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Is There a Doctor in the Pinbar?

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·59m 1s·analyzed·May 4, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

NYC PinPod covers final Pinball NYC season results and league playoffs across NYC venues.

Summary

NYC PinPod covers the final weeks of Pinball NYC's spring 2026 season, including playoff standings, tournament results from local leagues (SSPL, Barcade Fidei Monthly, Thursday Night Strikes), and venue updates via Pinball Map. The hosts discuss competitive match results, team dynamics, and notable player moments, including a congratulatory mention of Dr. Dina Eckert completing her dissertation. A significant machine condition issue on Attack from Mars at Buttermilk Bar is highlighted as an example of player integrity in competitive play.

Key Claims

  • As of May 1st, 2026, there are 366 pinball machines in New York City at 74 public locations

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega, citing Pinball Map data

  • Balls of Steel took the top seed in Pinball NYC Left Flipper Division with a record of 8-2 and 96 points

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega reporting final standings

  • Dr. Dina Eckert (previously A.B.D.) has completed her dissertation and is now Ph.D.-eligible

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega, reading 'troll story' from the Trolls team (Right Flipper Division)

  • Matt Grady won SSPL Season 2 A Finals at Buttermilk Bar with 28.29 Whoppers total for the season

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega reporting tournament results

  • Attack from Mars at Buttermilk Bar had a malfunction where balls kicked into the scoop from the pops were not being ejected, allowing potential infinite multiball exploitation

    high confidence · Eric Sweephland describing firsthand experience playing the machine on Sunday

  • Gabe Chasanoff (GC) won Thursday Night Strikes on April 30th with 5.6 Whoppers after 11 rounds

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega reporting tournament results

  • A 1977 Williams Electromechanical Hot Tip was added to Red Hook Pinball Museum and was 'freshly shopped and playing fast'

    high confidence · Benjamin Furega citing Pinball Map user update from Red Hook Pinball Museum

  • Monica Weidekamp won SSPL Season 2 B Finals and chose not to drive the bus in the final round, allowing another player to make strategic game choices

    high confidence · Eric Sweephland recounting his participation in the finals

Notable Quotes

  • “Emergency. Is anyone here a doctor of philosophy? Dina, I am... She's Ph.D. Dina. We have been A.B.D. Dina... Dr. Dina Eckert has been A.B. Dina, which is to say all but dissertation. Dina, A.B.D. She is now Ph. Dina. And I couldn't be happier to hear it. A hearty congratulations.”

    Benjamin Furega @ ~38:00 — Celebrates a community member (associated with the Trolls team) completing her Ph.D., showing community engagement and celebrating personal achievements

  • “There's a lesson here, which is that if you don't have to make a lot of decisions, you just have to perform. Sometimes that's a lot easier.”

    Eric Sweephland @ ~54:00 — Philosophical observation about competitive advantage through simplicity, relating Monica's choice to defer driving the bus in finals to her dominant performance

  • “What we should have learned when there was a global pandemic a few years ago is if you don't feel well, stay home... please, if you're not feeling well, stay home. Do it for you and do it for them.”

    Benjamin Furega @ ~77:00 — Community health and safety message in context of Greg Pavarelli stepping back from running Barcade Fidei Monthly due to illness

  • “I could have got jackpot after jackpot after jackpot potentially without anyone noticing... But like it just seemed weird. And I called Ted over and showed it to him.”

    Eric Sweephland @ ~115:00 — Demonstrates competitive integrity—flagging a potentially exploitable machine condition to ensure fair play

  • “Mini Flipper is just like going from place to place and saying it doesn't work. And then they come behind Mini Flipper and say, oh, it works now.”

    Benjamin Furega @ ~92:00 — Humorous observation about a recurring Pinball Map reporting pattern with multiple Getaway machines across North Brooklyn

Entities

Benjamin FuregapersonEric SweephlandpersonGreg PavarellipersonGabe ChasanoffpersonMatt GradypersonDr. Dina EckertpersonMonica WeidekamppersonGreg FertelpersonKevin StanleypersonJess WarrenpersonKate Martin

Signals

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Final Pinball NYC Left Flipper Division standings show Balls of Steel (8-2, 96 pts) as #1 seed, NYC FSA (8-2, 94 pts) as #2 seed, with Lion Persons and Mutants both 7-3 but tied in points. Parliament qualifies for in-lane playoffs at 5-5. Right Flipper Division has Danger Danger (8-2, 116 pts) as #1 seed, Neptune's Treasure (8-2, 104 pts) as #2 seed.

    high · Benjamin Furega reporting complete final standings and playoff bracket structure

  • ?

    event_signal: Multiple tournaments concluded: Thursday Night Strikes (April 23 & 30), SSPL Season 2 Finals (April 30), Barcade Fidei Monthly (April 25). SSPL had particularly strong finals attendance with 20 players across A/B/C divisions.

    high · Detailed results reporting for each tournament with winner names and WPPR scores

  • ?

    venue_signal: Pinball Map reports show various machine conditions: Pirates of the Caribbean kicking out extra balls, Jaws with stuck Finn position, Godzilla uneven at Bar Great Harry, Getaway machines cycling through maintenance issues at multiple North Brooklyn locations, Attack from Mars scoop ejection malfunction at Buttermilk Bar.

    high · Multiple Pinball Map user reports documented in Ball 2 segment

  • ?

    product_launch: New machines added to NYC venues: 1977 Williams Hot Tip EM at Red Hook Pinball Museum (freshly shopped), Lost in Space at Sunshine Laundromat, Junkyard at Single Cut Beersmiths Queens

    high · Benjamin Furega citing Pinball Map updates from April 23 - May 1

  • ?

