Episode 300: Mr. 300!

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·42m 27s·analyzed·Mar 16, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Eric Stone reflects on bowling mastery, competitive pinball rise, and mentality in Pinball Profile's 300th episode.

Summary

Pinball Profile's milestone 300th episode features Eric Stone, a multi-talented competitor and weather broadcaster from Florida who holds 55 perfect games in bowling and is emerging as a top-tier competitive pinball player. The conversation explores Stone's unique background, his journey from childhood pinball therapy to tournament success, his intense competitive mentality shaped by parental drive, and his assessment of current elite players including Keith Elwin, Raymond Davidson, and Escher Lefkoff. Stone discusses upcoming plans for IFPA 17 in Fort Myers and reflects on his major tournament victories.

Key Claims

Eric Stone has 55 perfect games in bowling, with his most recent one approximately 3 weeks before this episode
high confidence · Direct statement by Eric Stone: 'I've got 55. I just bowled my latest one about three weeks ago.'
Stone's parents purchased a Captain Fantastic pinball machine when he was 4 years old to help develop motor skills after doctors noted slow nervous system development from being born premature
high confidence · Stone's detailed personal history: 'when I was four years old, they bought a Captain Fantastic, the machine that has Elton John on the front. And I got started playing pinball, you know, on a stepstool at four years old.'
Stone won the North American Championship in 2017, going 19-0 before losing on WorldWin
high confidence · Stone: 'I went over to Texas in 2017 and won the North American Championship. I didn't have any nerves. I think I went 19-0, and I finally lost on a weather-based pinball called WorldWin.'
Stone won InDisc tournament after qualifying 11th in the main event with only 2 qualifying tickets
high confidence · Stone: 'in the main tournament, I only played two tickets, and I qualified 11th, and I th[en won]' (text appears cut off but context indicates tournament victory)
Raymond Davidson won both IFPA World Championships that Stone attended (Denmark and Toronto)
high confidence · Stone: 'the two world championships I went to, Raymond Davidson won both, and I'm like, oh, my God, who is this guy?'
Stone's current job contract was ending shortly at time of recording, with uncertainty about future employment in Florida
high confidence · Stone: 'My contract for work ends very shortly. And so I'm not really sure the direction that the TV station I work at is going to go... I'm going to be applying for jobs. I would love to stay in Florida, but I really have a feeling that Fort Myers may not be my home come November'
Stone has never beaten Daniele Iaccari from Italy on any single game despite playing against him
high confidence · Stone: 'I don't think I've beat him at a game ever... I think he's the only player that I know of that I've never beat on a single game ever.'

Notable Quotes

“Making a 7-10 split is like playing a 1950s pinball machine. You might get lucky and get a good game out of it, just like you might get lucky and get a 7-10 split.”
Eric Stone @ N/A — Clever analogy connecting bowling difficulty to vintage pinball difficulty; illustrates Stone's perspective on skill vs luck
“It's all about hand-eye coordination, right? Now, bowling is more of a physical sport... But either way, you still – it's all about math and about angles.”
Eric Stone @ N/A — Core philosophical connection between bowling and pinball mechanics; explains transferable skills
“I would get distracted easily. I would probably play pinball all the time and not do my schoolwork if my parents didn't motivate me.”
Eric Stone @ N/A — Reveals source of Stone's intense competitive drive and perfectionism; childhood motivation mechanisms
“I have the same intensity bowling as well... that intensity drives me to do so much better than I would if I lacked that. But... I do get a bad rap because I'm very passionate.”
Eric Stone @ N/A — Stone acknowledges his reputation for intensity and addresses the perception gap between his public and private personalities
“I put up somewhere around $9 billion on attack from Mars. Nope, that's not good enough... Raymond Davidson beat me on all three of them and swept me.”
Eric Stone @ N/A — Illustrates Raymond Davidson's dominance; Stone's respect for elite competition; specific tournament memory from Toronto
“I believed it was kind of God put in my heart that hey you need to go to InDisc... And then I got there and I thought, wow, this is almost like a mini Pinberg.”
Eric Stone @ N/A — Reveals Stone's faith-based decision making; describes InDisc tournament format and appeal
“Escher... he reminds me of me when I was that age, although he's even better because he understands this new age of computer coding of pinball and rule changes.”
Eric Stone — Stone acknowledges generational shift in pinball skill; recognizes younger players' advantages with modern rule complexity

Entities

Eric Stoneperson Jeff Teolisperson Keith Elwinperson Raymond Davidsonperson Escher LefkoffpersonDaniele Iaccariperson

