I just finished hosting the 7th Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament. You can read a recap here. That day is certainly a highlight for me, but I am going to tell about another tradition that exists due to the regional APBA tournies.
We need to go back to the second time I went to the Neil Ess Memorial APBA Baseball Tournament hosted by Jim Fraasch (check out his excellent blog, Jim’s APBA Barn). At that tournament, I met Jeff Boeding after he came up to me and asked me “you play APBA golf, right”. I said I did, and a friendship blossomed. At that time we both were playing on The TGA Tour.
Jeff, who is an avid APBA player, also likes non sports board games. Jeff lives in KC, so when he decided to come play in the Glass City, he flew in a couple days early so we could play some games ahead of time. That was in 2017. This leads me to the latest visit for the 2022 tournament.
Wednesday Evening
Jeff flew in Wednesday evening, and I picked him up. After a delicious dinner prepared by my wife, we settled into our first game of his visit. We played Star Wars: The Queens Gambit. This game came out in 2000 and was sold at stores like Toys R Us. It was something that passed me by, but I was fortunate to pick up a copy on eBay several years ago. It was a good beer and pretzels game to kick off the weekend
After the game, we just chatted until calling it a night.
Thursday
On Thursday, I had made plans to have a couple more gamers join us for the day. My nephew, Nate, and my good gamer friend, Dave Dawn, were able to join us. Dave also plays in my tourney every year and we traveled to Chicagoland this year.
The first order of business on any game day is trying to decide what to play. I was pleasantly surprised that we quickly reached a consensus to play one of my favorite all-time games, Terraforming Mars. I was a little rusty on all the rules, but they came back quickly. Nate ended up winning The game took a long time. Still, it was very enjoyable. There was a discussion about playing this again the next day.
Next on the table since Nate had to leave early was Dave’s favorite, DC Comics deck-building card game. This gets played every year at least once. Dave is an expert at this game. I know both Nate and I thought we were in good shape, but Dave squeaked out the victory, as usual.
Nate had to leave and pizza was ordered for dinner. After that, we decided to play Wingspan. Wingspan has been one of the hottest games since it came out in 2019. As it turned out, I opened the box with the European expansion birds. I had not played this version, so there were some new bird rules in effect. I know it was a close game, and I eked out a narrow victory. I don’t get this to the table often, but it’s a game that appeals to many different levels of gamers.
Dave had to leave, so Jeff and I ended up playing a couple games of Cascadia before calling it a night. Cascadia has a nature based theme and is very simple to play. It came out in 2021 and was highly regarded. Then it won the 2022 Spiel des Jahres, which is the German Game of the Year. There are actually 3 winners, one for best children’s game, one for best family-oriented game, and one for more hardcore games. Cascadia won as the family level game.
We played 2 games and each won one. All in all, a great day of gaming.
Friday
Dave and Nate showed up bright and early on Friday. As discussed, we played another game of Terraforming Mars. This time we used my Big Box Kickstarter version, which featured 3D tiles of the different landscapes. We also used an expansion called Helles and Elysium, which is just a couple of new boards and different bonus point awards.
This game was even closer than the day before. I won by only 3 or 4 points. All of us were within 10-15 points of each other. All in all, a very enjoyable experience with the 3D tiles and new game board.
Jack Dolan, another APBA fanatic, who I met at the 2017 national convention had decided to play in this year’s tournament. Jack flew in from Greenville and got to the house around noon.
After TM was done, we had to find a 5 player game and Alhambra was the consensus pick. This is another medium-light game that is easy to learn. It came out in 2003, has won many gaming awards, and was the 2003 Spiel des Jahres winner.
Nate had to leave after the game. Dave was on a time schedule too, so we just played another game of Alhambra.
Dave left, and Jeff, Jack, and I ran out for a bite to eat.
For the last game of the evening, we chose Wingspan again. This time we used the base version, which are birds from NA.
I had some last-minute scheduling changes to make for the tournament and we all called it a night.
Saturday
Tournament day. All went well. Afterward, we went to my favorite watering well, Loma Linda’s, for some food and refreshment. We finished the evening by teaching Jack Cascadia.
In Conclusion
It’s a whirlwind weekend for me. But it’s also a gamer’s dream. 2 solid days of board gaming. Then an APBA baseball tournament. I look forward to it every year.
A great time all the way through. Ron runs a fun tournament and I enjoy the days before of boardgaming just as much. Ron missed one game on Thursday though we actually started off with Cascadia before deciding on Terraforming Mars as the first main game. My introduction to APBA actually came because of Ron and I being member of a board game group called SAGES. He had come to SAGES meet up and asked if anyone wanted to play in an APBA tournament he was going to start. I asked “What’s APBA?”. He brought some teams to the next board game meet up. He had brought the 1972 Oakland A’s and the 1972 Detroit Tigers because he knew I was an A’s fan. Well, the A’s won our game and in the process Catfish Hunter spiked Norm Cash and knocked him out of the game. I said “I love this game” and my tournament touring began.
Dave, that’s a great memory. Thanks for sharing. All the gaming I now do can be traced back to the day I found SAGES and made so many good friends like you.