    community_signal: Community celebrates Dr. Dina Eckert completing her Ph.D. dissertation (transition from A.B.D. to Ph.D. status). Shows culture of recognizing personal milestones within tight-knit pinball community.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.177

0:00
Happy Sunday, Pimbers. This is NYC PinPod in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and sometimes nearby surrounding areas. My name is Benjamin Furega. My initials are B-C-F and we colliders have a bye this week. My name is Eric Sweephland. My initials are H-I-P and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. On this week's pod, we will run down local competition results in Ball 1, which will include the final week of Pinball NYC. We'll do the thing we usually do in Ball 2 also, Eric and Pinball Map, and its users are going to tell us everything that's happened that's been updated at venues, or at least, and crowdsourced on the app in the past week. And then we'll have our bullet journal. We'll tell you what kind of pinball we played. Not about the competition, but, you know, how we played. Ball three is going to be house bubble. Let's get started.
1:24
On Thursday, April 23rd, No Bro presents Thursday Night Strikes by the GC was held at Jack Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Twenty two players came out for the three strike affair.
1:42
And Greg Fertel outlasted the crowd after 10 rounds. Travis Rosenberg came in second. Alex Weisenberger and Adam Kane tied for third. Greg Fertel picked up 5.29 walkers. That same night, and by the way, you might notice we're starting on Thursday. If you listened last week, we recorded a little early, but we're starting on Thursday, April 23rd for just that reason. And also on Thursday, April 23rd at Buttermilk Bar in South Slope, Brooklyn, the sixth and final meeting of SSPL 2026's second season was convened under Kate Martin's direction and Caitlin Reese's assistance, I can't help but notice on the app. Matt Grady came in first, Rob Adler second, and Sam Hall, Kate Martin, and oh, Eric Swedeland tied for third with a very close margin at the top, 28 points to 27 points to 25 points. Those scores were added to our series total to make up our final standings in the league before finals held the following week. We'll get to that as we do some more results. On Saturday, April 25th, the Barcade Fidei Monthly was held at the eponymous location. Twenty nine players came out for six rounds of match play with alternating classics and moderns rounds. It was directed by Harlan Aida Linda and myself in Greg Pavarelli's absence. Not feeling well. After those six rounds, it cut to a top eight Papa style finals. And in the end, Kevin Stanley won the day, besting Matt Grady, Harlan Aida Linda and Matthew Lewandowski. Kevin picked up 13.16 Whoppers. On Monday, April 27th, the final week of Pinball NYC's left flipper division was met. In these matches, there was something at stake in every one.
person
Pinball NYCorganization
South Slope Pinball Leagueorganization
Balls of Steelorganization
Barcade Fideivenue
Buttermilk Barvenue
Red Hook Pinball Museumvenue
Scrapple Landvenue
Jack Barvenue
Pinball Maporganization
Scrapple Leagueorganization
Stern Armyorganization
Attack from Marsgame
Hot Tipgame
The Wallacevenue

high · Benjamin Furega's celebratory reading of team 'Trolls' story about Dina

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Eric Sweephland discovered and reported Attack from Mars scoop malfunction to Mutants captain Ted before competitive Monday match, demonstrating commitment to fair play despite potential scoring advantage. Issue was playable but considered unfair for competition.

    high · Detailed account from Eric Sweephland about Sunday testing and flagging the issue preemptively

  • ?

    event_signal: Multiple upcoming events: Scrapple League Season 2 qualifying starts May 6, Thursday Night Strikes May 7, Slam Tilt Oh My (STOMP) podcast tournament in Rochester May 8, Red Hook May Match Play May 8, Stern Army RWI May 10. Pinball NYC playoffs ongoing through May 5-6.

    high · Benjamin Furega detailing upcoming event schedule

  • ?

    venue_signal: Hosts note geographic proximity of Park Slope venues (Rulo's, Commonwealth, Skylark) within 5-6 blocks on Fifth Avenue between 11th-16th Streets, creating convenient logistics for playoff matches. Venue selection affects team scheduling and spectator accessibility.

    high · Eric Sweephland and Benjamin Furega discussing venue proximity for playoff matches

  • ?

    operational_signal: SSPL finals used bus driver format with game malfunctions requiring flexible rules: bus drivers allowed to re-choose 2 of 3 previously chosen games if needed. Monica Weidekamp opted out of driving bus in finals to reduce decision fatigue and improve performance focus.

    high · Eric Sweephland explaining SSPL finals structure and Monica's strategic choice

  • ?

    community_signal: Hosts emphasize community value of staying home when sick (referencing pandemic learning), in response to Greg Pavarelli stepping back from tournament directing due to illness. Shows community prioritizes health over tournament continuity.

    high · Benjamin Furega's public service announcement about illness and venue participation

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball Map data shows NYC pinball ecosystem has grown to 366 machines across 74 public locations as of May 1, 2026. Indicates sustained market with significant venue diversity.

    high · Benjamin Furega citing Pinball Map official data

  • ?

    venue_signal: Red Hook Pinball Museum maintains specialized collection of only EM (electromechanical) games, represents niche but passionate collector/museum segment. Recent addition of 1977 Hot Tip EM expands spinnerrippy competitive classics availability.

    high · Benjamin Furega describing Red Hook collection focus and recent Hot Tip addition