Signals

?
event_signal: Pinball Profile podcast reaches 300th episode milestone, marking approximately 9 years of production as landmark fixture in pinball community.
high · Episode title 'Episode 300: Mr. 300!' and Jeff Teolis' opening: 'A milestone episode, no question about it. Very proud to have 300 of these in the bank.'
?
community_signal: Media outlet (Fox 4 TV) actively promoting pinball and bowling achievements of local competitive player, helping raise sport's profile through traditional broadcast channels.
high · Jeff: 'that TV station has been very kind for promoting your successes in bowling, definitely in pinball... it helps promote pinball' and Stone: 'Fox 4... has been very kind with that [promoting Norma Jennings charity work].'
?
competitive_signal: Generational skill shift in pinball: younger players (Escher, Colin Urban, Alec) better understand modern code updates and rule changes compared to Stone's generation who played static 80s rules.
high · Stone: 'he understands this new age of computer coding of pinball and rule changes and code updates... When I was growing up... the rules never change.'
?
event_signal: IFPA 17 World Championship scheduled for November in Fort Myers at Pinball Asylum with Eric Stone positioned as favorite despite his historical performance struggles in favored-player scenarios.
high · Stone: 'I'm going to be the favorite there... Every time I'm the favorite, I don't even come close to winning' and Jeff: 'You have to be the favorite at IFPA 17.'
$
market_signal: Career uncertainty for elite competitive player: Eric Stone's TV weather broadcasting contract ending with unclear future employment prospects, potentially affecting tournament travel availability.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.128

