Erik Hueltner, considered to be the greatest goalie on the foosball tour, joins us for a chat on FoosTalk Live. We find out what it takes to be the best and who E.H. Reinhard actually is...
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[00:02:03] Well, hello there and welcome once again to FoosTalk Live.
[00:02:05] I'm Tom Robinson.
[00:02:06] It's episode number 208.
[00:02:09] And I'm coming off a beautiful weekend here in upstate New York.
[00:02:13] It's been gorgeous.
[00:02:14] 81 degrees and sunny.
[00:02:16] It's been just a really worthwhile weekend and looking forward to tonight.
[00:02:20] I think this has been a red hot show.
[00:02:22] By the way, next weekend at the big tournament, it's the ITSF World Series of Tornado in Dallas, Texas.
[00:02:30] And we're going to talk a bit about that tonight, but especially about some of the players that are going to be there, including our guest.
[00:02:36] But before we get into that, we have to remind you that we're always talking about foosball.
[00:02:40] Thank you for joining us on Twitch TV this evening for another episode.
[00:02:45] And of course, if we're going to talk about foosball, you may as well talk to somebody who loves the game, which would be Randy Rapozo.
[00:02:51] Hello, Randy.
[00:02:53] Hey, Tom. How are you this evening?
[00:02:55] What's happening, man?
[00:02:57] Nothing. Sunday.
[00:02:58] Where is the tie? Where is the tie?
[00:03:00] I got to know. There's no tie tonight.
[00:03:01] What's up with that?
[00:03:05] It was a one-off.
[00:03:06] It was a one-off.
[00:03:07] That's what it is.
[00:03:08] Okay.
[00:03:09] Yeah. I was feeling good last week, Tom.
[00:03:10] He threw a curveball.
[00:03:12] Yeah.
[00:03:13] Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
[00:03:14] We keep it cold in the house. I like it cold.
[00:03:19] So, yeah.
[00:03:20] Now, when are you talking cold though?
[00:03:22] I mean, you're living in Alabama. So cold is what, like 75?
[00:03:27] Nah, dude. So it was like 85 and sunny today. It was a nice day.
[00:03:33] Yesterday, the thing about Alabama is the humidity is torture. It's brutal.
[00:03:38] But we keep it, I keep it between 66 and 68 in the house.
[00:03:43] Okay. Nice. Okay.
[00:03:45] I like it chilly. Yeah. I would rather be cold and bundle up than be hot because I can get naked and it still be hot.
[00:03:53] Yeah. There's a thought.
[00:03:55] Sorry. But yeah.
[00:03:58] Oh, well. You're from the Northeast so I know what you know what cold really means.
[00:04:06] You still have that thick of blood. You know what I'm saying?
[00:04:09] Layers, Tom. Layers.
[00:04:11] I tell people in the winter you layer up and if it gets warm, you can peel.
[00:04:14] But if you ain't got layers, you're stuck, bro. You just, you know, it's what it is.
[00:04:18] So that's why, like I said, I keep it cold.
[00:04:21] And then like my wife, I'm cold. I'm like put some freaking clothes on.
[00:04:27] Like dude, I'm in basketball shorts. I want to be comfortable.
[00:04:31] But whatever, man. Anyway, we're not here to talk about me and how comfortable I am.
[00:04:36] And your attire.
[00:04:37] Yeah. Listen, today's show, Super Pump Man.
[00:04:42] I feel my opinion. I feel like we have the best goalie in the country, maybe in the world today on Tornado, at least the best goalie in the world.
[00:04:51] And I'm excited to ask him some questions.
[00:04:55] So when it comes to hero worship, you know, I'm a goalie.
[00:04:59] So this is this our guest is somebody that I watch a lot and just go, man, you'd be probably be the second best goalie.
[00:05:06] Tom, get out of here. Get out of here. At least a listen tonight on this show.
[00:05:10] You're the second best goalie.
[00:05:12] OK, all right. I can accept that for the moment.
[00:05:15] So anyway, so without further ado, in fact, let's let's bring him on.
[00:05:20] Now I know he's not using his camera tonight, but that's OK.
[00:05:24] We all know that he is the best goalie there is in the tour right now.
[00:05:28] His name is Eric Heltner. Hello, Eric. Welcome to FoodStock Live.
[00:05:33] Hey, guys, how you doing?
[00:05:34] What's happening? Top notch, buddy.
[00:05:39] So let's talk about cold. What's up in Florida?
[00:05:41] What's it like there today?
[00:05:44] We're midsummer hot already.
[00:05:46] It's been in the 90s and brutal of nice.
[00:05:50] Very, very nice.
[00:05:51] Went for went for a walk at about eight thirty in the morning the other day.
[00:05:57] And it was 84 with 84 percent humidity.
[00:06:01] And it said it felt like 96.
[00:06:03] Oh, yeah, buddy. Stifling, stifling.
[00:06:05] Yeah. But you're originally from Milwaukee, so you know what cold means then?
[00:06:09] Yeah, but I got out of there because I'd rather have hot than cold.
[00:06:13] That makes sense.
[00:06:15] That's right. And after 30 years, I had enough of shoveling snow and winter and freezing.
[00:06:20] Yeah. Great, great sky and whatever.
[00:06:23] So bad, dude. So when did you when did you move to Florida?
[00:06:27] 2000 and what was it, 11 or 12, something like that.
[00:06:30] One of those two, I think it's 2011.
[00:06:32] OK, nice.
[00:06:34] And it's so so when it comes to diving into this foosball arena,
[00:06:39] I mean, you've been playing with the top echelon in Florida.
[00:06:43] So who who taught you the most when it comes to what you what you're
[00:06:48] what you're up to now when it comes to playing goalie?
[00:06:50] Who taught you the most about that position?
[00:06:53] As far as playing goal, I don't really know.
[00:06:56] As far as just playing foosball in general, obviously, probably Tony.
[00:07:01] Yeah. I mean, when I when I started and actually
[00:07:05] I lived in a town about a half hour outside of Milwaukee.
[00:07:09] And when I started going and playing the leagues and stuff like that
[00:07:12] in Milwaukee and getting into it, I probably wasn't playing
[00:07:17] that for more than about a year before I was hanging around with Tony
[00:07:22] playing stuff as far as being a beginner and him helping me
[00:07:27] learn how to play him a medial Jeff Kimmerling.
[00:07:30] So I kind of started as a beginner playing against masters and pros.
[00:07:35] Wow. Yeah, you got to get better.
[00:07:37] What year was that?
[00:07:40] 2007, maybe. Oh, OK.
[00:07:43] OK, that's so you started playing tournament foosball in 2007.
[00:07:48] I think my first tour event,
[00:07:51] my first actual like even local foosball tournament was probably in
[00:07:58] probably early 2007 and then my first actual tour tournament was probably 2008,
[00:08:05] something like that.
[00:08:06] Dude, so you're like, you know, 15, 16 years in and you've,
[00:08:11] you know, you've risen pretty high.
[00:08:13] And, you know, looking at the past couple of years, I mean, you've won.
[00:08:18] You want a lot, man.
[00:08:20] And you and so I think it was I think I had just moved to Alabama,
[00:08:25] but it was like mid 2010s.
[00:08:27] You won expert singles at Worlds, correct?
[00:08:30] No, that was like 2000.
[00:08:33] 17, maybe. OK, so I knew it was like I thought it was I moved to Alabama in 15.
[00:08:39] So I thought it was like 1516.
[00:08:41] But so 17 you win expert singles at Worlds.
[00:08:44] So like within 10 years of starting playing,
[00:08:47] you're already at the top of the expert field.
[00:08:50] Right. And then was it 2019 that you and Tommy had that top three finish
[00:08:56] at the Hall of Fame?
[00:08:58] Yeah, I think it was 19. Yeah.
[00:09:00] OK, so I feel like you had been around,
[00:09:06] but that tournament was like the one after that, man.
[00:09:08] I felt like I saw your name at the top consistently after that.
[00:09:13] Was there like a transition or a difference or like a button that flipped
[00:09:18] or something that happened?
[00:09:19] Or was it just a matter of you playing more foosball?
[00:09:22] Yeah, I think it was 19.
[00:09:24] Was there something that happened or was it just a matter of you playing more
[00:09:28] foosball or playing with different, you know, better players?
[00:09:32] Could you kind of like walk us through the transition that's happened in your
[00:09:36] foosball career?
[00:09:37] When I well, so I played up in the Milwaukee area, went to a couple
[00:09:42] tournaments from Milwaukee down to Kentucky to play the tournaments there,
[00:09:47] Maryland, stuff like that.
[00:09:49] But after moving to Florida, the first probably five years that
[00:09:59] we moved to Florida, I moved with Tony and Lindsay Albert.
[00:10:03] And so I would play Tony every day, you know, wow, it's just kitchen matches
[00:10:09] every day. But I didn't go to a lot of tournaments for about four or five
[00:10:14] years. You know, so from like 2011 till probably 16, I didn't really go to
[00:10:20] much. I went to a handful of tournaments here and there and that was it.