    • 4:05
    Lion Persons hosted Parliament at Barcade Fidei, and Lion Persons got a 9-7 win. Lion Persons solidified their playoff standing and opened the doors for the Colliders or Pinbots with that win. We Colliders hosted the Mutants at Buttermilk Bar and We Colliders lost 9-7 to the Mutants. Mutants didn't do much to change their fate with the close win. Colliders maintained their position with the close loss. Yeah, or at least our buy. I wrote that for Eric. I'm kind of wrong there. We had been in the top slot. We fell to the second slot. If we lost, we were necessarily going to because of the number of points Parliament had scored already. Your New York City Flipper Sport Association hosted the Pinbots at the Wallace, and you came out nine to seven victors. We lost the top seed by winning close, but retained a bye. The Pinbots fell out of a bye in the in-lane playoff with the loss. Again, the Parliament thing, if Pinbots lost and we lost, Parliament was going to be in front of both of us, for sure. They had scored enough points already. And because we lost by a close margin, too. The Deluxe Horses were at Skylark and the Pin Pals were their hosts and the Deluxe Horses took an 11-5 win. The Horses won their way into the playoffs. Pin Pals extended their offseason by a week with the loss. Worms visited Balls of Steel at Midway and Balls of Steel picked up a 12-4 home win. The Balls of Steel take the top seed in the playoffs with that sizable win. Worms fall out of the in-lane playoff picture. There's also a Worms story this week, a little longer than I want to read right now, so go check it out on Instagram at worms.pinball. It's a bunch of teams with buys, because, you know, 15 teams, everybody's going to play 10 games.
    6:21
    You got to have five teams with buys at the end of 10 weeks, right, who had had buys. And they had two-for-woners, lesser players, intermission Dolores, aristocrats, and special when lit had all done what they could do to decide their fate by the end of the previous week. Balls of Steel gets the top seed with a record of 8-2 and 96 points, while our New York City Flipper Sport Association gets the second seed also with a record of 82 and 94 points. Lion Persons and the Mutants both finished 7-3. Lion Persons with 94 points, Mutants with 92. The two-for-1ers were 6-4 with 83 points. And rounding out the Orbit playoffs, Parliament with a record of 5-5 and 87 points. And in the in-lane playoffs, the Aristocrats, Wee Colliders and Pinbots were all also 5-5, but Parliament's Points got them in. They had 85. Aristocrats had 83. We had 79. That means that Aristocrats and Wee Colliders will probably talk about having a week off. And the Pinbots, Special Wenlit, Intermission Dolores, and the Deluxe Horses will join us. They'll all have matches next week, I'm pretty sure, but everyone else I just listed there, other than the Pinbots, they were all four and six this season. And until like round three of Monday night, both Worms and Pin Pals probably had a chance to be in that 12th seed. Lesser players had already played all of theirs. They were ending the season with two wins. They couldn't get there. And then on Tuesday, April 28th, Pinball NYC's right flipper division contested its 10th and final round of the regular season, Wherein, Danger Danger didn't go to Barcade Fidei to face the trolls. Trolls get a 12-0 forfeit win. That forfeit win keeps them above the Orbit playoff line. There was a troll story this week. Emergency. Is anyone here a doctor of philosophy? Dina, I am. Oh, I want. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. She's Ph. Dina. We have been Dina Eckert. Dr. Dina Eckert has been A.B. Dina, which is to say all but dissertation. Dina, A.B. Dina. She is now Ph. Dina. And I couldn't be happier to hear it. A hearty congratulations. That's what I presume that that troll story means. We Butterballers hosted the Pinbabes at Buttermilk Bar. The home team got a 14-2 win. Butterballers emulated the usual fare of their crossbar rivals and piled on the points in the win, but y'all didn't get the help you needed from above to transcend to the upper level of the playoffs, the Orbit playoffs. And the Pin Babes and a season that started pretty rough, but they have two wins on their scorecard at the end of the season. That's pretty good. And when it starts off rough like that, Scrapple Squad took a little walk down Manhattan Avenue to visit. Everybody loves the sunshine at Sunshine Laundromats. And everybody loves the sunshine got an 11 to 5 home win. Everybody loves the sunshine like the Butterballers would have needed a big win and some help from above to transcend. Like the Butterballers, they got that win by a kind of big margin at 11-5, but they didn't get any of the help that they would have needed from above to get above the line. Scrapple Squad will be staying home next week due to the loss. Barcade Brooklyn saw the third ball come to visit Reston Pinball, parenthetically RIP, and the home team picked up a massive 15-1 win. They fought their way into the in-lane playoffs with this big win. The third ball, who I assume have the biggest fan club in the league, and with zero pinball wins, but those folks seem to be winning at life. The replays hosted Pinnister Six at Rulo's and it was a 10-6 home win. We pointed out last week that the replays had scored a lot of points for their win total. Beating Pinnister Six put them in the in-lane playoffs. This loss also means that Pinnister Six is playing next week rather than awaiting their opponents with a bye. Schlubbs headed up to at the Wallace to see the Harlem Globes flippers and Schlubbs picked up an 8-8 away win. That Schlubbs win is the difference between the third and fifth seeds for them. Had they lost the tiebreaker, they would have been the five. Globe flippers astonishingly high number of points for a seven win team keeps them at the four seed. Neptune's Treasure hosted Harry's Hand Grenades at Milo's Yard, and the home team got a big 14-2 win. Neptune's Treasure earned themselves a buy in the Orbit playoffs with the big win over Harry's Hand Grenades. Hand Grenades were solidly in the middle of the Orbit pack, and this loss does nothing to change that. No Quarters for Laundry went to see ball drainers at Jack Bar, and No Quarters came out with a 10-6 road win. No Quarters for Laundrie beating the Ball Drainers keeps both of them at the bottom of the Orbit playoffs. No Quarters was kind of fighting to keep Everybody Loves the Sunshine out. Ball Drainers are a really interesting case because they won their first five, I think, and have gone two and three since. They won their first five or maybe even six, and then they ran into the schlubs, their crossbar rivals, and they lost there. And then they faced a couple of really good teams that, you know, they did okay. They've been close. But ball drainers, five weeks ago, they were at the top of the Orbit playoff standings. What do they look like now? Sitting in the number one slot, Danger Danger finished the season 8-2 with 116 points.
