Week 5 of the $2,500 Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

Although fifth place in the standings is a nice accomplishment, it doesn’t make me feel secure. Mathematically, the Street Academy trivia team needs to secure at least a five point gap over whichever team is in eighth place, just for insurance purposes. Only the top eight teams can play for the big bucks – $2,000 for first place, $500 for second place, a handshake for third place. And no, the handshake doesn’t contain any money in it.

As for me, I was going through a very dark few days – all capped off by the recent passing of former Albany Patroons player John Strickland.  I needed something – anything – to break me out of this miserable funk.

Then I remembered something Strick used to say.  “Finish your breakfast.”

I blogged about that in an earlier post.  Strick wasn’t talking about getting a bowl of Frosted Flakes and a spoon.  He was talking about doing the things you know you can do and getting them done.  The simple things, the concrete things, the fundamentals that will get you to the finish line.

It was time for Street Academy to finish our breakfast.

And that meant it was time to show off the hardware.

As teams arrived at Elbo Room, they saw me noshing down on some chicken tenders – along with some very special guests.  I brought along, for one night only, the Trivia Bowl, the Summer Bowl Silver Shaker, and the fully restored Answers Please championship trophy.  All three of them on the table – essentially alerting the other teams as to what the Street Academy team stands for.  It’s motivational for me – as a great man once said, “To be the man… you gotta beat the man.”

Oh heck, why should I tell you who said it… You can hear it from him directly.

These trophies are what every trivia team strives to achieve – that and winning the free food and beer for the night. If you’ve got the brains, if you’ve got the smarts, and if you know a lot about useless trivia, get your team together and play at your local bar or tavern and establish yourself. And come the day, when you get that tap on the shoulder and an invite to Trivia Bowl or Summer Bowl, and you play hard and you play fair and you get enough questions right – these trophies could be sitting on YOUR television console or fireplace mantel for the year.

Well, not the Answers Please trophy. Touch that, and we’re going to have a “come to Jesus” meeting.

That’s right kids.  I’m showing off the hardware.  The Trivia Bowl has been earned by some of the top trivia teams in the Capital District.  Heck, the reason my team and the Stern Fans team gets booed like crazy during the Elbo Room tournament (especially booed by teams like the Skidmarks and Woo Hoo a Go Go), is because Street Academy and Stern Fans have WON Trivia Bowl.  Those are our team names on that chalice.  And once in a while, it’s fun to take the trophies off the TV console and bring them out for a little “show off” time.

Now of course, I’m taking a MAJOR risk in doing this. What if, by bringing out the hardware, I actually motivate a previously dormant team to a level of success previously unexpected – i.e., I just dangled a bunch of Underdog super energy pills in front of them and they ate them like Skittles?

That’s how it started out.  We were perfect through the first three questions, and then skipped the fourth and fifth questions (not remembering that Elias Howe invented the sewing machine, or that the Benetton company is from Italy).  We whiffed on how many walks Roy Halliday issued in his playoff no-hitter (we said none, apparently he walked one person), but then it was game on all the way.  We nailed the original name of the Minnesota Twins (Washington Senators), we knew what city had a Gaslamp District (San Diego), and we knew the film that starred James Spader, Andie MacDowell and Peter Gallagher (Sex, Lies and Videotape).

And the jeers and catcalls were getting louder.  Especially from the Skidmarks.  “Trophies are meaningless!” they shouted.

“That’s cause you’ll never win these,” I shouted back.

19th question, and we were in third place with 100 points.  Skidmarks and Just the Tips had the first two spots.  The category was “New York City.”  We resolved to bet enough to guarantee third place with a correct answer, and hopefully lock out the fourth-place team.  With that, we bet 77 points.

Jeremy handed the slip up to General James.

Then I made a slip-up.  I had actually calculated the bet based on what I thought was the fourth place team, 88 points for Team Schooled.  However, they were the FIFTH place team, Woo Hoo a Go Go had 90 points.  If they got it right, they could have leapfrogged us in scoring.

Jeremy got the slip back, and I corrected our bet.

Here’s the question.

“The opening of what New York City landmark resulted in New York’s first ticker-tape parade?”

It had to be something big enough to inspire people to throw paper out the window.

And the only thing I could think of was the Statue of Liberty’s dedication.

I wrote that down and prayed for the best.

Most of the other teams put down an answer of the Empire State Building or Rockefeller Center; the Tips and the Skidmarks both wrote down the opening of the New York Stock Exchange.

Drop the confetti from her torch-cradled hand, it was the Statue of Liberty!  Street Academy takes five playoff points, and moves into third place!!!!  The Skidmarks had a safe bet and took 3 playoff points, while Woo Hoo a Go Go gets on the board with a single playoff point.

And the most important thing – we finished our breakfast.  Thanks, Strick.

So here’s the standings after five weeks. Remember, there is no “mandatory attendance” record, so it’s not necessary for me to list every team who played Thursday night – just the ones that earned playoff points. The top eight teams are listed above the “CUT LINE”; if the tournament ended today, those would be the eight teams that can play in the championship round.

	Trivia Team Name	Points
1	Schooled	10
2	Sneaky Pete’s	9
3	Street Academy (+5)	8
4	Kramer’s Flames	5
T-5	Skidmarks (+3)	4
T-5	Stern Fans	4
7	Da Bears	3
T-8	Woo Hoo a Go Go (+1)	1
T-8	Just the Tips	1
THE CUT LINE

And only the top eight teams will make it into the final tournament round. Any team in ninth place or below will not make the cut. So teams now have to keep playing and avoid the dreaded cut line.  Right now there’s a tie for eighth place, but that won’t last.

Five weeks down. Fifteen more weeks to go.