Canada, so I'm going to move to Massachusetts where everything is just better, and I will invent this great sport where the team from Massachusetts will win because we are better. Thank you. Mitch, you know all that nice stuff I said about you earlier? All garbage, all right? You start talking sports with a guy from Massachusetts, and then the real evil comes out. Buddies in sports speak for themselves. I don't have to say a word. Oh, Mitch. All kidding aside, it has been great to talk to you. Oh, it's been a pleasure, Jeff. I appreciate everything you're doing for that state, for the fresh arcade. What a great original idea, your mods. We will be there for you again when you're operating in all these different locations, when this all goes away, which will happen. I appreciate it, man. It's been a real honor to talk to you. Sorry, I keep slapping my legs and ruining your audio. But thank you for doing this. This has been a bucket list event, being able to talk to the great Red on his own show. of real privilege. Where do I send the money? Put it in any pinball machine in Boston. You're darn right. All right, Funkatron. All the best, buddy. Thanks, Jeff, man. Hope to see you soon, buddy. Take care. Thanks for doing what you do. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. Check us out on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile. You can email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. I'm Jeff Teolis. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.