    13:02
    Neptune's Treasure also gets a buy. They were also 8-2 with 104 points. Schlubbs, 8-2 and 94 points, will be playing next week, along with Harlem Globe Flippers, No Quarters for Laundry, and Ball Drainers, who all finished 7-3. In the in-lane playoffs, Everybody Loves the Sunshine also finished 7-3. They will have a bye, and your Butterballers will have a bye at 6-4. You're the only team with that record in the division. But Pinnister Six, remember how I said when they lost, they fell into the not having a buy? Here they are at 5-5 with 80. They would have had at least a few more. They might not have had 84 if they won, but they were in the driver's seat for the second position last week. Harry's Hand Grenades, Rest in Pinball and Trolls will all join Everybody Loves the Sunshine and Butterballers and Pinister Six in those in-lane playoffs. At home next week, Scrapple Squad, the replays, the Pin Babes and the third ball. On Thursday at Jackpot in Williamsburg.
    14:22
    That's Thursday, April 30th. This is the second Thursday we're talking about now. Twenty three players came out for strikes that was both organized by and seemingly organized in person by GC Gabe Chasanoff. And GC himself won the night after 11 rounds besting Travis Rosenberg David Brinkman and Casey Johnson respectively
    14:52
    Gabe got 5.6 Whoppers on the night. Also on Thursday night, it was the finals of the South Slope Pinball League's second season of the year at Buttermilk Bar. The top eight players in A, the top eight players in B, and four players in C. Battle it out.
    15:16
    That's great finals week attendance, by the way, for a bar of that size with a league of that size. That's great finals league attendance. In the A Finals, Rob Wong drove a bus with Paul McHugh, Taylor Connolly, and Matt Grady, while Stephen Christopher drove for Sam Hall, Kate Martin, and Matthew Carlson. After eliminating two from each of those groups, the final four played another three games and Matt Grady won the day, besting Matthew Carlson, Kate Martin and Taylor Connolly. Matt Grady got 28.29 Whoppers for this season of league. Yeah, that's that's seven whole weeks of I mean, really, five of them count the finals plus four weeks of the regular season count. But that's seven whole weeks. That's why that's like five times the number that Thursday night strikes we were just talking about. The same structure held true in the B Division Finals. In the end, Monica Weidekamp took the first place medal, besting myself, Courtney Wetzel, and Zen Zokniak. Like Caitlin Reese, Matt Boggy, Billy Vazine, and Rob Adler were fifth through eighth. I see y'all played Walking Dead, Metallica, and Attack from Mars. Who drove the bus? That was Zen who came in as the top seed in B. Right. And he chose those games in the final round. He chose all of them. He did. He had chosen three others in the first round, and then he chose those three. Those were his number, potentially three, four, and six games. If he were really clever and he had won it after the first two games in the previous, you know, maybe then what you actually do is defer. But he might have chosen a game that is, you know, his fifth best, his sixth best in the group at that point. Because of some game malfunctions, choices were limited and bus drivers, if they had chosen in the semis, were allowed in the finals to re-choose two of the three that they had previously chosen. Oh, gotcha. So they can't choose the same three again, but they may choose two of them. Correct. Got it. I came through from the semifinals into the finals with Monica. I had been driving the bus in the semifinals after the qualifying was done. Monica and I had tied. So I was expecting to have a tiebreaker for which of us would wind up driving the bus. But on Thursday night, Monica said that she'd prefer just not to have to drive a bus. And would it be OK for her to let me take that spot as the second season B finals? I said, sure, I'll do it. Sure. So I drove that first round bus. Brokered agreement. Pretty tough. But Monica was playing lights out after the three semifinals games had gotten to nine points and the rest of us were tied at four. So we had a three-way tiebreaker between myself, Caitlin Reese, and Matt Boggy to determine which of us would join Monica in the finals. I managed to squeak that one out on a Ghostbusters.
    18:56
    Yeah, and then Monica just continued to really dominate in the finals. There's a lesson here, which is that if you don't have to make a lot of decisions, you just have to perform. Sometimes that's a lot easier. There's a great story that I have heard 14th hand about the reason that Barack Obama just about 100 percent of the time wore either a charcoal or a dark navy suit. And it's that having I have consequential decisions to make throughout the course of the day and what color suit I wear today shouldn't be one of them. And so I will just have these two basic bitch colored suits all through my closet. I'll have as many of them as I need. I like you. You know, he was he he had himself a little bit of money and he knew how to dress.
    19:56
    But like you have charcoal gray and dark navy blue because you don't want to have to make those decisions. And that's what Monica just did right here. Yes, I did just compare her to Obama. The C Finals was contested as a group strikes with four players in one group and three strikes. Jess Warren won that with a single strike, besting Joan Samander, Kelly Arasa, and Jenna Altomirano. This week on Monday, May 4th, may it be with you. And it is not necessarily.
    20:39