[00:10:24] And then 2016 and 17, I kind of got back into it and started going to
[00:10:30] everything and got not so much got well, got better just from the
[00:10:36] experience of playing all those different people, but five years of
[00:10:39] playing singles against Tony every day.
[00:10:41] Yeah.
[00:10:42] And then going out on tour and playing everybody else like you're going to have
[00:10:46] a good deep, good roll over defense, you know, be quick and stuff like that.
[00:10:51] So I think it just me doing that, even though I wasn't going to tour
[00:10:54] events then, I think helped me a lot when I didn't start going to a bunch
[00:10:58] of stuff.
[00:11:00] Absolutely. Having access to the best, you know, one of the best players in
[00:11:04] the world, that type of intimate access does wonders for your game.
[00:11:09] You know, people don't understand, but I mean, being able to play singles with
[00:11:13] Tony every day, not even just play, but get to pick his brain.
[00:11:16] Oh, yeah.
[00:11:17] And kind of give you insight.
[00:11:18] I mean, you really it does give you an advantage, especially at the lower
[00:11:23] levels. You're already playing essentially at a high level going into
[00:11:28] that stuff. So so 2019 you and Tommy make a run.
[00:11:32] You guys are playing for King Seed at the Hall of Fame.
[00:11:36] And then after that, man, like I said, I kind of felt like I was seeing your
[00:11:40] name everywhere.
[00:11:41] Was it something where people kind of started approaching you, you know,
[00:11:45] seeing that you were just, you know, I mean, you got your your defenses.
[00:11:50] It's not unorthodox.
[00:11:51] It's just different compared to what, you know, what people were kind of
[00:11:54] running. You know, sometimes a lot of people normally just run a standard
[00:11:57] D. But besides Ryan, you guys are really the only ones ever, ever
[00:12:00] really, really running that post D.
[00:12:02] You know, but but was it was it just a matter of people approaching?
[00:12:06] Was it you, you know, kind of putting your name out or, you know,
[00:12:10] I just I'd love to know how you started to blow up because I want to
[00:12:13] blow up and I want to tell me, man, what do I got to do?
[00:12:16] Well, so I had a good I mean, I played a year or two before that.
[00:12:21] I played a Kentucky tournament with Todd and that was the first
[00:12:29] master that I actually, I think, played with that wasn't Tony or, you
[00:12:34] know, like actually played open doubles with.
[00:12:36] But then me and Tommy had that run.
[00:12:38] I had a couple of decent finishes before that.
[00:12:42] Me and Dylan had got a second at Florida State and stuff like that.
[00:12:47] So but I think doing that there and then me and Tommy's dad, Tom,
[00:12:53] we won Florida State that year.
[00:12:57] And I think after that, that I was going to everything.
[00:13:00] I could kind of get another level of, you know, above of partners.
[00:13:05] And then from there, you know, it's like, OK, when you get generally,
[00:13:09] you know, the some of the best partners, obviously you're going to
[00:13:13] continue to do well if you're halfway decent at that playing foosball.
[00:13:17] So, I mean, obviously partner me being mostly a doubles player.
[00:13:22] Partners have a lot to do with me doing well consistently, I guess you
[00:13:27] could say it can help.
[00:13:29] But I mean, it's nice to know that your dance card is always filled up.
[00:13:34] Usually.
[00:13:35] Yeah.
[00:13:36] I mean, yeah, especially with really good dancers, really good
[00:13:40] dancers.
[00:13:41] It can't wait.
[00:13:43] So so me as a goalie, I'd like to ask you some specific questions.
[00:13:48] I mean, we talk about the post D like you just mentioned.
[00:13:51] I've seen Ryan use that.
[00:13:53] I know you use it.
[00:13:54] It's but they say it's risky.
[00:13:56] Why is it risky and why would someone use it?
[00:13:59] Why would someone not use it?
[00:14:02] I don't know why it would really be risky.
[00:14:05] It's no more risky than running a standard.
[00:14:08] You know, if your man positioning is good, it's really no different.
[00:14:12] Me personally, I like to use it when I started using it.
[00:14:16] It was just because it hides the middle better.
[00:14:19] Mm hmm.
[00:14:20] Mm hmm.
[00:14:21] You know, it's harder to see the middle so I can, you know, feed a little bit,
[00:14:24] you know, get a little bit wider and then, you know, make them question
[00:14:28] their corners when they think that there's nothing open, you know?
[00:14:31] Yep.
[00:14:32] So you really have to you have to like bait him for the middle and
[00:14:36] then just kind of come back and cut the corners again.
[00:14:40] I mean, is it just about the hand speed there?
[00:14:43] No, I mean, you kind of always want your guys to be blocking at least
[00:14:47] two out of three holes.
[00:14:49] Sure.
[00:14:50] Whether however you're moving around.
[00:14:52] But like I said, for me, the reverse mainly it just it does a better job
[00:14:56] of blocking what the person who's shooting sees of the middle.
[00:15:01] Mm hmm.
[00:15:02] Yeah.
[00:15:03] You know, because you have to look past that guy instead of being
[00:15:05] able to see through him and see how wide that gap is when you have
[00:15:08] to look past them, you can't see it the same.
[00:15:10] Got it.
[00:15:11] So it allows you to cheat a little bit more.
[00:15:14] Yeah, as far as as far as spreading the distance between your men are
[00:15:19] the postie does a really good job of messing with the shooters.
[00:15:23] His eyesight, the perception of the holes, the middle, you know,
[00:15:28] because you're looking at that post and it looks big,
[00:15:31] but it's not easy to go around a dead bar pull side or push side.
[00:15:36] I mean, and there are some guys, some players that say like,
[00:15:39] I can do it all the time.
[00:15:40] I can do it consistently, but it's a matter of executing under pressure
[00:15:44] in the moment and then, you know, like you said, man,
[00:15:48] it really it does a number on your perception of the middle.
[00:15:53] And you just do a really good job of, you know,
[00:15:58] kind of baiting coming in and out of the hole.
[00:16:00] You know, I've shot on you before.
[00:16:04] You've blocked me well.
[00:16:05] I've done OK.
[00:16:06] But it's just it's tough, man.
[00:16:08] It's not an easy defense to score on it, especially if somebody runs it right.
[00:16:11] So I mean, if you think about it from if someone's shooting on it
[00:16:15] perspective, the you know, you have the guy on the pole side
[00:16:20] right in your face.
[00:16:21] So you have to get around them.
[00:16:24] You know, if you could shoot it great.
[00:16:25] People have gone around complete post around me.
[00:16:27] I don't know, you know, countless times,
[00:16:29] but they are not going to do it consistently.
[00:16:32] You know, yes.
[00:16:33] But with that guy there challenging that where they think they have
[00:16:36] to hit a perfect shot there, the middle, which is hidden better by the way
[00:16:41] that the guys are and then that push side looking so far away.
[00:16:44] And I only have to move my guy the littlest bit and he's right there.
[00:16:47] I mean, it just makes logical sense to make them see everything
[00:16:52] as the hardest thing, you know?
[00:16:54] Yeah.
[00:16:56] Take away their strength.
[00:16:57] Yeah, that's really cool.
[00:16:59] Really.
[00:17:00] So even even the way you clear the ball, you know, Billy and I had
[00:17:04] a conversation about this because he was talking about how you clear the ball more from the center of the table.
[00:17:09] And he was like, he put the ball over, you know, he put the two rods to the wall and he's like,
[00:17:14] look, what are you worried about from here?
[00:17:15] And I was like, well, you know, the wall pass, the lane pass, he said.
[00:17:18] And I was like, this shot.
[00:17:19] And he's like, yeah.
[00:17:20] And then he moved it over from the line.
[00:17:21] He said, what about here?
[00:17:22] And I was like, and he said, and then he set it up where you set up.
[00:17:25] He said, what about this?
[00:17:26] And I was like, well, as there's kind of a lot to worry about, he said, exactly.
[00:17:30] He said it.
[00:17:31] And he was like, it kind of pisses me off because I got up and I'm like, yeah.
[00:17:35] But, you know, so so really what was your thinking into into that?
[00:17:40] Was this something you just decided to do?
[00:17:42] Was this something somebody showed you something you noticed that actually came from quite a while ago,
[00:17:49] actually, like 2000.
[00:17:52] I don't know, maybe.
[00:17:55] Fourteen or fifteen Florida State, I was playing with Paul Smith.
[00:18:00] And I think maybe me and Tony might have been messing around in the kitchen
[00:18:04] or something like that, you know, with different spots or whatever.
[00:18:08] But me and Paul did that for me setting that series and passing it up to him
[00:18:13] or whatever at, like I said, one of those Florida States years ago.
[00:18:17] And it was successful.
[00:18:19] So I just kind of stuck with it for quite a while.
[00:18:23] I was doing it mostly that just that series for, I don't know, probably six, seven years, something like that.