0:00

It's time for the 300th episode of Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teelis. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. Subscriptions, past episodes, and more. You can find us on Facebook. We're also on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile, and you can email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. A milestone episode, no question about it. Very proud to have 300 of these in the bank. So who is Mr. 300? He might someday be Mr. Number One based on his playing. I'm talking about Eric Stone, and he joins us right now. Eric, how are you? Good, Jeff. How are you doing? It's good to talk to you again, buddy. I hope things are going well for you in Florida. Yeah, it's very, very busy. and I want to congratulate you on your 300th episode. Well, when I think of the number 300, I definitely think of you because of your bowling achievements. Now, the funny thing is you're an amazing pinball player, and we're definitely going to talk about that. But I first found out about you years ago when you started talking about, I don't even know what you're at now. It was something over 50 perfect games in bowling. One is incredible. How many do you have now? I've got 55. I just bowled my latest one about three weeks ago. I don't know what it's like bowling one of them, let alone 55 of them, are you still just as excited? Do you still get nervous? Oh. I've heard the term in the pocket and all that kind of things. Explain what it's like going through a perfect game in bowling, let alone 55 of them. Well, you know, unfortunately, even though I've had so many, I still get nervous as I get toward the end. Usually I'll start thinking about it in the seventh frame. And, you know, in a game of bowling, you need 12 strikes. There's 10 frames. So you basically have nine strikes, and then in the last frame, you have to throw three in a row. So I basically in my mind think, okay, I got six, seven in a row. Let's get to the ninth one, and then we'll focus on getting three more in the tenth frame. And as you get toward the end, it's very nerve-wracking. And, yeah, I still get nervous. But, you know, I've been blessed. I've been able to do it. And I tell you, it's a great feeling doing something perfectly, saying that you did it perfectly. So, but yeah, I bowled since I was a kid and I love it very much. I've asked you this before, but for those listening for the first time, why did you never consider the professional bowler's tour? Well, I bowled in Salt Lake City several nights a week and there was a month where I bowled, I believe it was 27 nights and 28 days. and I did something to my upper arm that if I bowl too much, I get tired or it starts hurting. And over the years, I'm 45 now, I have a lot of aches and pains. So the way I bowl, I really put a lot of strength and energy into throwing a 15- or 16-pound ball. And joining the PBA, which is Professional Bowlers Association, It involves many games over a week-long period over and over and over again. The other thing is a lot of guys that average high like I do, they get sponsored, and they get bowling balls given to them, and they get cash given to them for their hotels and whatnot. And believe it or not, bowling doesn't really pay all that much. It's more of having fun like pinball. It pays maybe a little bit more than pinball, But only if you win or you come in the top two or three. And you have to do that consistently in order to really make a living at it. And with my job doing weather, that's always come first. And that's obviously a steady income. And it's something I'm passionate about. So, you know, if someone were to come to me and say, hey, I want to sponsor you, I want to give you, you know, a couple of bowling balls every other month, because bowling balls cost $250. And it's just it's not a cheap hobby. And do they wear down? Oh, yes, they wear down. When you say every couple of months, do they have to be replaced that often? I think of a baseball bat, you replace it when you break it, but you might have your favorite bat that it's your go-to bat, and you use that until it dies. That's right. Well, the chemical composition of a bowling ball, it's kind of designed to wear down, I would say, within six months to a year. And I think it's designed that way so that you buy more bowling balls. Well, I've kind of come to a conclusion that there's a few different ways I can rejuvenate the bowling ball. So the bowling ball I'm using is 14 years old, and I don't like using new equipment. I have an unorthodox style of bowling, and it's very difficult for ball drillers to drill a bowling ball the way I throw the ball. So I learned about 20 years ago that, you know, there's oil on a bowling lane. And so when you throw the bowling ball down, the oil soaks into the ball. Well, the more oil that soaks into the ball, the less reaction you get. And what I mean is, you know, you see a ball going down the lane and then it takes a hard left turn and it curves like you see the pros. Well, it doesn't curve as much and it doesn't hit the pins as well. So I figured, well, there's got to be a way to get the oil out of a ball. Well, I started putting the bowling ball in the oven about 20 years ago. And people thought, man, you're crazy. You know, you're putting the bowling ball in the oven, but it would literally bake the oil out of the ball. And I noticed that I would bowl better the more often I put the ball in the oven. The problem is because of the outer composition of the, I guess they call it the outer shell of the ball, it expands and contracts. So the ball cracks. And I thought, oh, no, bowling ball cracks. But I would drill holes in the crack, put epoxy in it, and then keep the bowling ball going for several years. That's like a corked bat. No, no, no. It's legal epoxy. It's legal ball plug, they call it. So, and trust me, everybody that, you know, bowls with me makes sure that all my bowling balls are legal. So there's nothing to worry about there. But, yeah, so my challenge moving to Florida is, you know, was trying to find somebody to drill a bowling ball for me. I found one guy in Salt Lake City who is just absolutely amazing. And I even sent a couple bowling balls back about three, four years ago. And all of a sudden I started bowling perfect games again. Well, he retired, so I'm holding on to this one last ball that I have that I do really well with. And, you know, as soon as it already cracked, but I had it repaired. So, you know, I'm just kind of going day by day with it. People are wondering why we're talking about bowling. Well, bowling has pins, and this is a pinball podcast. Bowling really should have been called pinball. Let's be honest. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. What is the comparison from bowling, these perfect games, to pinball? or doing something like a 7-10 split. How would you relate that to pinball? Well, a 7-10 split, I've only made that once in my life. Making a 7-10 split is like playing a 1950s pinball machine. You might get lucky and get a good game out of it, just like you might get lucky and get a 7-10 split. But the comparison of bowling and pinball is it's all about hand-eye coordination, right? Now, bowling is more of a physical sport, even though you're not interacting with other people. It's not like American football or, you know, basketball where you're knocking people over. But, you know, with bowling, you've got a 15- or 16-pound ball, and, you know, it does wear on your body. Pinball does not wear on your body unless you're moving the machines all the time. But either way, you still – it's all about math and about angles. And with bowling and with pinball, you know, in pinball, you're making your shots. You have to know where in the flipper you're going to flip the ball. You know, you want to try to bank the ball from one place to the other, just like in bowling. I'm throwing the ball down the lane to a certain point, and then the ball's curving back into what we call the pocket, which is where the head pin is, the number one pin, and the pin right next to it. That's where you want your bowling ball to hit the pins for the best chance to get a strike. So it's all about angles. You could say, you know, maybe it's about physics as well. You mentioned the hand-eye coordination is extremely important in bowling and definitely in pinball. You once told me, and you've said it before, about when you were born, there were some concerns about your health, and maybe that would affect hand-eye coordination. Do you want to relay that to those who may not have heard that story? Yeah, that's right. I was born three weeks premature, so my nervous system didn't develop fully. And as I was, I don't want to say growing up, I want to say maybe the first year or two of my life, the doctors noticed a very slow development with my nervous system. And they told my parents that I was going to lack hand-eye coordination and maybe motor skills. So my mother had a great idea, and she said, well, you know what? A pinball machine might improve his motor skills. So when I was four years old, they bought a Captain Fantastic, the machine that has Elton John on the front. And I got started playing pinball, you know, on a stepstool at four years old. I would go to 7-Elevens when I lived in New Jersey when I was very young, between, you know, 6, 7, 8 years old, 10 years old. We vacationed up in New Hampshire that had a lot of arcades, Fun Spot, the biggest arcade in the world. And I would play up there as a kid. And, you know, I developed skills that people call today live catches, drop catches, shatsing. I didn't know what any of this was. I didn't even know there were names to it. I just developed it on my own thinking, oh, well, this works. You know, when the Adams family kicks the ball out of the chair, I can catch it and then shoot the ramp and just keep repeating that. So it was interesting, you know, about the hand-eye coordination. And, you know, thank God my parents were wrong about that. And I think because I played pinball at such a young age, it helped me develop some of those skills that help me now. You mentioned when you were born concerns about your nervous system. Many people have watched you play in high-level situations. And it's been noted that you really beat yourself up over a shot missed. It's all towards yourself. It's not towards anyone else. You are a very intense player. I think that's fair to say. Is this part of that development? Is it a condition that we may not know about? I don't think so. I think it might sound weird but my parents always drove me to do better at everything I did as a kid Now I an only child I know if some people have siblings sometimes they can blame something on their sibling Oh no she did it or he did it not me. Well, everything was always my fault whenever something went wrong. If I got a bad grade in school, it was always, well, you got to do better. You got to do better. If I got an A-, I had to get an A. If I got an A, I had to get two As. If I got two As, I had to get three As. And I always strive to satisfy my parents. And they always wanted the best for me and still do. And so I've always had this mentality of I need to be better. And it's not necessarily the most healthy thing, but I think it's something that happened when I was a lot younger where my parents would drive me. Because when I was a kid, I needed motivation. I would get distracted easily. I would probably play pinball all the time and not do my schoolwork if my parents didn't motivate me. You know what I'm saying? And so I really think it comes from that. No matter what I'm doing in life, I always strive to be better because that's pretty much how I was brought up. It's funny for people that have never met you but maybe only see you on a stream or at a competition and see that intensity because people like myself who know you outside of that know you're a very quiet person, a man of faith, just a good-natured person, very generous, and I've spent a lot of time with you. I enjoy spending time with you. In fact, the first time we ever went to the Stern Pro Circuit, we stayed in the same room together because we obviously hit it off. And it's got to be a bit of a shock to people when they find out the real you is not necessarily the guy in the finals at InDisc that's just super, super intense. That's right. You know, I have the same intensity bowling as well. Not as much now as when I used to bowl four or five nights a week. And, you know, it may be a blessing and a curse at the same time because that intensity drives me to do so much better than I would if I lacked that. But, you know, I have people come up to me and even my roommates now, I met them bowling. And, you know, they said, well, you know, when we first met you, we thought, man, you know, this competitive guy. And, man, you know, he doesn't seem that nice. But then we went out and ate together. We had dinner one night. And, oh, wow, you know, you're not that bad. And, yeah, you know, I do get a bad rap because I'm very passionate. I've been a passionate person, you know, since I was a kid. And, you know, I wear my heart on my sleeve, and everything I do, I just try to put my all into it. And, unfortunately, it does come out, you know, it doesn't come out in a positive light. And that's right. You know, I'm a Christian. I love God. I believe God has blessed me with the talents of pinball and bowling. And, you know, life in general, when I look back at everything that, you know, God has done for me in regards to my career and, you know, my hobbies. So I'm actually a pretty shy person when I don't know someone. And a lot of times that comes off as me maybe being smug, but it's not. You know, growing up as an only child, I didn't really, I wasn't outgoing. I was more of an introvert. And, you know, if I didn't know the person, I just would kind of shy away. But if somebody is really nice to me and they come up to me, then all of a sudden I would be, you know, a chatterbox. And I can talk and talk and talk. And I love talking. And so it's like two different people in a way. Well, as someone who's known you for years, I have nothing but good things to say about you. I like absolutely everything about you, except for your love of the New England Patriots.