    Going to be with Balls of Steel or NYC FSA because they're going to be at home. They won't need May the 4th to be with them, but the two for oneers and the mutants are going to meet up at Owl Farm and both of them are going to hope to use the fourth. And Parliament will face Lion Persons at Jack Bar. The winner of 2 for 1ers Mutants will face Balls of Steel next week. And the winner of Parliament Lion Persons will face NYC FSA next week. Parliament and Lion Persons just played this past week at the Lion Persons home of Arcade Fidei where the home team got a 9-7 win over them. How will it play out in the playoffs? It's exciting to find out. And I just like it's also exciting to think about what it means for venues, because like it says things in the rules about what venues are eligible because of what games are at your venue. And Barcade Fideye has a lot, a large number of games. Lion Persons may have some limited playoff venues. Interestingly, what about the others? In the left in-lane playoffs, the aristocrats will have a bye week while they await the winner of Intermission Dolores and Special When Lit, who will be playing at Skylark. I just want to point out that everything that you just said right there is within like a driver three wood of each other in Park Slope. Aristocrats play at Rulo's, Special When Lit play at Rulo's, Intermission Dolores play at Commonwealth, and the two of those three teams that are playing are playing at Skylark. These are between 11th Street in Brooklyn and 16th Street in Brooklyn on Fifth Avenue. They are slightly separated on the Z-axis because you walk uphill if you're coming from Skylark.
    22:44
    But other than that, they're six blocks away, man. Five? They're five blocks away, man. Possibly also chilling in the neighborhood. Benjamin, your colliders will have a bye on Tuesday while you wait for the winners of the Deluxe Horses versus the Pinbots at Gebhard's Beer Culture. I don't want to give anything away, but I have a feeling since I work near Gebhard's Beer Culture and at least someone on the colliders reached out to me and was like, hey, do you want to go watch, you know, whatever? Whatever it is before we even knew where it was. And then when I saw where it was, my response was, yeah, sure. So I might be playing Farfalla over in the corner while they are playing this match and awkwardly not playing Farfalla for reasons I don't understand, not playing Farfalla. On Tuesday, May 5th, it will be round one of Pinball NYC's Right Orbit playoffs. Top seed Danger Danger will have a bye while they await the winner of No Quarters for Laundry and Harlem Globe Flippers who will be battling at Sunshine Laundromats. Danger Danger had a walk-off. They didn't have to play in Week 10. Second seed Neptune's Treasure will also have a buy while they await the winners of Ball Drainers and Schlubbs at Rulo's. Ball Drainers and Schlubbs will move their mutual masturbation south and the jack-off will come to Rulo's. In the right in lane playoffs, everybody loves the sunshine who had the same record as a couple of the folks playing in that other bracket are going to await the winner of Reston Pinball, who got a big win last week to get in and Harry's Hand Grenades, who will play, as Eric pointed out, at Solid State in Deep Queens. Your Butterballers will await the winners of Trolls and Pinister Six, who will face off at Milo's Yard. On Wednesday, May 6th, the first qualifying week of Scrapple League's next season will be held at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at Pinball 8 o'clock. Although we're getting a little more strict this season. We're going to be starting closer to 8. If you do it just right, you'll start like the drum machine at 8.08. Broadway shows start 8 minutes after their advertised time. So Thursday Night Strikes will be convened at Jack Bar on Thursday, May 7th. Jack Bar's in Williamsburg. You can get there really easily and you should just look it up if you don't know how to get there, but it's on Havermeyer Street, 143, I think. 7.30 sharp.
    26:08
    And also, if you dress sharp, I hear that they give you a bonus strike. That's not true. Don't do that. I mean, do it because you want to. Don't do it to get a bonus strike.
    26:18
    Also next Thursday night at Buttermilk Bar, for sure, Kate will be distributing medals for the SSPLs last season. And possibly the next season of SSPL might be kicking off with its first week that night. Up in the air, the following week would have been the normal first week, but almost everyone's going to be out of town for Stomp. Oh, that would be the Slam Tilt Oh My podcast tournament that will either happen in Albany or Rochester. Rochester this time. Albany next time, I presume. On Friday at the Red Hook Pinball Museum. And if you hear me say that and you're like, oh, man, that place is awesome. And it's one game away from being awesomer. Just wait till you hear what happens in ball two. But at the Red Hook Pinball Museum on Friday, May 8th, up to 35 players may join Gabriel Chasanov to play in Red Hook's own May match play, Malie. It starts at 7 p.m. It's a $10 buy-in and a $20 fee to enter the museum. So you're in for $30, but $20 is all of your coin drop. And let me recommend that if you can find it in your heart and your wallet to drop more than 20 bucks in the little goldfish bowl up front, you should, because they maintain an awesome collection of only EMs. And man, it's cool. And on Sunday, May 10th, Jess Warren will run Stern Army's RWI at Rulo's in South Slope. Doors at 3 o'clock, tournament starts at 3.30, Bart will make some tasty food. You'll get a t-shirt if you beat the cat. Right, which is to say any of the initials that are CAT or PUR or I don't know, there's occasionally there's been another one. But those are the two main ones there, I think. MOW. So, yeah, there you go. If you put your initials in and what you got passed was one of those, you get you a T-shirt and it's pretty cool.
    28:45
    As of May 1st, 2026, there are 366 pinball machines in New York City at 74 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week or a couple extra days. Yeah, right. We recorded early last week. On Thursday, April 23rd, user Django Dude played the Addams Family at Birdies and said missing a ball won't start a game. Lame. Also last Thursday a 1977 Williams Electromechanical Hot Tip was added to the Red Hook Pinball Museum User Red Hook Pinball Museum says freshly shopped and playing fast Rip that spinner. That is five A's. And I also just generally want to say callback. Remember what I said before about there will be something in ball two. There's going to be a hot tip EM because I think there were that they they did. This was right at the edge in 77 of when they're there. They might have made like Evil Knievel had an EM and a solid state. I think this one was the same. Yes, they have both versions. Yeah, and they have the EM here. A beloved spinner-rippy competition game.
    30:23