[00:18:30] No kidding.
[00:18:31] No, it works well.
[00:18:33] I've seen you add some banks in inside outside.
[00:18:36] I mean, I've seen you hit a few a game out of that setup, man.
[00:18:40] And it's don't think that I don't practice it at home.
[00:18:42] It's just it's not, you know, I mean, it's unconventional.
[00:18:46] So it's kind of it's just, you know, it's something I feel like you have to put some time in to really get used to even throwing the passes up hitting the lanes.
[00:18:55] And but I mean, your whole your whole game is just like, you know, the way you block the way you clear.
[00:19:02] It's not like your traditional goalie game and comparing you to like, you know, so when you look at, you know, goalies on tour now, you've got Ryan's playing a bunch.
[00:19:13] You know, Todd's kind of not really been around a whole lot, but I know Tracy Millen's been out.
[00:19:20] Terry's playing obviously you I feel even Kane, you know, Kane's been came was at the Hall of Fame.
[00:19:27] But I feel like you're right now you're probably you and Ryan are kind of fighting for that top spot, man.
[00:19:32] I really feel like you're probably the what it seems like.
[00:19:35] Yeah, no question.
[00:19:37] Yeah, I mean, so at the kickoff, you and Tommy won.
[00:19:41] And this is a conversation that we've been having for a few shows now.
[00:19:46] What's your opinion on the championship format?
[00:19:51] It's terrible.
[00:19:52] All right.
[00:19:53] There you go.
[00:19:54] Tell me how you really feel.
[00:19:56] I hate it.
[00:19:58] So so you play the kickoff in championship and you play the Hall of Fame in championship.
[00:20:02] Right.
[00:20:03] So you won one and you didn't, you know, obviously, would you guys finish like ninth or something?
[00:20:09] I don't even know.
[00:20:11] Yeah.
[00:20:12] So so why you hate it, man?
[00:20:17] Just do single elimination.
[00:20:20] Just do single elimination four out of seven with qualifiers for seeding because the way that it is now she does there was a reset,
[00:20:29] which in my opinion screwed everybody's points up.
[00:20:33] And then after that, you know, we're doing this championship format stuff where if you hit the losers bracket, there's no nobody cares.
[00:20:44] So you're seeing matches that would be good or could be great, you know, like in the, you know, in the loser side.
[00:20:52] And you have players that don't care because the best they can do is get third and third, you know, barely, you know, maybe pays for what you paid to enter the event.
[00:21:02] So nobody cares.
[00:21:03] So nobody cares.
[00:21:04] And then meanwhile, you have people that are playing the losers bracket that are, you know, OK, they get called to the table to play and then they call the final of open doubles over here.
[00:21:15] You know, so now one, you don't get to watch the final to you obviously know you're not in the final while you're playing.
[00:21:21] So you try even less because you don't care.
[00:21:24] Good. So what's the point?
[00:21:25] What's the point of even having it?
[00:21:27] You know, just do it single elimination.
[00:21:29] If you do if you do qualifying rounds for seeding, then you don't have to worry about the points.
[00:21:36] Done deal.
[00:21:37] Mm hmm. Yeah.
[00:21:39] Yeah, I think, you know, the motivating factor for the player, you know, obviously, you know, everybody wants to win.
[00:21:46] Everybody wants a title.
[00:21:47] But more than that, you know, especially in this country, it's, you know, we're driven by by the payouts.
[00:21:53] So, you know, I I for me, I don't I don't mind the format.
[00:21:59] Right. I like it.
[00:22:00] I don't like it.
[00:22:01] I just want to play.
[00:22:02] I want to play foosball and I've I've won titles out of the winners.
[00:22:05] I've won titles out of losers.
[00:22:07] I've been double dipped.
[00:22:08] I've doubled it.
[00:22:10] I just the thing that probably frustrates me the most looking at it is second and third place are essentially the same.
[00:22:18] You know, they both teams have lost once, but there's that's it.
[00:22:21] They're not getting paid the same.
[00:22:22] So and and again, the time factor, you know, it's it's one match or two matches like just just go back to double elimination.
[00:22:31] Like you said, the single elimination, four out of seven, whatever it is, you know, I just I don't know, man.
[00:22:39] I feel like change is good.
[00:22:42] People are afraid of it.
[00:22:43] But if if the players are supporting the tour and they're not happy with it, then why do it?
[00:22:48] I think to Eric's point, I think the drama if the drama is missing from the from from the from the play, the great teams that are going head to head, if the best they can do walk away with third place.
[00:22:59] I mean, there goes your drama.
[00:23:01] There's there's really little point.
[00:23:03] We saw where was that?
[00:23:06] I think it was in Nationals at Colorado.
[00:23:09] This was, I don't know, maybe four or five years ago.
[00:23:13] There was a losers bracket match and it was I'm trying to think who was playing well, who was playing is irrelevant.
[00:23:23] But it was one of the best matches.
[00:23:26] Giant crowd of people watching players screaming this and that whatever else just trying to get back to the losers bracket final.
[00:23:34] Right. You know, like that's it was it was still is one of the best matches I've watched.
[00:23:39] And it's like, OK, now with this format, you're never going to see anything like that.
[00:23:43] You know, it's a it's a it's a long road to to beat your way through the losers bracket, end up in the in the in the finals and then have to double dip.
[00:23:53] I mean, that's a that's a long road.
[00:23:55] But if you do it, dramatically speaking, there's nothing like it.
[00:24:00] You know, for especially for spectators, knowing that this team had to had to fight their way through all these other players through the through the losers bracket and then end up in the finals and then double dip.
[00:24:10] I mean, that's just yeah, that's how many times there's Tony has Tony come back.
[00:24:16] Don't have that, Brian. Yeah.
[00:24:17] And but the end and the matches are outstanding matches, you know, and and so now we don't get to see that.
[00:24:25] Yeah, I don't know. I mean, if I think single elimination would be better than what he's what the format is now with this championship thing.
[00:24:34] But I'm also fine with just leaving it as double.
[00:24:37] You know, sure. I think I think doubles, I think doubles better than what she's doing now.
[00:24:42] And I think probably single with qualifying rounds is probably better than double even.
[00:24:47] Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Or like Texas State.
[00:24:49] You like what Texas State does with? Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine with it.
[00:24:53] Yeah, I like their format. You know, the the I think it's like five rounds into a single limb bracket.
[00:24:59] It's you know, I mean, you get plenty of play five rounds of play and then, you know, into a single limb.
[00:25:04] And it's something that's not traditionally what we're doing on tour.
[00:25:10] And and I've heard people say like it's you know, it's not feasible or time or whatever.
[00:25:14] But I mean, Texas State is one of the biggest tournaments in the country. Why? Why couldn't it be?
[00:25:18] It's a major. Yeah, I don't know. I don't understand.
[00:25:22] So well, I mean, case in point next weekend is going to be Swiss format.
[00:25:27] So, you know, five rounds of play. You do well in that.
[00:25:31] You end up in the finals that I think it's what single elimination or double elimination after that?
[00:25:35] I forgot. Single. Single. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:25:39] So I can't wait. I can't wait to see what happens.
[00:25:42] So, Eric, I assume you're going to be at Texas next weekend.
[00:25:46] I will be there. Along with your partner, Tony Spraedeman.
[00:25:50] Yep. In the classic and in the open.
[00:25:54] So when it comes to the classic, you guys are going to be playing together.
[00:25:58] What what changes in your overall strategy when you're looking at the rules because there's no rollover?
[00:26:04] Now, the time on the the time the shot clock changes too, doesn't it?
[00:26:09] It's like 10 seconds. I think so.
[00:26:13] I think I think that's something different in the bag.
[00:26:16] I don't know. I played me and Tony played it a couple of years ago at Texas.
[00:26:22] And we didn't know that you had to that you could start with the ball, that the ball was supposed to start in the back.
[00:26:29] Yes. Until like our second like into our second match that we played our second round that we were in before we even knew that.
[00:26:37] So asking me about the rules for what it is might be the wrong might be the wrong.
[00:26:42] Right, right, right. But it's I mean, it is certainly a different feel.
[00:26:46] So you have you have discussions with Tony about this.
[00:26:49] I mean, or is it just something you're just going to do it and and do your best do your best game.
[00:26:54] I didn't know we were playing it until I registered and I saw that I was also registered for classic with.
[00:27:00] Oh, OK. That's about as much as I know about.
[00:27:05] Nice. Well, hey, I mean, it's there's some pretty darn good teams showing up.
[00:27:11] There's there's no doubt no doubt about that.
[00:27:13] Now, there's some some top players showing up next weekend.
[00:27:15] So who's what are we looking at for teams, Tom?
[00:27:18] We were looking at people like, oh, geez, you know, Ryan Moore is going to be there.
[00:27:23] Brandon Munoz is going to be there. Tom LaFrede is showing up.
[00:27:28] I don't know about the teams necessarily. I know about Eric and Tony.