18:44

Raymond, he never staggers. He's always just focused and he always plays the same game. You know, he's always consistent, I guess is what I want to say. I don't really talk much to Raymond. He lived on the West Coast. I was on the East Coast. Now he's up in Chicago. But I definitely respect his play. And, I mean, he's one heck of a player. And now that he's working for Stern, I think it's going to even improve his play more with the, again, code updates and understanding the different rule changes with the updates, even though he was pretty good at that earlier. I mean, he's, what, in his mid-20s now, and he won the world championship in Denmark, and then he won what? In Toronto. Yeah, in Toronto. So, I mean, the two world championships I went to, Raymond Davidson won both, and I'm like, oh, my God, who is this guy? So I had to play him in the round of eight in Toronto, okay? I put up, I don't know, somewhere around $9 billion on attack from Mars. Nope, that's not good enough. I put up $550,000 on Harlem Globetrotters. Nope, that's not good enough. And then I played him on Adams Family and had over $100 million, and that Adams Family up there was tough. Nope, that wasn't good enough. And I'm thinking, man, I got three respectable and pretty darn good games, and Raymond Davidson beat me on all three of them and swept me. So that's what I have to say. You know, he's an amazing player. Yeah, I remember that tournament very well. I think I was in a match with you and Robert Gagneau and some others, and that was my worst round ever because I was going up against these heavyweights. But that's what happens at the IFPA World Championship. Another IFPA World Champion, multiple winner. What about Daniele Iaccari from Italy? Oh, my gosh. I don't think I've beat him at a game ever. Now, I haven't played against him much, but when we played a round up in Toronto, and we only played one round together, I thought I had him on Genesis. That was a really tough Genesis up there, and I had two or three million. on that. And I don't even think he really knew what he was doing. I think he said, you know, what am I supposed to be shooting at? Yet he chopped wood and he came back and won a beat me. I think he's the only player that I know of that I've never beat on a single game ever. Even, I mean, I haven't played many games against him, but I should still at least win one. That's what happens when you're talking about the best of the best too. And not many people beat Daniele That what was so amazing about when Johannes Ostermeyer from Germany beat him at the last World Championship You saw that didn you Oh that was amazing I mean what a comeback I looking forward to him coming to hopefully IFPA 17 in your neck of the woods Fort Myers at the Pinball Asylum, hopefully this November. And Eric, you have to be the favorite there, because as we were talking about other players and familiarity with games, you'll be familiar with these games. And I've noticed in tournaments, like Indisc, that you won. success you've had at Pittsburgh Pinball Open, where you won both classics the last time they had an event. And pretty much everywhere you go. Free play Florida, where you dominated the last time that was there. When you get into a tournament, especially the pump and dump, when you get more time on a machine, you find your shots and your rhythm. And honestly, you're unbeatable. So that, I think, is one of the many reasons why you have to be the favorite at IFPA 17. You know, I've been the favorite in a couple of tournaments or close to the favorite. And every time I'm the favorite, I don't even come close to winning. It seems like tournaments like InDisc or maybe the Masters a few years ago, where that's pretty much where people started to hear who I was. Those are the kind of tournaments I seem to win. But the ones that I'm favorite in, I don't know why, Jeff. I just don't seem to do too well. Although, you know, Pinball Asylum being my home, obviously, I'll know the games. Just so everyone knows, I don't have any part in picking the games. This is all, you know, the Pinball Asylum and Josh Sharp. So I don't have an advantage in that way. But, you know, once the games are announced, they're going to be moved, Jeff. So, you know, the games, the shots are going to be a little bit different. The thing I will have the advantage of is getting to know the rule sets of, you know, certain games. Now, at the Pinball Asylum, we have a lot of older games. We have a lot of 70s and 80s and 90s games, but many Sterns. So, you know, I think Trent Augustine is probably going to be bringing up some of the Stern games for the World Championship. And, again, you know, those may be the games that I need to really work on, especially, you know, with code updates and rule changes and stuff like that. So I do have the home court advantage, but in my mind, I'm not going into it like I have an advantage. I'm going into it like any other tournament. Well, one thing that is nice about being in Fort Myers is you don't have to travel, which is one of the hardest things about competitive pinball is you really do need to travel a lot or certainly win every chance you get in your neck of the woods. But traveling definitely helps. And for you, like many people, work keeps you busy. Are you going to be able to find more time to travel for tournaments once we get out of this pandemic? Yeah, it's interesting. My contract for work ends very shortly. And so I'm not really sure the direction that the TV station I work at is going to go. I've been doing a lot of reporting rather than meteorology, rather than weather. And weather is, you know, when I get a degree, and that's my passion. So in the near future, I'm going to be applying for jobs. I would love to stay in Florida, but I really have a feeling that Fort Myers may not be my home come November or whenever the World Championships take place. Yeah, who knows what the future will hold, but I do know in the past few years, that TV station has been very kind for promoting your successes in bowling, definitely in pinball. And it's nice to see because, yes, it promotes you, but really it helps promote pinball. Yeah, you know, I don't want to make these