At the Skee-ball Super Bowl
I found earnest rollers playing a uniquely American game, not haughty hipsterdom
This originally appeared on The Classical.
When Joey the Cat rolled a last-frame full circle to nip DaVinskee in the semifinals of The BEEB, he appeared to have his third straight cream jacket fully sewn up. Snakes on a Lane stood in his way however. That’s just how things go down in Cherrytown.
The clash between Joey and Snakes made for a thrilling finals at the fourth annual Brewskee-Ball National Championship—world’s preeminent skee-ball tournament—in Austin, over Memorial Day Weekend. The best roller won thousands of dollars. As both incentive and consolation, all contestants got a bunch of free beers. It’s a winning formula.
A confluence of my wife’s love of live music and some cheap flights brought us to Texas’ capital city, and a dear friend’s ascent in the Brewskee-Ball rankings ensured that we’d spend some time at the BBNC. “It’s The BEEB,” the poster proclaimed, and so let’s call it that. The event had been held in New York City for its first three years and I’d never attended, and never even really considered attending. But a certain wanderlust prompted me to join the 64 rollers at Austin’s Historic Scoot Inn—a bar established in the 19th century and located in what is now the city’s booming scrap metal district, just across the train tracks from chic East 6th Street—for the fourth national tournament organized around a century-old arcade game. It made logistical sense at the time, and makes a different sort of sense in retrospect.