[00:27:32] But yeah, I have a feeling there's going to be some I know.
[00:27:36] Oh, I was talking to Tommy Yor. Of course, he's going to be there.
[00:27:40] I believe he's playing with his dad in the classic of I'm not mistaken.
[00:27:43] Something OK, but as far as open goes, I'm not 100 percent who Tommy's playing with.
[00:27:50] Brandon, I believe is it Brandon? OK, yeah.
[00:27:53] Brandon Moore has a good stuff. Oh, yeah.
[00:27:56] Very tough. I'm just I'm thinking Paul Smith and Dylan Marshall.
[00:28:00] Mm hmm. Tough team. OK. Yeah.
[00:28:03] It'll be a lot of good teams.
[00:28:06] Now, this is it's a smaller than expected turnout, I think, just because it's it's a new a new thing
[00:28:13] where it would have been Texas states.
[00:28:15] And of course, Steve has made it clear to us last week that this is not a replacement for Texas states.
[00:28:20] It's simply they decided to try this new thing with Fareed and give it a shot, give it a place to to to happen.
[00:28:29] And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Right.
[00:28:32] It's just we have to give it a couple of years to see if it gets going.
[00:28:35] What do you think about this, Eric? Do you think that ITSF format has a chance?
[00:28:42] I'm sure it will. Yeah, I just think that as far as this tournament and if they do get a.
[00:28:49] I don't know, smaller turnout, I think it's just because people don't really know what this is.
[00:28:54] Mm hmm. You know, they're they're oh, it's not Texas State.
[00:28:58] It's something else that it's I just think it's kind of they didn't maybe put enough into promoting it.
[00:29:06] Yes, for what it is, because for them, I mean, it's the it's one of their world championship series.
[00:29:14] That's as big as it gets, you know, as far as ITSF is concerned, it's their it's their worlds.
[00:29:19] They do one per table per year.
[00:29:21] You know, that's the the highest, you know, championship series, whatever it is.
[00:29:26] Right. And then the championship series after that, as far as what their tournaments are ranked.
[00:29:31] But yeah, I think if they would have did a little bit better job, you know.
[00:29:36] Exposing everybody to what this event actually is, I think they'd probably had a, you know, a better turnout.
[00:29:43] But if they put it on and it goes, you know, well, and they're going to do it again,
[00:29:48] I think it'll get a lot more people.
[00:29:51] Well, they they were saying last week that part of the problem is the Banzini World Series is just a week before.
[00:29:58] Yeah, like this weekend.
[00:30:00] It's this weekend. Yeah.
[00:30:02] Yeah. So that kind of takes a lot of the European players out of out of play having to turn around and come all the way over across the pond to compete in the World Series in America.
[00:30:12] So that I think just just timing this time was certainly out of.
[00:30:16] Yeah, I think it I think it they had to put it together quicker than they wanted to.
[00:30:21] Mm hmm. Yep. No doubt.
[00:30:24] What's aside from the things we've talked about, what's your all time favorite tournament to play?
[00:30:29] What do you look forward to most?
[00:30:32] My favorite tournament is probably Texas State to tell you the truth.
[00:30:37] What other ones? Yeah, that's probably about it.
[00:30:40] That's probably my favorite tournament.
[00:30:42] Not Florida State.
[00:30:45] Florida's fine. I have a good time.
[00:30:47] It's just like I don't I don't feel like it's a I don't feel like it's the same kind of tournament just because it's here.
[00:30:54] You know, it just doesn't it doesn't feel the same as traveling to go to, you know, a big tournament Texas.
[00:31:00] I always get the bunch of people. You know, you win, you get a ring which you don't get that anywhere else.
[00:31:06] You know, so it's it's just I don't know.
[00:31:09] It's just I enjoy that one at Texas.
[00:31:12] I've only been to Texas State once once or twice.
[00:31:15] OK, yeah. But no, it's awesome, man.
[00:31:18] They do such a good job. It's it's for the players.
[00:31:21] And that's what I love about it. It's always had a nice whole new world.
[00:31:24] They they they do a really nice job.
[00:31:27] I yeah, I want to move to Texas just so I can go to Texas.
[00:31:32] Yeah. So you're you know, you're in the hotbed Tampa.
[00:31:37] You guys got a bunch of good players.
[00:31:40] You know, obviously, you've said that you used to play with Tony every day.
[00:31:45] Are you are you a kind of like a guy who's always got a bunch of good players?
[00:31:50] Are you the kind of player that practices a lot?
[00:31:53] Do you touch your table every day or do you just play you play locals or like what's your what's your practice regimen consist of?
[00:32:00] Before a tournament, I'm usually on the table just, I don't know,
[00:32:04] practice in different things and stuff like that or whatever.
[00:32:08] I used to watch a lot more video than I do now.
[00:32:11] Now, mostly as far as me practicing, I'll get on a table, like I said, a week or two before the tournament, work on some stuff.
[00:32:17] I'll try to play either locals or I'll have people over at my house to play within the last week or so.
[00:32:26] We kind of did that a couple of times where, you know, we just practice me, Dylan Marshall, Tommy or Mike Jenton last week.
[00:32:35] We just sat and played, you know, match after match after match.
[00:32:39] Wow. And stuff like that.
[00:32:43] Stuff like that. So I get I get a good amount of table time before before a tournament.
[00:32:49] But if I got a big span of time between tournaments, I'm not touching the table all that much.
[00:32:55] I'm trying to enjoy myself doing other things, fishing or whatever.
[00:32:59] Yeah. Fishing. Now what what do you what kind of fish do you like to go for you like ocean fish?
[00:33:05] Or do you like to go in lakes? No, I'm a freshwater fisherman for the most part.
[00:33:10] I live on a I live on a canal and a nice size, about 100 acre neighborhood lake.
[00:33:16] Nice. So I walk in the backyard and stand on my dock and fish. Awesome.
[00:33:21] And that's where I go out with it or I go out with one of my neighbors to one of the other lakes in the neighborhood.
[00:33:27] And we go in and fish over there and stuff.
[00:33:29] So that's that's the big advantage to Florida, even though it gets a little warm, it's still hey, you can get out there and toss in the toss in the hook.
[00:33:38] That's awesome. Yeah, they got some of the best fishing you can find down here.
[00:33:42] No doubt. Yeah, I got one fishing story. That's it. One fishing story.
[00:33:47] Well, well, you put it out there. Let's hear it.
[00:33:50] My dad took me fishing once when I was a kid and southeast of Massachusetts.
[00:33:55] I mean, so the city I grew up in were we're a fishing port, one of the biggest fishing ports in the Northeast.
[00:34:00] So, you know, in the summer, it's nice.
[00:34:02] There's this little bridge down in South Dartmouth going into Payton Aram.
[00:34:06] People go fish off this bridge all the time.
[00:34:08] And I remember, I'll never forget my dad had a black cutlass with red like that velour interior.
[00:34:13] Oh, yeah. I remember it was yesterday.
[00:34:15] Bought me a little blue and white fishing pole.
[00:34:17] I think I was like five or six.
[00:34:18] And we went, me, my dad, my uncle and got out on the bridge and got everything rigged up and put a fish on my hook.
[00:34:25] And we were out there for a while and he didn't catch anything.
[00:34:27] My uncle didn't catch anything.
[00:34:29] And I caught my first fish and I reel it in and I was so excited.
[00:34:33] My dad got my dad got pissed because he hadn't caught anything through my fish.
[00:34:37] My reel, my little baby reel through everything, the bucket, everything in the water.
[00:34:42] He got mad. Get the cow.
[00:34:43] We're going home.
[00:34:44] And that was that was it.
[00:34:45] I've never been fishing since.
[00:34:46] Somehow.
[00:34:47] I think we've heard that one.
[00:34:48] And that's yeah, I think I've said it on here before.
[00:34:50] No, it's funnier the second time.
[00:34:52] Yeah, I mean, and he wasn't even that nice about it.
[00:34:55] You should have heard it came out of his mouth.
[00:34:58] Get the cow.
[00:34:59] We're going home.
[00:35:00] No more fishing.
[00:35:01] OK.
[00:35:02] Well, I can see why you're traumatized and not wanting to fish again.
[00:35:06] Yeah, yeah.
[00:35:07] I got some buddies.
[00:35:08] I got some buddies that are booking a deep sea trip down off the Gulf in July.
[00:35:13] And they were like, man, you've got to come.
[00:35:14] We're going to have a good time.
[00:35:15] I was like, no, no, not doing it.
[00:35:18] Not happening.
[00:35:19] Not doing it.
[00:35:20] And if I want fish, I go to Publix.
[00:35:22] I get some fish and it's all good.
[00:35:23] I think you need to go hang with Eric.
[00:35:25] I think you need to go hang.
[00:35:26] He's going to get you back into the.
[00:35:27] He'll bring you back.
[00:35:29] OK.
[00:35:30] Eric.
[00:35:31] Eric's very generous.