    On Friday, April 24th, user JNS warned us that the Pirates of the Caribbean, Stern, at Scrappleland is periodically kicking out two or three balls to the plunger on a new ball. Playable, fun still. Look at all those arms. Also, user Jack Attack tried out the jaws at the gutter, L-E-S, and said Finn is stuck in a single position. Jack Attack a la Shaq Attack, which is to say Q between the and the attack. On Saturday, user It's Raj said of the Godzilla at Bar Great Harry, machine is uneven. Balls seem to gravitate to the right. Agreed. I also think that's what happens in exactly the place that that one is sitting, no matter what pinball machine is there. Remember, at some point I've talked about how there's a very specific position in Owl Farm where a machine has to live on only two legs. That's a note about the position more than the game is my personal and not at all humble opinion. On Sunday, user Upstate Pinball worked on The Sopranos at Filthy Diamond in Brooklyn. They said, did a minor slash major flipper overhaul today. Both flippers were sluggish. Replaced one coil, two coil sleeves, two coil stops, many lamps. Looks and playing great. Let me know what you think. That's the opposite of what I see from most operators is let me know what you think on Pinball Map. On Monday, a junkyard was added to the lineup of single cut Beersmiths Queens. On Wednesday, user JackBarJohn let us know that the getaway at JackBar is back in service. On Thursday, user MiniFlipper commented on the getaway at Scrappleland, out of order. Mini Flipper just keeps going to exactly the wrong getaway, I feel like. Mini Flipper tells us that one of them is out of order every week, and every time there's an update following them that is the operator saying, like, it's back in service. I fixed it. You're right. There was something wrong, but there isn't any more. Come play it. And because there are three and they go from just at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge to just at the foot of the it's is it the Pulaski Pulaski.
    33:06
    It goes just right from North Brooklyn to North Brooklyn. Mini Flipper is just like going from place to place and saying it doesn't work. And then they come behind Mini Flipper and say, oh, it works now. And then they're at the next one and they're like, it doesn't work. And they come behind them and say, oh, it works now. It's so it just I feel like we've been watching this happen for a couple of weeks and it's interesting. Speaking of Sunshine Laundromat, also on Thursday, they added a Lost in Space to their lineup. User Dan Tastic says, out in front for all day access. That's I wish there were one that I wanted to play out in front for all day access. I don't want to play Lost in Space. And on Friday, May 1st, user JNS was at the gutter bar LIC.
    34:02
    Of their dead pool, JNS said, right sling dead. Rollover lane lights at the top of playfield are out. Playable. And of the Cactus Canyon with a Lyman upgrade, JNS said, plays fine, I guess. No problems with skillshot prizes staying fixed. What did you do? You played last weekend?
    34:27
    Even before that, after we recorded last week, then on Thursday was South Slope. Oh my goodness, that's right. That's right. We recorded early last week. I had, like I said in my update last week, I spent a lot of the weekend in the car. So I'm going to have nothing twixt last we spoke and Monday. So please tell me about Thursday and the weekend. And the last qualifying week of SSPL was pretty good for me. I got 25 points. You were talking about how 27 was your best in this format in at least recent memory last or the previous week. And you got 25 this week. Yeah, it still wasn't enough to bump me up to A. That was fine. But still, yeah, a satisfying night of pinball. Well played. And then on Saturday was planning to help out Greg run the Barcade Fight Eye monthly, but he wasn't feeling well. And so Harlan and I were able to step up and make that one go off. I appreciate that. And let me also just briefly step in and say this. What we should have learned when there was a global pandemic a few years ago is if you don't feel well, stay home. You might feel like, oh, but I made a commitment and I have to do a thing. But the fact is that one of the things that you made a commitment to at that time is to keep everybody safe whom you made that commitment to. And so please, if you're not feeling well, stay home. Do it for you and do it for them. Stay home. I appreciate Greg making the compassionate choice here. You were saying. Well, my next outing then was on Monday. You know what? I'm sorry. I lied. I was in a car for a long time, but I got back in time on Sunday to play at Buttermilk. Wow. I got in and was utterly angered as a person who had just driven from the greater Pittsburgh area back to New York City all throughout daylight hours, having started pretty early. And that when I got back, a number of film shoots were diverting traffic in inconvenient ways between me, between my home and the highway I needed to get off of and get to my home. I had a less than optimal mental health experience in that last 45 minutes of my very long drive, but was still in when the sun was up and was going to be up for a minute. And so I walked to Buttermilk and played pinball on Sunday. I ran into Ted of the Mutants, whom I knew was. I've said this before. I run into Ted when Ted's one of Ted's teams are going to be playing in Park Slope on the next Monday or Tuesday. Thursday, I run into Ted in Park Slope, and I was pretty sure when I was going to walk into Buttermilk at about the time that it opened on Sunday that I would run into Ted around then because I imagine we keep similar schedules and don't really want to be out until very, very late at night. I touched game conditions with him. It was cool. I just like there was a point that like I was playing Attack from Mars and I had a multi ball and a ball came down into the scoop from the upper direction from the pops into the scoop. And it didn't kick out. And and then I collected a jackpot by hitting something that fed it into the pops, which meant that it came into the upper side of the scoop and it didn't kick out. And so I was playing a single ball multiball and I, you know, Ted came to the front room and I was like, hey, come here. We're going to play you in competition here tomorrow. You have to see what's happening here. And showed him what was happening. And it was, you know, I could have played that multi-ball ad nauseum if I had not, if I weren't going to put my hand up and say, hey, this is wrong. I could have got jackpot after jackpot after jackpot potentially without anyone noticing, particularly on a Monday night when like you're hanging out with your friends, you're hanging out with your team. You're not going to notice necessarily what the other team is doing unless you're a hawk that way, you know.
    39:41