tournaments and the things we do on the air about me. I want to make it about other people, and I want to make it about just the sport of pinball. and I know we're going to touch on this but Norma Jennings is a very good friend of mine and most people know that she has terminal cancer and that she runs a Twitch stream, Pinball in Cancer. She's a very, very dear friend of mine and any chance that I can get to promote her and to get people to pray for her is a big win in my book and Fox 4, the station I work for here has been very kind with that. And they kind of let me just do my own thing and just run with it. Yeah, we all love Norma Jennings for sure. And I watch her Tuesday night Twitch stream, Pinball and Cancer, Two Journeys. And she, like yourself, two of the 10 most intriguing people last year for Pinball Profile. So you both fascinate us for sure. And I love that the TV station is promoting what you're doing. One of the things they promoted, I remember, was seeing the video of you winning InDisc. Now, you've won a lot of major tournaments. I think of the North American Championship. I think of Pin Masters, some of the other ones we mentioned. If you had to pick one, what was the hardest win and what is your most favorite win? Maybe they're the same. Yeah. You know, when I came in on the scene in 2016, that's basically when I was working for my other TV station here in Fort Myers. And, you know, new management came and let a lot of people go. And I was one of the people they let go. I didn't have a resume ready. I didn't have, you know, a reel, which you need in TV. And so I thought, you know, what am I going to do? Am I going to just sit here and kind of pout? Or maybe this is an opportunity to, you know, just get out there and see how good I can be in competitive pinball. Friends of mine, you know, growing up and even in the competitive pinball world in New England have always said, oh, you know, you'd be I think you'd be one of the best and this and that. So I decided to give it a try. So I went over to Texas in 2017 and won the North American Championship. I didn't have any nerves. I think I went 19-0, and I finally lost on a weather-based pinball called WorldWin. Now, I mean, who would have thought? And then I wound up winning on Flip a Card and then went on to win the Masters that weekend. I had no nerves whatsoever because I didn't even know what to expect. I'm just having fun. Well, all of a sudden, you know, I see my ranking going up, and people are like, oh, wow, this and that. And all of a sudden, you know, I kind of got a little nervous. So originally, I thought that that was going to be the best weekend of my life. But I have to say that it just was definitely the best pinball weekend of my life. I believe that's the only classified major tournament that I've won. I don't think Pin Masters of the North American Championship back in 2017 was classified as a major. but it was just amazing you know and again the whole story was it's in California it's far people that know me they know I like to drive to tournaments even if it's a 16 or 20 hour drive I've driven to Pittsburgh, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, California there's just no way I was driving there and I really I physically I didn't want to go and I just kept having this feeling and I you know I believe it's it was kind of God put in my heart that hey you need to go to Indus and I said well you know, I'm going to need a lot of money for this. I don't know. And then Freeplay Florida hit and I was blessed to win the classics of the main. And so that paid pretty well. Then I, again, had that feeling inside like, okay, you've got the money now. Now how about you go to InDisc? And I'm thinking, oh, I don't know. And then DJ Ryle, who is a great player from Pittsburgh, a really good friend of mine, he said, hey, you know, you can, you can room with me. I'm going to rent a car and it's not going to be as expensive. Let's go. And I thought, all right, well, you know, here we go. I'll just, I'll go for it. And I got there and I thought, wow, you know, this is almost, this is like a mini Pinberg because you have all those games on free play. And it was like a pop-up event because it was the ticket. You know, I've never been a fan. I've always said, oh, I hate qualifying with a ticket because you have to do well on every single game. And, you know, you do well on X amount of games and you get to the last game and You think, oh, my gosh, I need to do well in this. Otherwise, I throw it all away. Coming in second in the Classics the first night, and then the second night, there's 200-and-something people, and you only have a certain amount of hours to try and qualify. It's so hard. And then to win that was just amazing. And, you know, in the main tournament, I only played two tickets, and I qualified 11th, and I thought, well, that's pretty cool, you know? But then the second round, I had to play Keith Elwin, and I had to play Keith Elwin on his own game, Jurassic Park, in Black Knight Sword of Rage. And I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, these are, you know, new Stern titles. And I was able to win. You know, I was able to do really well that round, and I thought, wow. And I just kind of rode the wave. I had to play Escher Lefkoff in the next round, and I thought, boy, you know, Escher is a tough guy to beat. And then making the Final Four and the whole thing about Diner, you know, it's weird when you look back at it, how you see, you know, how God blessed me in that tournament. A lot of tournament directors would have said, well, you got a plastic stuck in the scoop. There's nothing we can do. And I'll never forget, Josh Sharp come up to me and he looked at me and he said, don't worry about it. You know, we got you. We're going to handle this. And they actually took the scoop apart from underneath. And, you know, it was about a 45 minute delay. And I was watching you because you were commentating on that and you know you were saying well you know they gotta throw the game out this and that and we had already played ball one and in my mind i'm just so focused like all right i got five million on diner on the first ball we gotta get