[00:35:33] He's he's offered, you know, he's offered many times for me to come down and fish.
[00:35:37] And I would come down and hang it.
[00:35:39] Eric's awesome to hang out with, man.
[00:35:41] I would come down and hang out any time and I'll sit there and watch you fish.
[00:35:44] But it's just not for me.
[00:35:47] I'll set you up.
[00:35:49] You could fish off my dock.
[00:35:50] I won't throw anything into the water.
[00:35:52] Yeah, right.
[00:35:53] I was going to say, I'm a catch son.
[00:35:54] You're going to throw everything back in the water.
[00:35:56] Let's go in the house, guy.
[00:35:57] No more fishing.
[00:35:58] Let's go.
[00:35:59] Yeah.
[00:36:00] It's over.
[00:36:01] That's it.
[00:36:02] We're done.
[00:36:03] Yeah.
[00:36:04] So so Texas next weekend, how's the rest of the year looking for you?
[00:36:08] What are you hitting?
[00:36:09] So after Texas going, I'm trying to go over by Tony and hit a tournament in hit
[00:36:21] the VARNA tournament the second weekend of that.
[00:36:23] And then there's a tournament in Austria the week after that.
[00:36:27] Wow.
[00:36:28] Try to go over there.
[00:36:29] That's the end of end of July.
[00:36:31] So try to go over there, hit those.
[00:36:33] And then after that will be worlds.
[00:36:35] And then I don't know, I'm sure something else and then probably Colorado.
[00:36:39] And I was trying to not do as many this year, but apparently I'm doing the same
[00:36:44] amount that I do every other year.
[00:36:46] So was it like five or six tour stops a year?
[00:36:49] Last year, I think I did nine.
[00:36:51] Nine.
[00:36:52] Nice.
[00:36:53] This year, this year, I'm sure it'll end up being, there'll be stuff mixed
[00:36:56] in there that I don't, you know, that I'm not thinking of stuff like the
[00:37:00] beach town beatdowns, stuff like that, that I'll probably end up going to
[00:37:06] where it's like, oh, it's kind of a tournament.
[00:37:08] That brings up the romp and the swamp.
[00:37:12] The Florida tour.
[00:37:14] Is that something you're going to frequent?
[00:37:17] I didn't go to the first one.
[00:37:20] I think the second one was actually supposed to be next weekend,
[00:37:23] wasn't it?
[00:37:24] And then they moved it.
[00:37:25] They moved it.
[00:37:26] Postponed it or something?
[00:37:27] Yeah, it's like I believe June 1st, something like that.
[00:37:32] Okay.
[00:37:33] It's on the list.
[00:37:34] Let's see here.
[00:37:36] Romp and the Swamp.
[00:37:37] Yeah, it's June 1st and 2nd.
[00:37:40] It's at Winter Park, Florida.
[00:37:42] It's going to be at the Keuforia.
[00:37:44] Okay.
[00:37:45] Yeah, I've been there before.
[00:37:46] Okay.
[00:37:47] Nice.
[00:37:48] It sounds like a blast.
[00:37:50] What a great idea.
[00:37:53] Yeah, you guys got a good thing down there.
[00:37:55] So the European Tournament you're hitting, what table?
[00:37:57] What tables are those two stops on?
[00:37:59] Those are both Laying Heart.
[00:38:01] Oh, okay.
[00:38:02] Okay.
[00:38:03] How do you like it?
[00:38:06] I really like the Laying Heart table, so I'm interested to see how I...
[00:38:10] I'm excited to actually play a tournament that's on Laying Heart just because I have one here that belongs to Mike Jenton
[00:38:20] that he bought a brand new one and basically then just brought it to my house, so it's one of the tables in my foosball room now.
[00:38:27] Cool.
[00:38:28] So I'm just babysitting for forever for him.
[00:38:32] Sounds good.
[00:38:34] But no, actually I really like that table, so I'm excited to actually play a real tournament on it.
[00:38:39] Yeah.
[00:38:40] I think it's my second favorite.
[00:38:42] There's no doubt about it.
[00:38:43] I played on it in Germany the first time back in 2011.
[00:38:47] And it just...
[00:38:48] I think it's just getting used to where you set the ball up when you're trying to shoot because it has to be a bit more forward instead of like a tornado because the ball is so sticky.
[00:38:57] But other than that, it's a really solid table.
[00:39:00] So we got to talk about World Cup.
[00:39:06] So World Cup 2025.
[00:39:08] Odds are you going to be on the team?
[00:39:10] What do you think?
[00:39:12] We'll see.
[00:39:13] It'd be great if I was.
[00:39:14] Yeah?
[00:39:15] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:39:17] Absolutely.
[00:39:18] I'd love to be.
[00:39:19] Love to be.
[00:39:20] Love to go over there, represent the country, play with some friends.
[00:39:22] That'd be great.
[00:39:23] Now is that something you've done before?
[00:39:25] Have you been in the World Cup?
[00:39:27] I went in 19 and helped Jerry coach the women's team.
[00:39:35] Gotcha.
[00:39:36] Gotcha.
[00:39:37] Gotcha.
[00:39:38] Nice.
[00:39:39] Yeah.
[00:39:40] It seemed like the last edition of the World Cup.
[00:39:42] It just wasn't as our team wasn't quite as strong, but it was certainly did well.
[00:39:47] I mean, came in second, but it just wasn't like the from previous years.
[00:39:51] It didn't have the same caliber of players necessarily.
[00:39:55] Yeah, I think the I think the covid restrictions got to a good part of the team where they didn't want to deal with doing all that stuff to go over there.
[00:40:04] Right.
[00:40:05] Yeah.
[00:40:06] Right. Exactly.
[00:40:07] So 2025 and that's that's going to be back in Spain this time.
[00:40:11] Correct.
[00:40:12] Back in Spain.
[00:40:13] Yeah, I went for went to the one and it was in Spain and now going back to Spain.
[00:40:18] I wish it was somewhere.
[00:40:19] I wish it was somewhere else, but at least it's it's not in the same place.
[00:40:23] So I get to see a different part of Spain if I go.
[00:40:25] Nice.
[00:40:26] Yeah.
[00:40:27] Now there's a Portuguese table that has two like a like two legs that the players are like separate feet.
[00:40:35] And yeah, it's terrible.
[00:40:38] That's a that's a and I think that I think the front rods got like five guys on it.
[00:40:42] It's a funky looking table.
[00:40:44] Yeah, well, it's huge.
[00:40:45] It's huge and it's concave.
[00:40:47] Oh, so the ball always rolls to the middle.
[00:40:50] But then they got they got some some goofy rules on top of that.
[00:40:55] So it's already hard to play on, you know, or even try to do anything.
[00:41:00] And then you got different rules mixed into it's it's tough.
[00:41:05] Fortunately, it's not something you'll see at the World Cup as far as the different types of tables for sure.
[00:41:10] That's what which is well that's so in 19 they had the first I think it was the first day or two of the World Cup.
[00:41:19] They were kind of playing their own tournament on that table.
[00:41:22] Oh, OK.
[00:41:23] So they had those tables there in 19 in Spain and we went to a couple of places, whatever little bar nightclub kind of places.
[00:41:32] And they had those tables there that that was the tables that they had in the place.
[00:41:37] So those are those are real popular over there to each his own.
[00:41:43] It looks it looks like it looks like a Walmart table.
[00:41:45] It just looks weird, dude.
[00:41:47] I don't I don't know.
[00:41:48] I mean, yes, whatever teaches on.
[00:41:50] But I've never tried it.
[00:41:52] I'd love to try it.
[00:41:53] Just looks funky just to see.
[00:41:55] Yeah.
[00:41:56] I mean, the ball handling is going to be so different from what we're accustomed to.
[00:42:01] I don't know.
[00:42:02] I just look it just looks funky.
[00:42:04] I don't know, man.
[00:42:05] It would mess with my head.
[00:42:06] Yeah.
[00:42:07] But there's there's so many different, you know, different variations over there.
[00:42:11] And that's I don't know, man.
[00:42:13] That's the thing here.
[00:42:14] It's like it's tornado.
[00:42:15] And I believe me, I love tornado.
[00:42:17] But I enjoy it.
[00:42:18] Do Leonhart.
[00:42:19] Leonhart is one of my favorite.
[00:42:20] I love playing on Leonhart.
[00:42:22] And I love I love the way the table plays the feel.
[00:42:26] It's such a solid table.
[00:42:28] And I feel like you can do anything on it.
[00:42:30] You know, I really wish I hope the ITSF thing takes off.
[00:42:34] I hope it does really well next weekend.
[00:42:35] I hope they do more of it.
[00:42:37] And I would love to see I would love to see Leonhart start an American tour.
[00:42:40] Yeah, that'd be freaking sweet.
[00:42:42] That'd be cool.
[00:42:43] Yeah.
[00:42:44] I don't know if it'll I don't know if it'll ever happen, but that would be cool.