    But like it just it seemed weird. And I called Ted over and showed it to him and he was like, oh, that's not. I was like, yeah, I mean, I'm not a captain. It's not my job to say what's playable or isn't playable. But if my captains asked me, should we play this? And it was playing like this. My response would be, oh, no, this is not if.
    40:03
    If there were three games here and we needed to find a way to work around this or we needed to find a way to keep everybody honest about it, maybe.
    40:13
    But there are eight games there, I think, you know, it's it's easy enough. A rapidly declining number. Yeah, well, of working ones. But also, by Monday night, we'll talk about that in a minute, but by Monday night, the conditions on the ground were different, it turns out. What was your Monday night like? The Pinbots came up to At The Wallace. It was cool to see many of the members of Pinbots are also regulars in Scrappily, who I see every Wednesday. Of course. And also co-organizers, at least a couple of them. Yeah. And boy, I mean, that roster of players is getting better week by week. I see it at Scrapple League and they were a tough fight.
    41:03
    Uh-huh. They're good players. My Monday has has segments on Monday. I really had to get home and feed cats and I had a long day at work. So like I was going to walk into Buttermilk kind of close to eight o'clock. But but also I made a point of walking down 11th Street after I walked through the park because I was still going to walk. I still had time to walk. I wasn't going to do anything stupid and get on a city bike without a helmet. But I, you know, I had time to walk and I probably could have played a game, three games maybe if I played shitty. If I walked straight in the door to Buttermilk after I got home, fed the cats, did all the things and walked.
    41:53
    And I made a point of walking down 11th Street because I was like, well, if I get there and there are 10 extra minutes, I'm going to stick my head in Skylark to see the Deluxe Horses. Who are in the neighborhood. So I walked in. Steph, the bartender, offered me a slice of pizza. I did not eat a slice of pizza. I said hello to a couple of folks. And when I walked out the door of Skylark, I ran into Chad, who is also on the colliders, who was standing out front, like doing the like puppy, you know, moving back and forth on on its paws, looking for It's human to come out the front door. He was really just trying to figure out who was in the back playing pinball right now, right at this second. Through the window. Yeah, through the window, through the little storm thing that is set up out front through the winter weather shelter that is right there. And we walked part of the way to Buttermilk. He explained to me that he was waiting for food at Wonder Kitchen, which is about halfway between the two venues. And so, you know, we walked that far together and then I walked the other few blocks to Buttermilk. And as I was approaching about half a block away, I saw Captain Jess coming from the other direction into the bar. And so it just like it felt to me like one of those scenes in a movie where you just like see the top down view of the map and all of the people, you know, descending on a single point. Yeah. And, you know, I walked in and the other two bends who were going to be there, by the way, I'm Benjamin, but it's OK if you say there are three bends on the colliders. I won't punch you in the face for that. And Nat were already at the bar. And it just, you know, it was cool to have that. The match was fun I played better than the most recent weeks It went very fast Ted remarked to me when we started King Kong Ted and I were playing each other Nat and I against Jeff and Ted on King Kong They obviously called it because they were the away team They beat us by a little bit But Ted remarked to me immediately after we started he was like we never started this early
    44:29
    I have been on this team forever. We have never once started at this hour. And it's just like all everybody was there. Everybody was on time. Everybody lined up. It wasn't them. It wasn't us. It was just a confluence of everyone just being like, hey, last week of the league, we got to all get together and do the thing. And it just everybody was in, you know, midseason form, I guess. But it's really here's what it is. Everybody was getting ready for the playoffs. You know, I it went very fast up until the final game on NBA Fastbreak when all four players had over 65 points. And I mean, I was over 100, but there were several people right at about at that threshold. Three of the four of us were right about at 100 points. And I think the fourth was at like 65. And also, it's the perfect game for Nint. We played Nint and Jeff on it, and it's the perfect game for Nint because you shoot the ball straight up the middle. Most of the time, that's a pretty good strategy. And tilting is irrelevant. It's also the perfect game for me for the exact same reason. I played Nint. Two of my three matches, the games that I played in the middle of the match, I played against Nint. And it was obvious that these two guys play the same way. After the match, Jess and I, we did a shot. Jess and Ben H. and I did a shot with Allie, the bartender, to thank her for the season. And then we went back down to Skylark, where it was their 14th anniversary. We caught the end of Horses at Pin Pals. Horses had already won by the time we walked in. They were figuring out whether or not they had made the playoffs like they were like, watch, you know, looking at their phones, trying to figure it out at, you know, when we walked in, they were like, we won. We think it's OK, but maybe if the worms won and just as we walked in, like Tyler was like, no, no, we're we're in. Like I sort of heard him and saw him figure it out, maybe after I hugged him or maybe just before. But most of them went to Buttermilk after the match was over.
    47:14
    And I ate a slice of the pizza that had been sitting there for three hours that I did not eat before. I had a slice of it then. On Tuesday night, the Butterballers were hosting the Pin Babes at Buttermilk Bar. But it was my turn to not be feeling so well. And I stayed home that night. And then again on Wednesday night, as it was the second off week in Scrapple League, it'll start up again this coming week. Yeah. And so then having recovered a good bit, I was able to go out on Thursday night. Right. For the finals of South Slope Pinball League. Right. In the B finals.
    48:05