through this and so you know thankfully after an hour you know we got through that one game jared had the pick all the way through. Everybody thought I had the pick all the way through. And so, you know, when people were announcing, they're like, oh, what's Eric going to pick next? Well, Jared deferred to me and I picked Diner. Then he deferred to me again and I picked Scared Stiff. And a lot of people thought, well, why didn't Eric pick Wizard? Because I had blew up Wizard all weekend. Well, the very first pick of the day, DJ Ryle deferred the pick and I picked Wizard. So you weren't allowed to. Right. I don't think anyone realized that I picked Wizard because even Bob Matthews was saying, oh, I would have thought you would have picked Wizard. And I thought to myself, well, about 12 hours ago, I did pick Wizard. Yeah, that's a long tournament, too. I mean, that is a real endurance. It is. But, you know, the longer I play in a tournament, like you say, I'll get the shots down and the better I'll do. So to make a long story short, we play scared stiff and I'm thinking in my head, all I have to do is win this game and I've got it all, you know. And I was so nervous That had to be the worst game anybody I was telling somebody last week I said I bet you a little four could plunge the ball three times and get more than on Scared Stiff, which is about what I got. So then I buckled down, and if Jared would have deferred to me, I was going to pick F14 Tomcat because it's a game I grew up with, and it's a game I knew exactly what to do. And when Jared said, I'm not going to defer this game, I'm going to pick F-14 Tomcat, I thought, wow, now look at this. Not only do I get the game I want to play, but I can play fourth player. And when I know what I need to do, I tend to have better results, you know? And like I said, the passion and the emotion, it all came out on that third ball when I came back to win it. So I have to say by far, that was my favorite tournament and it was my most favorite weekend. And then when you look back on it, it was the toughest because you're fighting against 300 and something people in a ticket based tournament called the world championship you know so so i guess you'll have to go and defend it when it comes back next year you know it's funny i i never said i would play many tournaments west of the mississippi because of the driving but yeah i i have to i i have to see i have to see the banner and uh it was just an amazing experience there have been a lot of victories but i have been there for a few of your big defeats too. I just want to point out to people, this man is not invincible. There have been a few. I wasn't there, but I certainly know that young Dalton Eli got you at the Georgia 2019 state finals. He beat you and you came in second. So that's a nice feather in his cap. Anytime you can beat Eric Stone. But I was there for two of your biggest defeats. I don't even know if you know where I'm going. I do. I do. I know exactly where you're going. Okay. The first one. The first one is the tiebreaker on Ali and Pinnberg that would have got me into the top four against Andre Massinkoff when anybody that knows Ali knows that you need to build your bonus and your multipliers on the first ball. Well, Andre and I both had house balls, but my house ball was on the first ball. His house ball was on the third ball. I was nervous when I look back at that. I think I could have possibly at least made one of those saves on the first ball or the third ball. I still to this day, Jeff, play in my head, could I have caught the ball on the right flipper coming out of the collect bonus scoop and transferred it over to the left flipper and just keep shooting that? And while I was playing, I thought about that. I thought, I wonder if I can transfer the ball over. But again, I don't have much time on Ali, so I don't know if I could have done it or not. And I chose not to. And, you know, I paid the price. So. Nope, that's that's not it. I'm sorry to say that is not one of your two biggest defeats. And I will point out to you that I actually bought that Oli machine from Papa. I am now the owner of that machine. Oh, boy. See if you can do that post pass and let me know. I just relive the time I beat Zach Sharp the first time I ever made Papa Classics playoffs and and I made it into a T-shirt. So good times when I told Zach guy bought it. He said, good, get that game out of our country. You know, that wasn't one of your two biggest defeats. It was at the old Bat City Open, Buffalo Billiards in Austin, Texas, and your big defeat was when you decided to park on 6th Street. What happened? I still tell people this story. They say, oh, Austin's a great city. And I said, yeah, but it's not a great city for parking because so i you know i got there at 8 30 at night and everybody in austin knows you can't park on 6th street there's signs everywhere i think you parked right in front of a sign yeah it said two hour parking between 7 a.m and 9 p.m so naturally when i see that i think okay well after 9 p.m parking is free oh here in fort myers we have two hour parking between 9 a.m and 5 p.m., and that's all the sign says. I saw no signs that said, your car gets towed if you're parked here after 9 o'clock at night. How well did that work with the tow truck company? It was horrible. I know. The story was terrible. We talked about it last time you were on Pinball Profile, but anyway, a lot of money and a lot of hours out of city to get that car back. That was one of your big defeats. Your other one, do you know what the other one is? This is the biggest defeat I've ever seen you have. I don't know. Okay. Well, when I drove to Chicago, I had a problem with my car. You're close. You're in the right city. So it was when we went to the Stern Pro Circuit in Chicago, the first time they held it there. You and I were staying together, and we decided to go have dinner beforehand. And we went to a little pub, grabbed some food. You had your sweet tea, and you had already polished it off. And she said, would you like a refill? And you said yes. And then she kept bringing you refills. We got the bill, and she gave you – she charged you for every refill that she offered.