[00:42:46] Yeah.
[00:42:47] Sure.
[00:42:48] If I win the lottery.
[00:42:49] Sure.
[00:42:50] Yeah.
[00:42:51] Make it happen.
[00:42:52] Make it happen.
[00:42:53] It's not going to happen.
[00:42:54] It's not going to happen.
[00:42:55] Yeah.
[00:42:57] Well, Eric, we also have to talk about, you know, your your other life, which is all about
[00:43:04] writing.
[00:43:05] So you've got this this alter ego, this this person you're also known as when it
[00:43:10] comes to being an author.
[00:43:12] How's that going, by the way?
[00:43:14] Going well.
[00:43:16] That's been my full time living for 10 years or so now.
[00:43:22] Yeah.
[00:43:23] For those who are not familiar, what what's the name of your author?
[00:43:27] The pen name is E.H. Reinhardt.
[00:43:30] E.H. Reinhardt.
[00:43:32] And you specialize in what is it in?
[00:43:35] Is it detective thrillers, that kind of thing?
[00:43:38] Yep, pretty much.
[00:43:40] Yeah.
[00:43:41] Cops and bad guys, FBI agents and bad guys.
[00:43:44] Very, very cool.
[00:43:45] Man, it's it's and how many books have you written so far?
[00:43:49] Tomorrow.
[00:43:51] Tomorrow, I think I'm putting out my what is it?
[00:43:55] I think it's maybe my 42nd or 43rd something like that.
[00:44:00] Holy crap.
[00:44:02] In 10 years?
[00:44:03] Yeah, I got a lot of.
[00:44:05] Wow.
[00:44:06] I haven't read that many books in my life.
[00:44:08] Yeah.
[00:44:09] I don't think I have either.
[00:44:10] Well, my guess technically, I guess I have.
[00:44:13] But yeah.
[00:44:14] Dang.
[00:44:15] Forty third.
[00:44:16] And and so do you tour with your books?
[00:44:19] Do you do book signings?
[00:44:21] No, no, I don't do any of that stuff.
[00:44:23] Gotcha.
[00:44:24] That's I don't know.
[00:44:26] I don't I don't I should do social media and stuff like that as far as for my author profile or whatever.
[00:44:32] But I just I don't really do too much of it.
[00:44:35] I have a advertising company that's doing all my advertising and stuff like that for me.
[00:44:41] I was thinking about actually hiring a social media company to do that stuff for me as well, just because I don't want to do it.
[00:44:48] There is as far as I know, you're the only author in the pro series of professional foosball players.
[00:44:57] I think you're it.
[00:44:58] Clay to Clay to me wrote a book.
[00:45:00] Well, yeah, I mean, well, certainly The Blue Chip Store, which which is a great book, by the way.
[00:45:06] But yeah, I mean, as far as being a full time author, that's that's unique.
[00:45:11] Yeah, I'm I'm probably it, I would say.
[00:45:14] Wow.
[00:45:15] What?
[00:45:16] Well, how old are you when you first wrote a book?
[00:45:19] Uh, thirty five, thirty four.
[00:45:26] OK, interesting.
[00:45:28] That's I mean, it's hard to say because, you know, authors are so varied that come from all walks of life.
[00:45:36] But what got you into that?
[00:45:37] What, you know, at the age of thirty four years old, what prompted you to become an author?
[00:45:43] I was so I just moved to Florida and I was flying back and forth fairly often to visit family and friends and stuff like that.
[00:45:52] And so I was reading a lot, you know, on the plane.
[00:45:57] And I knew that there was, you know, a decent amount of money in being an author and kind of arrogantly thought, well, I could do this, you know.
[00:46:08] Piece of cake.
[00:46:09] So I tried it and I wrote a book and I sent it to an editing house.
[00:46:14] And they're like, you know, this is terrible.
[00:46:17] But they told me why it was terrible.
[00:46:20] And so then I wrote three more books and sent them back to the editing house.
[00:46:26] And that's the same editor that I use today.
[00:46:29] So it's I fixed what was wrong with it.
[00:46:32] And apparently they were all right.
[00:46:35] They were happy.
[00:46:36] That's awesome.
[00:46:37] How long does it take you to write a book, to knock one out?
[00:46:40] It depends how much I'm actually trying.
[00:46:45] I've I've written a book before in inside of a month, not working weekends kind of a thing.
[00:46:53] But I don't I don't generally write that fast.
[00:46:57] If I can hit a couple thousand words a day, something like that, which is a couple hours worth of work.
[00:47:02] And that's about it.
[00:47:03] That's decent, man.
[00:47:05] I mean, I've written a few articles for Tavern Players magazine in New Hampshire.
[00:47:10] But that's that's a you know, it takes me, I don't know, a good couple of days to put together two thousand words.
[00:47:17] But that's just me.
[00:47:19] But but being I don't even want to I don't want to write a book report.
[00:47:22] Tom, get out of here.
[00:47:25] No way.
[00:47:26] I've got a lot of respect for somebody can knock out a book in a couple of months, man.
[00:47:30] That's awesome.
[00:47:31] That's that's a lot of work.
[00:47:33] I want to know where you get your motivation.
[00:47:35] Like, do you watch cops or like, where do you get your motivation from?
[00:47:38] You watch like, you know, crime documentaries or I mean, I used to watch Castle.
[00:47:45] I love that show.
[00:47:46] Castle.
[00:47:47] I love Castle.
[00:47:48] So I just like where do you get your foosball tournaments?
[00:47:53] You get your motivation from foosball to all the criminals that play foosball.
[00:47:56] Yeah, yeah.
[00:47:57] I probably I mean, I'm a movie nut.
[00:48:00] So I've watched a lot of movies and that's kind of the genre that I like.
[00:48:04] Crime, you know, crime fiction, stuff like that.
[00:48:06] I still like, you know, I watch ID Channel kind of stuff, Dateline, stuff like that.
[00:48:12] Sure. To me, like I enjoy watching that kind of stuff.
[00:48:15] So it was kind of natural to write that as a genre instead of, you know, science fiction or something else or whatever.
[00:48:23] So when you can create a bad guy, a heavy in a novel, do you like to go in the direction of like serial killers or people that are a bit, shall we say, twisted, intelligent but twisted?
[00:48:35] I mean, what do you think about when you put together your bad guy?
[00:48:38] I've had all kinds of terrible, terrible people, but everything from, you know, big, giant, you know, scary serial killer to, you know, I've had 40 some bad guys, you know, sometimes multiple in different books.
[00:48:56] So mainly for my book thing, the worst they are usually the better rated the book is.
[00:49:04] So my bad guys are usually pretty bad.
[00:49:07] Well, they say that's the most fun.
[00:49:11] Yeah, I can write a bad guy chapter at about, you know, twice, three times the speed as my, you know, hero cop or whatever.
[00:49:21] Nice.
[00:49:23] Are you one of these types that just types and types and types and types then goes back and rewrites it three or four times?
[00:49:30] Or is it usually like the first time around you've edited yourself?
[00:49:36] First time is usually it, but I'll have time.
[00:49:40] I'll have books where I'll be, you know, 10 chapters in and I'll go, yeah, I'm going to change something, which then I have to basically rewrite all 10 chapters.
[00:49:50] But for the most part, I don't when I started, I would plot everything out.
[00:49:55] You know, each each chapter this is what's going to happen.
[00:49:58] Now I just have a keyboard and go.
[00:50:02] I don't need to really do that anymore after doing it for so long.
[00:50:05] I kind of just remember in my head or read back to what I have to piece in and.
[00:50:11] Wow.
[00:50:13] I guess it turns into a book at the end after my editor sends it back to me.
[00:50:17] Stephen King eat your heart out.
[00:50:19] You know, right?
[00:50:20] Wow.
[00:50:21] Freaking guy.
[00:50:22] That's amazing.
[00:50:23] Yeah, we got to get we got to get one of these turned into a movie.
[00:50:26] Yeah.
[00:50:27] When I just when I first started probably the I don't know first year or so I started writing.
[00:50:33] I had some guy that was trying to buy options in my books to do something on the history channel, make like a 10 part series out of one of the books or whatever.
[00:50:43] And there you go.
[00:50:44] I talked to him back and forth for about a year and nothing really ever developed out of it.
[00:50:49] And I've had I don't know, a handful of emails that have been like that.
[00:50:54] And I don't know, I'd like to see it.
[00:50:57] You know, there's other there's other authors that are in my genre that aren't super, super huge, you know, like household names.
[00:51:07] And they'll end up popping up with series on Netflix or prime or stuff like that.
[00:51:12] So never know.
[00:51:13] It could be a possibility.
[00:51:15] What do you think of Bosch?
[00:51:16] Bosch?
[00:51:19] I like the book character better than the TV character.
[00:51:27] Interesting.
[00:51:28] OK, yeah.
[00:51:29] It's funny you say that my wife is the same way.
[00:51:31] She read the book first and then we checked out the series.