    As you were saying before, talking machine conditions, I was the driver of the fourth bus of the finals. Right. Based on Monica's having effectively conceded it to you, correct? Correct. Kong was ruled out from the very beginning. Because of the double plunge, possibly. Because of the double plunge. It was just constantly doing it. So there were seven games to choose from. And when it came to be my choice, three had been chosen by the other buses.
    48:51
    Four left. So for my very first choice of the night, I mean, I'm glad that Metallica was available. It would have been your first choice anyway. It would have been my first choice anyway, but of the ones I was left, it was the only choice. Got it. Second game choice. Now, there's just three I have to choose from because Metallica and three others were out. I chose Twilight Zone. I don't remember which ball, but I do recall. Yeah, no, it was ball one player three had not even stepped up to the machine when it auto plunged. Oh, and, you know, we can't, you know, got Kate involved, said, hey, what's going on? She's like, uh, okay, you know, let's see what happens for player four. Player four auto plunged. The little swingy gate between the two plunger lanes was stuck. This is a little gate that normally swings to the left and a ball coming out of the trough will jump over it into the outer plunger lane, which you control. Right. You address it with the actual plunger, not an auto plunge, which comes to the inner side lane. That's right. There's a separate lane for the auto plunge. So when that little gate flips up center instead of to the left is up, the ball comes out and drops into the first lane and the auto plunger can shoot it out. It was it was stuck. It wouldn't move. So every ball coming out went into the auto plunge lane and then Twilight Zone was removed from. All the tournaments. Right. And there were six games total.
    50:55
    And so, yeah, more restricted choices. It became, it got more and more obvious. Maybe Monica made the right choice, not having to deal with the constraints of this. But no, I'm joking because I was happy to get to choose the games. Of course. I enjoy it. Here's my question. Because I feel like if Monica had said to me, I would just like to defer the right in order to not have to play a tiebreaker. My response might have been, that's A-OK by me for the very first game. But in the second game, you are going to have to choose to defer to me. If that like based on the fact that you are saying this now, I want to give you a fair chance to make that choice in a minute to after something has evolved. We have come here on equal footing. We could have played the tiebreaker after the first game. I mean, or just like you are saying to me, I defer to you. We came here on equal footing. I would like to give you the option for the second game to potentially as as long as.
    52:20
    As long as you tell me. That if I defer to you in the second game, you're not going to let person three choose like I would like for you to go first and force you to defer to me in the second game. If that's what you want to do. And I feel like that's one of the things that you can do in these situations. You can broker an agreement in some way like that, right?
    52:48
    Yeah, I mean, it was just an agreement that we didn't play the tiebreaker. Right, exactly. The agreement was we don't play the tiebreaker, you get to drive the bus. That's what Monica asked you to do and you were all too happy to assent. It makes perfect sense for both of you since it seems like it was a good compromise for both of you in numerous ways. Monica won B, right? Yeah, she won. There it is.
    53:18
    Yes, Twilight Zone broke, so we played Walking Dead instead. Then the really interesting one was the third choice. What were the A choices? Attack and Maiden. Bingo. And Zen chose Fast Break. So, let's see, there were six games available. That's three of them. Attack, Maiden, Ghostbusters, Metallica Walking Dead, Fast Break. So I can't choose Metallica. I can't choose Walking Dead. That's right.
    54:02
    I have to wait. For, oh, Ghostbusters was open. Right. So, but the B Finals had been running long. Uh-huh. And A was chugging along.
    54:24
    So... Kate offered both Zen and me the chance to pick a game that A was already currently playing to wait for our third game. Sure. Zen decided to take fast break and that didn't apply. Right. But given then the choice of Ghostbusters or wait. Yeah. Wait for Attack or wait for Maiden. Right. I chose to wait for Maiden.
    54:58
    Well, that game, Carlson went gonzo. 500 million. We waited a long time. And when we finally played it, it came in the exact order that it needed to give me my last out, Which was a three-way tie, Monica advancing and the rest of us tie. Right. So then we had to play a tiebreaker. And you had to choose a game that you hadn't already chosen. That's right. And so at that point, I did choose Ghostbusters.
    55:40
    You weren't afraid of no ghosts. No. And, you know, thanks to Playfield X and a video mode, I advanced to the finals. 300 million points will get you a long way on that game.
    55:56
    That's about the shape of it, right? If you get 6x play field and you get that. Yeah, I only had a 2x and I didn't get all the way through the video mode. But yeah, 150 or something was enough. Right.
    56:12
    That was last night. Yeah. Jess and I had good planning chats about Pinpride. We're wrapping up all the logistics and stuff. And I put out the flyer today on the Discord. I printed some up at the library. Cool. Yeah.
    56:32
    Use the public resources, man. That's why they're there. Get the word out to the public. It's a house ball. I'm sorry. It's my fault. I did not even try the things that I was supposed to try. I got caught up in being busy this past week and just failed at it. So my apologies that there is nothing for us to present to you here in Ball 3. Regardless, if you want to connect with us, you can reach out to us via the email machine at nycpinpod at gmail.com. You can leave us a voice message and you might hear yourself here if you did at speakpipe.com slash nycpinpod. And join us next week when we'll do the usual things in Balls 1 and 2. And I also want to very specifically shout out to everybody who's playing on Monday and Tuesday night. Go get them. I might see some of you around. I might go be a pin person about town if I can find the time. But be safe out there. Have just the greatest amount of fun. And between now and next week, go get them, Pinball. If you think that Benjamin Furiga admires someone more than someone who has the title Doctor of Philosophy, you are mistaken, my friends.
    58:30
    Thank you.