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Downtown

Water Street

February 9, 2013

21. Pinball Wizard

After 16 games on half-dozen different pinball machines, including a wooden-rail, Art-Deco beauty from 1958, the National Pinball Museum’s “old” pinball machine tournament comes down to the final ball of the last game. Gregg Giblin, a 56-year-old Baltimore plumber, jostling the machine for good caroms, and Mike McGann, 37, a Zen-like software engineer, both lead 48-year-old computer analyst Jack Hendricks by a wide margin.

Crouching, with his left foot forward, Hendricks catches the silver ball with his right flipper, holds it a second, and then sends it ripping through a spinner up the right side—racking 100 points for each rotation. He tries again and misses once, but then spins it twice in a row with deft shots from his left flipper. Next, in almost perfect succession, he cuts down three “drop targets” on the machine’s top left side with pops from his right flipper.

Eventually, the machine gives in, discharging a single, loud “knock”— indicating bonus points and a free game, and victory for Hendricks.

“Good ball,” says McGann.

“That’s it,” says Giblin. “You got it.”

Like many of the 40 registered players, Hendricks also competes in a Free State Pinball Association league, which reports tournament results to an international governing body. “I’m ranked 1,844 in the world,” he laughs, putting his career pinball earnings at $78.

“I grew up playing at the Greyhound bus terminal in Sunbury, PA, riding my bike from my grandparents’ house, while my mother workd. “I’ve got some of the same model machines I played there in my own basement now—set up in the same order that they were at the bus terminal.”