[00:51:34] Now she likes Titus well over.
[00:51:35] I mean, he's I think he's a good actor.
[00:51:37] But she said, yeah, it's not like the guy in the book.
[00:51:41] Yeah, I only watched a handful of episodes and that was about it.
[00:51:45] Right. Right.
[00:51:46] Right. It's hard to translate that.
[00:51:48] Right. I mean, you've got a specific type of an archetype that you're using for your for your characters.
[00:51:54] And if it's not represented properly on the screen, then it's kind of like, well,
[00:51:58] Well, that's what they kind of did with the when they did the Jack Reacher stuff in the books.
[00:52:03] The guys, yep, six foot four and just overpowers everybody, you know, one arm holding someone up against the wall.
[00:52:10] Then they make a movie and it's Tom Cruise who's five foot five or whatever.
[00:52:14] Yeah. Yeah, it's like this doesn't really work.
[00:52:18] The more recent version of Reacher on much better, much better on Amazon.
[00:52:24] I watched the latest series and it was I was like, oh, now that's more like it.
[00:52:29] You know, this guy's this guy's he's huge.
[00:52:31] And there are some great scenes, some really funny scenes.
[00:52:35] So when you're thinking of a scene, what do you I hate to dwell on this, but I got to know when you're thinking of a scene,
[00:52:41] Is this something that you I don't know, has it come to you in a dream?
[00:52:45] I mean, what what happens?
[00:52:47] Not really. No, I just kind of I don't know.
[00:52:53] When I start a book, I'm basically like I'll have a couple of things in my head as far as what the bad guy's,
[00:52:59] you know, either angle is his motive, you know, is he just nuts and being weird, you know, like,
[00:53:05] I'll have the bad guy and then it's just kind of he's got to do, you know, whatever he's doing.
[00:53:12] And then my good guy basically is just trying to catch up to him, you know,
[00:53:17] following everything that my bad guy has already already done.
[00:53:21] But yeah, it's hard to explain.
[00:53:26] I've been doing it a while now, so it kind of comes easy.
[00:53:29] I don't often think about how, you know, how I go about doing each little thing.
[00:53:35] I just kind of sit there and tap away and it just turns into a scene.
[00:53:38] Man, do you do you have a vision?
[00:53:41] Auto autopilot.
[00:53:43] Yeah. Like, do you have a vision in your head of what they look like?
[00:53:46] Do you like do you go through all that or is it just you're just working?
[00:53:49] That's that's it.
[00:53:53] No, that that part of it I still kind of have.
[00:53:56] But like, I'll know what I want it to be like kind of a thing.
[00:54:01] And it's like, well, when I read it back, is that kind of how I had it in my head?
[00:54:05] Yeah. All right. But a lot of stuff like, you know, houses and stuff like that,
[00:54:10] if something happens here or specific areas like I'll be on my computer
[00:54:15] and I'll find, you know, like a certain house or whatever
[00:54:18] and that I can describe it basically exactly, you know, so it helps with little stuff
[00:54:25] like that when you're trying to think of describing a certain set or location
[00:54:29] or whatever. If you're actually looking at it visually,
[00:54:32] like if I look up a certain area in Texas or something like that,
[00:54:35] when I see that, it makes it easier to describe and write and whatever.
[00:54:39] Oh, sure. Well, and I'm sure when you're when you're out and about
[00:54:42] going to go into tournaments for foosball, you're probably scouting,
[00:54:45] scouting locations to say, now there would be a good setting right there.
[00:54:49] That that that alleyway right there like that one there.
[00:54:53] And does that happen to you? Yeah. Yeah.
[00:54:57] I've had the tournament that this Texas is at next next week, that hotel.
[00:55:03] I've had characters in that hotel working before in my books.
[00:55:10] So, you know, yeah, when I think of serial killers,
[00:55:15] I can envision a bunch of them at foosball tournaments.
[00:55:18] Like there's a bunch of people walking around.
[00:55:20] I'm like that guy's a serial killer for sure. Oh, yeah, for sure.
[00:55:23] Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I think one of the one of the more unique ideas was when
[00:55:28] I forgot the author's name, but he came up with the idea of Dexter.
[00:55:32] So he's a serial killer, but he kills other serial killers.
[00:55:36] Now, that's clever. That's that's different. That's a twist, you know.
[00:55:41] And he had, you know, he had very ritualistic ways of catching these other
[00:55:45] serial killers and, you know, keeping them alive right into the very end.
[00:55:48] So they that they know full well who did, you know, did them in.
[00:55:52] And it just I mean, it was quite a serious I wasn't probably the best
[00:55:56] acted, but it was still, you know, clever.
[00:55:59] Well, I liked it. I definitely liked it.
[00:56:01] I don't know if I cared too much when they brought it back after 10 years
[00:56:05] or whatever for the final season or whatever, but they could have just left
[00:56:09] it alone and it would have been fine. But it was still kind of cool.
[00:56:12] It was still kind of cool watching, you know, like, oh, hey, look, it's Dexter
[00:56:16] again. And I don't know what's going to happen because I haven't watched
[00:56:18] this five times now. Yeah.
[00:56:21] But who's your favorite author? Who do you like to read most?
[00:56:25] I actually don't do a ton of reading. OK. OK.
[00:56:29] I when I read now, I'm basically looking at I can't just read
[00:56:34] and enjoy something. I'm looking at if that punctuation is right,
[00:56:39] you know, like, you know how they phrase something and whatever.
[00:56:44] It's tough for me to do that.
[00:56:47] But I was I was actually I always enjoyed like the Lee Child stuff.
[00:56:52] I thought I thought he had made a good character.
[00:56:54] So for me, I probably read more of that
[00:56:59] more of Lee Child than anything else.
[00:57:01] But again, like I said, I just don't read a ton.
[00:57:04] I mostly just watch movies. Yeah.
[00:57:07] It's yeah. I like movies. Yeah. Oh, absolutely.
[00:57:10] Yeah. Yeah. It's we're in this generation of ours and the generations prior to us.
[00:57:15] We were very lucky to have a lot of really creative directors,
[00:57:20] a lot of great writers of movies.
[00:57:22] And we've been very lucky in seeing some some fantastic masterpieces.
[00:57:26] Stanley Kubrick comes to mind.
[00:57:28] But yeah, there's there's a lot of great storytelling and CGI.
[00:57:32] CGI is great. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:57:35] Yeah. When the girl with the dragon tattoo came out, I went and watched the movie
[00:57:39] and I was like, oh, it's cool.
[00:57:40] And then I read the books and I was like, this is the movie was nothing like the books.
[00:57:44] And then they made I don't know if it was like Swedish or somebody in Europe
[00:57:49] had made all three of the movies and they were pretty accurate to the books
[00:57:52] and they were subtitled. And I enjoyed those movies.
[00:57:55] I love those books. I mean, they were they were pretty decent sized books,
[00:57:58] but stuff like that.
[00:58:00] I enjoy reading stuff like the Hunger Games stuff.
[00:58:02] I read all those books. I like I read weird stuff, you know,
[00:58:06] like Where's Waldo and, you know, things like that intrigue me.
[00:58:10] So, you know, kids books, kids books and, you know,
[00:58:14] matching the colors to the numbers.
[00:58:17] See Spon Run. That's where I'm at right now.
[00:58:19] There you go. Yeah.
[00:58:20] See Spot. There's Spot fans.
[00:58:22] It's a hell of a plot. There's no question.
[00:58:24] Big Spot fan. Yeah, yeah.
[00:58:26] Yeah, I'm simple. Simple guy.
[00:58:28] Yeah. Well, I got to say, Eric, we were we're we're certainly fascinated
[00:58:34] to hear what people do top players do, you know, in their spare time
[00:58:39] and fishing is being one of them.
[00:58:41] That's great. But being an author, man, that's that's yeah.
[00:58:44] I think that's the best I've heard so far.
[00:58:46] That's the best. Yeah.
[00:58:48] We're waiting for a master to come on and say, oh, in my spare time,
[00:58:52] I'm a serial killer.
[00:58:53] And then we're going to call you and you can write a book about him.
[00:58:56] OK, let's let's start writing now.
[00:58:59] Who would you choose for your your your serial killer out of the
[00:59:03] lineup? A serial killer.
[00:59:05] A foosball player that's a serial killer.
[00:59:07] Yeah. That's a softball question.
[00:59:10] There's so many.
[00:59:13] Yeah, yeah.
[00:59:14] There's at least a few for sure.
[00:59:16] Oh, yeah. Easy.
[00:59:18] Like I'm in my mind, I'm scanning the room right now.
[00:59:21] And it's always the ones you never expect.
[00:59:23] Right. But I yeah.
[00:59:26] Yeah. I don't know.
[00:59:27] I wouldn't put it past you, Tom.
[00:59:29] I'm just saying anyway.
[00:59:30] Hold on a second.
[00:59:32] Hey, all right.
[00:59:34] Just just because I'm not a serial killer.
