All-Saints Day 2024: Games and Names
Today (11.01.24) we'll have a "throw-back" stream celebrating the ten year (!) anniversary of a really fun event we held in St. Paul, MN, "All Saints Day." That day, about a dozen PLAAY gamers gathered at a game store in St. Paul, Level Up Games, to play sports games featuring teams with the "Saints" nickname. It's hard to believe it's been a DECADE since then! My recap of the event is posted below, it was an amazingly FUN day and it calls to mind so many great memories.
NOTE 11.13.24: Here are the results from our “encore” All-Saints online stream…
2009 New Orleans Saints 31, Minnesota Vikings 21: A re-do of the 2009 NFC Championship Game, the score was closer than the actual result with the Saints romping to a 31-0 lead thanks to multiple Vikings turnovers (Brett Favre interceptions and Adrian Peterson fumbles!). Favre eventually got hot, and his TD pass as time expired made it a 10-point game. Saints lead series 1-0.
1955 Minneapolis Millers 12, St. Paul Saints 5 (History Maker Baseball): We got Bruce Scott’s epic 1955 American Association teams on the table again, a true hitters league. And, just like ten years ago, the runs were frequent! The Millers opened with a seven-run first-inning, and added runs in the fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth. The closest the Saints could get was a four-run fifth inning that closed the gap to 8-4. Series tied 1-1
1972-73 Alberta Oilers 5, Minnesota FIghting Saints 3 (Hockey Blast): Seven of the game’s eight goals were scored in the second period! The Oilers ended the first period on top 1-0 after a goal from Barrie in the 8th minute. That’s when the fun began, a whirlwind of goals! A power play goal from Patenaude put Alberta up 2-0, the Saints responded with a pair, but Oilers went on a three-goal run to make it 5-2. Jensen’s power play goal closed out the scoring for Minnesota as the period ended. Then, just as suddenly as the scoring began-it stopped! Saints trail series 2-1
2020 Southampton Saints 3, AFC Richmond 3 (Soccer Blast): Yes, we played the Saints against “Ted Lasso’s” squad, what a game! Jamie Tartt’s second goal in the 80th minute gave the Greyhounds what appeared to be an insurmountable 3-1 lead. BUT the Saints got inspired late: Ward Prowse scored in the 85th minute, and Redmond legged in a shot in stoppage time to give the Saints the draw! Series ends with the Saints on the short end of a 1-2-1 record.
Aside from sports games, All Saints Day is a day of remembrance, where people of faith think back and celebrate the lives of people who are no longer with us. Implicit in this celebration is our belief that we are actually ONE body of people, in TWO places--here, and "there." As Norman Vincent Peale put it, "there IS no 'death,' rather, there are two sides to life: this side and the other side."
With that in mind, I thought it would be appropriate to remember some sports gamers who qualify as "saints," friends of our community who have passed on…
• Bob Jinkerson: Bob was a special guy, a sports gamer who loved baseball (big Cardinals fan), but also enjoyed the "perimeter" sports like roller derby, bowling and wrestling. The sweetest guy you'd ever meet, he was soft-spoken and kind. He set up our St. Louis event, arranging time and space in a local game store, and was sort of the "mayor" of the event. Bob was also a music lover--if I remember correctly, his forum handle was "MusicBob." He was an accomplished clarinet player, and played regularly around the St. Louis area.
• Mike Lam: I met Mike at our "Time Machine Tournament" in San Jose, CA back in 2015. He was a fan of baseball first and foremost, loved the Orioles and enjoyed many different baseball board games. These were the early days of HMB, and he had a lot of thoughts about the game, especially as it compared to other games he had played. He was a calm, thoughtful guy, measured his words carefully, even tempered, intelligent. He enjoyed the get-together so much, he made a trip to Arizona the next year to play in the Time Machine Tournament again (again taking the '71 Orioles!), and was scheduled to attend our convention in 2018 before illness precluded him from doing so.
• Fran Larkin: Fran was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of HMB when it first came out--in fact, his words are still on the back of the HMB game box! "A game with no numbers! Fun, fun, FUN!" Fran really WAS a fun guy. Man, did he love baseball. Spring training through Opening Day--it was like Christmas for him! Coffee in the morning poring over yesterday's box scores. I got a chance to meet Fran at our first Boston event in 2014, and he was every bit as personable in the flesh as he was in the many posts he used to make online in the Delphi Forums. He wrote a book, "Five Words And Then Some: How To Succeed In This Big Game We Call Life." It's still available on Amazon, and if you want to know more about Fran, pick up a copy--GREAT reading!