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No, not quite. Although, hey, that was a cheap hotel room that I found. What was it, like $40-something a night in downtown Chicago? It was okay. If you don't mind a few bedbugs, hey, what the heck. No, it was good. It was good. It was a little noisy. I mean, you know, there were some runners out there in the morning. Oh, that's right. There was the marathon that went on. That's true. The walls were paper thin, but there were no bedbugs, just so everybody knows. I'm just kidding. I love what you're doing. Good luck on TV. Good luck in bowling. Good luck in pinball. Love what you're doing with Norma Jennings. I thought it was neat. the little event you just had recently, the pin golf at the Asylum, but it was outside. There was even a water hazard hole. You guys are doing great things there in Fort Myers. Yeah, you know, one thing that was great was to be able to play with Norma. And, you know, watching her Twitch stream, she is extremely passionate about pinball. And it was such a blessed day for both of us. We qualified together. We played all the games together. And we got into the top eight together. We were the same group. And, you know, she looked like she might have been out after the first two games, but she got a hole-in-one on Hocus Pocus on the third game, and her and I were able to both advance to the finals. And, you know, she finished in third, and I was blessed to win it. But it was really that day was all about her, and I was able to get the TV crew there, and we did a little interview with her, and it aired on Sunday, and I just posted that on my Facebook. but it was really a cool day, not for the fact that it was the tournament, it was outside, which was neat, but the fact that Norma was able to come back after the diagnosis of terminal cancer and just to see how happy she was. It made my day. She is the reigning women's champion at Freeplay Florida too, so no question a great player. Just like yourself, maybe someday, number one, I'm sure that's a big goal of yours. Well, here's the funny thing. I try to do the math, and I know this is a terrible way to get in first place. I think how long would it take if we had no IFPA tournaments to back myself into first place? Because with Freeplay Florida and InDisc, I think I accumulated 420 points. Oh, wow. Yeah, in just those two tournaments. Well, with the classics as well. So the longer period of time we don't have IFPA, the more points that Raymond and people above me are going to lose. And I'm not going to lose as many until November and January. Obviously, that's not how I want it. So what I'm hearing is, Eric, you're hoping the pandemic continues for at least another year. That's all I'm hearing. I may need more than a year, but no, no. I'd rather play pinball. And you know what? If I'm blessed to be the number one player in the world, hey, that's pretty cool. But if not, hey, you know what? You know, I won the world championship and I guess I could be called the longest rating world champion, right? I think you and Escher, Escher too, from the last Papa championship, right? Oh, that's right. Yeah. So, but no, you know, in reality, I really want, you know, all this to go away and people are getting vaccinated now. And, you know, I really can't wait until IFPA starts up again. I don't know where I'm going to be. I don't know who I'm going to be working for. Maybe I'll win the Powerball and I'll be able to just go to every event and play 50 or 60 tournaments a year. I really doubt that's going to happen, but that would be pretty cool. Either way, I'm looking forward to the competition. We did have a state tournament here in Florida that, again, I was blessed to win up at the Pinball Lounge, which is where all the state tournaments in Florida are held. I think you were at the district before free play. I'm not sure if you made your way to the lounge. It's right down the street. But, you know, that was, you know, January was the first time I played a pinball tournament since, I want to say, April, March, April of last year. So that's how busy I've been with work. So I'm hoping that some time will free up. You know, this pandemic will subside and, you know, we can get back to playing pinball. Fingers crossed. I would love for that to happen. So hopefully that will be soon. Eric, all the best. Thank you, Mr. 300. Thank you, Jeff. This has been your pinball profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. All your subscriptions, past episodes, and more are on Facebook as well, Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile, and you can email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. I'm Jeff Teolis. Well, grab your shoes and grab your balls, and let's head to those heavenly halls. Sit on down and grab a beer because bowling time is pretty here. Tortured men forget their pain when they head to the bowling lane. Let's go bowling. Got a coupon. Let's go bowling for a free game. Let's go bowling.