We started a new hobby recently. At a recent Guys Night Out, jbox and I hit up the Mission Valley Target and I decided to buy an MLB SportsClix starter box and one expansion pack. Neither of us had ever played the game before. It looked like it might be fun. If anything, we'd have these cool little figurines to look at.
$15 later...
We walked over to Target's little food area and grabbed a table. Next to us was a guy with a backpack full of textbooks. He looked like he was taking notes and studying. We opened up our new toys and wondered if it was more inappropriate for us to be playing SportsClix in Target's food court or for this guy to be studying for exams there. Is the Target's food court like the new Starbucks? Do they have a wireless LAN setup for your laptop? Maybe our GNOs have finally become so lame that we've become the new hip. Kind of like when the grunge look came about in high school and suddenly it became cool that jbox never combed his hair and wore dirty t-shirts that he bought at Lucky's. I don't mean like Lucky Brand jeans, but Lucky's the grocery store that used to be Food Basket. I digress...
With the starter kit, we got Ichiro, Jeter, Sosa and Junior Griffey. In the little expansion pack, we got Curt Schilling and Bret Boone. We also got some dice in all kinds of different colors and a plastic play mat with a baseball diamond on it. With only four figurines to start us off with, there was a set of little cardboard pogs that were used in place of players. We spread everything out on the table at the Target food court but decided that every single table was too sticky to risk marring the investment. They're collectible, you know. We headed to jbox's place.
After reading through the easy rules we played a few innings. Then jbox put Schilling in to pitch and I brought Boone into the game on my side. Schilling turned out to be awesome. It was one of the most dominating performances I'd ever seen as Schilling mowed down my team, pogs and figurines alike. I got so frustrated that I packed up my things and left.
At the next GNO a week later, we went to Toys R Us. We looked at the Star Wars stuff for a while and jbox listened to one of the employees tell ghost stories about the store and I bought another SportsClix booster pack. After sulking over the loss that jbox had handed to me at that first GNO, I had decided to become competitive at the game and maybe enter Gaslamp Ball into a SportsClix tournament or something. Jbox picked out this week's booster and when I opened it up, I found Mike Piazza and Laynce Nix.
Jbox laughed at me when he saw Laynce Nix. "Jess is gonna be so mad at you when she sees Laynce Nix," he said. It was true. Mike Piazza? Laynce Nix? Not much of an addition to the team. I needed players for my competitive SportsClix team. The competition at these tournaments would be fierce. And I had wasted $5 on bench players.
At the next GNO, we hit Target again. This time I bought a booster pack, opened it up and found Tom Seaver from 1969! That's right, Tom effing Seaver! Now we're talking. The other figurine in the pack was Mark Buehrle. Now though, Tom Seaver would give my team some kick.
So the collection as it stands is Ichiro, Jeter, Junior Griffey, Sosa, Boone, Schilling, Buehrle, Piazza, Tom Seaver from 1969 and Laynce Nix. I figure if I buy a booster pack once a week, we'll have enough guys to field two proper teams by August. Once I get enough guys for one proper team, I'll have to find a tournament and enter it. I'm excited for the new hobby. If anybody wants to challenge me to a game and doesn't mind me using pogs for half the team, then bring it on! I won't back down from a challenge!