[00:59:37] I'm not a serial killer.
[00:59:39] I'm not a serial killer.
[00:59:41] Just just because I like to watch.
[00:59:44] What can I tell you?
[00:59:45] Hey, let's see.
[00:59:46] Everybody's different.
[00:59:49] Eric will be in a book about you next year.
[00:59:51] So you just never know.
[00:59:53] I actually I was thinking about that because I used to travel a lot for my job with voice
[00:59:58] coaches as a lecturer on voice acting.
[01:00:01] I thought, you know, here's an idea.
[01:00:04] A serial killer that travels around the country giving lectures on some topic,
[01:00:09] whatever it might be, maybe voice acting and and looks at looks in the audience
[01:00:14] maybe once a month.
[01:00:16] The people that are there listening to the lecture and kind of goes,
[01:00:19] there's the next one.
[01:00:21] I'm going to kill that guy right there.
[01:00:23] That's right.
[01:00:24] That one right there.
[01:00:25] But they would get caught right away.
[01:00:27] Right.
[01:00:28] Because it's like why though?
[01:00:29] Why?
[01:00:30] Why?
[01:00:31] Well, because all they'd have to see is, oh, what would this person do in the last couple of weeks
[01:00:35] that's similar to what this person did in the last couple of weeks that's similar to what this person did.
[01:00:39] Oh, they all went to this guy's pattern.
[01:00:41] You know, yeah, this guy's training.
[01:00:44] Well, then it's someone on your staff or someone that's traveling with you.
[01:00:48] So they just got to whittle it down.
[01:00:50] Right.
[01:00:51] It's too hard to kill somebody now.
[01:00:52] All right.
[01:00:53] I was like I was just talking about that yesterday.
[01:00:57] I was like, yeah, I don't know if there is a good way that you can kill someone and get away with it.
[01:01:00] Because I'm watching.
[01:01:01] I was watching some show in this guy clearly killed his wife, you know, and she just went missing or whatever.
[01:01:10] And they had like all this circumstantial evidence or whatever.
[01:01:12] And he got away with it.
[01:01:13] You know, it's just like but like he had so they had so much stuff that clearly says that you you know that you did it.
[01:01:21] Yep.
[01:01:22] But they didn't have a body or they didn't find any blood.
[01:01:26] So you got you got away with it.
[01:01:29] It's like, well, it's crazy, dude.
[01:01:31] Is it telling you?
[01:01:32] Yeah.
[01:01:33] 24 between between the geo tracking on your phone, social media.
[01:01:36] Everybody's got cameras.
[01:01:38] It's so like, you know, the 80s, 70s, 80s man, like people look where I've said this on the show before where I grew up, the city where I grew up, the neighborhood I grew up in.
[01:01:47] There was a serial killer picking up prostitutes in my neighborhood and raping them and strangling them.
[01:01:53] There's 13 women.
[01:01:54] Two of them were never found.
[01:01:56] Nobody was ever convicted.
[01:01:57] Right.
[01:01:58] That was the 80s.
[01:01:59] Think about that.
[01:02:00] That was that was less than 40 years ago.
[01:02:02] Yeah.
[01:02:03] No cameras, no phones, no, no, no, that's crazy.
[01:02:08] And now it's like I mean you can't even slap somebody without somebody recording it right.
[01:02:13] Right.
[01:02:14] Yeah.
[01:02:15] I don't I don't know.
[01:02:16] I'm gonna have sweet dreams tonight guys.
[01:02:18] I'm super excited.
[01:02:22] Oh Lord.
[01:02:23] This is what we do.
[01:02:24] You know, Eric, that dude.
[01:02:26] Good luck next weekend, man.
[01:02:27] Thank you so much for coming on.
[01:02:30] This this this was a good time, dude.
[01:02:31] I hope you and Tony kill it next weekend.
[01:02:33] I look man, I have I have my people that I root for and I just want you to know you're one of a man.
[01:02:38] I always enjoy watching you play.
[01:02:40] Yeah.
[01:02:41] And appreciate it.
[01:02:42] Yeah, man.
[01:02:43] I'll be catching fish this week and and good luck in Texas next weekend.
[01:02:46] I'll be watching the brackets.
[01:02:47] Oh yeah.
[01:02:48] Appreciate it, man.
[01:02:49] We were we're always always anxious to see how how someone like yourself is is stacking up against the competition and then you know,
[01:02:56] against the competition and how you just so brilliant in that that position of goal.
[01:03:01] And I and I meant, you know, I got to look up to you every time I watch you play.
[01:03:06] Just amazing.
[01:03:07] So thank you so much for being with us.
[01:03:09] Well, I don't know if it's that great, guys, but all right.
[01:03:12] I appreciate it.
[01:03:13] You're winning, bud.
[01:03:14] You're winning.
[01:03:15] So you're doing it.
[01:03:16] Yes, sir.
[01:03:17] And so we will we'll catch you next weekend.
[01:03:20] And of course, we'll be in the same room and hopefully we'll get a chance to hang out a bit and do some more more chatting.
[01:03:26] I'll have some plot to us for you.
[01:03:27] How's that sound?
[01:03:28] All right.
[01:03:29] Sounds good.
[01:03:30] Cool.
[01:03:31] Well, guys, this has been episode number two hundred and eight with Eric Helter and member.
[01:03:36] We're grateful to say the least.
[01:03:37] And next weekend, we're coming to you live from Dallas, Texas.
[01:03:41] That is if the technology gods are on our side.
[01:03:44] We'll see.
[01:03:45] You know, you just know, but we will be we'll be here live.
[01:03:48] And who knows, you might even drag Randy back with us remotely next week.
[01:03:53] You're around and running someplace where you're going to be.
[01:03:55] Yeah, I'll be sitting right here.
[01:03:57] All right.
[01:03:58] So we'll drag you on.
[01:03:59] How's that sound?
[01:04:00] Great.
[01:04:01] Cool.
[01:04:02] I'm always looking forward to it.
[01:04:03] Awesome.
[01:04:04] Well, guys, let's let's talk again soon.
[01:04:06] But here it is.
[01:04:07] Episode number two hundred and eight.
[01:04:08] Stick around.
[01:04:09] Now we've got Foos Talk to Lives Tournament Beat coming up.
[01:04:14] Foosball tournaments are everywhere.
[01:04:17] Foos Talk Live proudly presents a weekly update of events near you with the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat.
[01:04:25] Here's what's up.
[01:04:26] The ITSF proudly presents the World Series of Tornado 2024, May 24th through the 27th at the Westin Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Dallas, Texas.
[01:04:38] How are your balls?
[01:04:39] Here comes the Romp in the Swamp Florida Foosball Tour, Part 2, June 1st and 2nd at Keuforia Winter Park, Orlando, Florida.
[01:04:49] The 2024 Illinois State Championships, June 7th through the 9th, Poplar Creek Bowl, Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
[01:04:57] International Foosball Promotions presents the 2024 National Championships in North American Cup, June 27th through the 30th at the Clarion Hotel in Kenner, New Orleans, Texas.
[01:05:08] The Canadian Pro Tour presents the 2024 Edmonton Foosball Championships, June 28th through the 30th, 8415 24th Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
[01:05:20] The 716 Buffalo Foosball Club presents the Buffalo Foosball Championship July 27th at Bison Billiards in Buffalo, New York.
[01:05:31] Get ready for the 2024 Ohio State Championships, August 1st through the 4th at the Crowne Plaza, Columbus North, Worthington, Ohio.
[01:05:40] The 2024 Tornado Championships officially on August 28th through September 2nd at the Clarion Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky.
[01:05:50] The 2024 Florida State Championship and Masters Open coming up September 26th through the 29th at Holiday Inn in Clearwater, Florida.
[01:05:59] Mark your calendar for the 2024 Michigan State Championships, October 11th through the 13th at Lansing, Michigan. More details coming soon.
[01:06:09] Dugun Productions presents the 2024 Halloween Open, October 31st through November 3rd at Magoose in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
[01:06:18] It's the 2024 North Carolina State Championships, November 28th through December 1st at the Crowne Plaza in Asheville, North Carolina.
[01:06:27] Don't forget the 2024 Louisiana State Championships, December 5th through the 8th at the Clarion Hotel in Kenner, New Orleans, Louisiana.
[01:06:37] Each week we do our best to give you the most up-to-date listing of foosball tournaments near you.
[01:06:43] If you have an event you'd like to add, send us all the details at info at foosballradio.com.
[01:06:50] Tune in every week for the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat.
[01:06:55] Foos Talk Live is a product of Foosball Radio.
[01:06:59] With gratitude we recognize our Foosball Radio Patreons.
[01:07:03] Our Foos Talk Live Sponsor, Original-Leonhart-USA.com.
[01:07:08] And thanks to InsideFoos.com for use of their audio during the show.
[01:07:12] Tune in again next week for another episode of Foos Talk Live.
[01:07:16] In the meantime, we'll see you at Fooson!