• Bob O’Halloran: Bob and I were connected by sports games and radio. He was good friends with my first radio mentor, Craig King. Craig and I had worked together at my very FIRST radio station, WCOW in Sparta, WI back in 1974. Bob, a fellow Wisconsinite, met Craig a few years later. It all came together in the 2000s when Bob and Craig discovered that they BOTH were friends with me! Bob had talked to Craig about Second Season, and somehow my name came up! "Huh!?" So funny. Bob was a big fan of the fictional football series, Football America, and would often send me e-mailed updates of his plans. Like a lot of us, his plans were sometimes more grandiose than the time available to complete them. He was a joyous, effervescent guy who I always loved to hear from.
• George Peete: Where do I start with George? Such a wonderful, gentle, lovable guy. I first met him in-person in Ohio in 2015--I did TWO events the same weekend, Friday night in Columbus and Saturday afternoon in Cleveland. George met me in Columbus, and we drove together to Cleveland. The thing is, George never had a drivers' license! So he had to take public transportation, everywhere (or walk!). He took a bus to Columbus from his home town of Buffalo, and I dropped him off at the bus station in Cleveland after the PLAAY event. But not before we had dinner at Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips! One of only a half-dozen remaining restaurants of that chain (now down to just three, at one time there were almost 1000 of them nation-wide!). George also traveled with me, Art Campana and Gary Chrosniak from Buffalo to the first Hockey Day in Canada in 2017, and bussed it by himself to Pittsburgh for the 2018 tournament. I used to get encouraging texts from him every once in awhile, especially before the holiday sale (he had my cell number from the Ohio trip). I really, really miss George!
• Bill Priester: I never met Bill in person, but exchanged many e-mails with him over the years. As many know, he was a VIP in the hobby, highly respected, with extensive experience in many iconic games! I very much valued the exchanges we had! I remember the (uncomplimentary) review he left on Board Game Geek about HMB when it first came out. I was hurt, of course, but he had been so supportive of Second Season, I remember wondering if he even knew that I made both games!? He later came to appreciate HMB, and was able to enjoy it with the fictional cards, and he also loved Soccer Blast. An articulate, energetic emissary for the sports game hobby! Very much missed!
• Dave Richter: Dave was one of the first people ever to get Second Season football, this was back when I lived/worked in Dallas. When I re-started the game biz after having moved to the Denver area, I immediately looked Dave up (he lived in Westminster, CO). From then on, we got together regularly, maybe once a month or so, to play games and hang out. Dave joined me on-site at numerous early Denver-area events, as I was trying to find my footing with the games. He helped me with a baseball game event at Southwest Center, back before HMB came out, when I was still basing the game around baseball trading cards. We did another event in Broomfield, at a sports card show (thinking it was adjacent to the sports game hobby), that was just after releasing the 1964 Pro Season for SS. We played the "what-if" '64 Super Bowl, Browns vs. Bills (great game, Browns pulled it out 19-17 on Lou Groza's 50-yard FG as time expired!). He also joined me at several Denver game conventions (Genghis-CON, Star Fest, etc.), we'd usually play a Broncos vs. Saints game between booth/table visitors. Dave was instrumental in developing the NASCAR game, and also helped out with soccer, hockey and pretty much every other game that came between 2009 and 2017. Dave was warm and caring, humorous and quiet. I'm looking forward to seeing him again "on the other side!"
• Jeff Robinson: Jeff was one of our sports game "elder statesmen," he was among the original crew of PLAAY gamers in 2000 and hung in there until his death this past spring at age 81. He loved football--SS and Cold Snap, but he also played other football board games. When he dies, he left a closet FULL of three-ring binders crammed with pencil-written football scoresheets and statistics. I never met Jeff in person, but I felt like I knew him from so many letters and e-mails. His correspondence was regular, but not wordy. He wasn't a talkative guy, more of a "no-nonsense" sort. His social media photo showed him wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a sly grin on his be-spectacled face. Perfect.
• Mike Wahl: Mike was a huge Canadian football fan, and was one of the early arrivals when I re-launched PLAAY games in 2009 and added Cold Snap to the lineup. He was super helpful in acquainting me to the nuances of the Canadian game, and provided quite a bit of play-test feedback. We kept in touch as his health situation grew more challenging, and he was always optimistic, cheerful and enthusiastic. I was so pleased when he was able to fulfill a lifelong dream to attend the Grey Cup game in Ottawa in 2016.
• Mike Zett: Mike was another local guy, he lived in Broomfield and we connected in-person many times over the years. Warm and personable, he was one of the PLAAY crew that went to Coors Field for a Rockies game just before the All-Star Break in 2016--we got there early and played the upcoming All-Star game with HMB inside the stadium before the game began (side note we made a card for Fran Larkin as our home plate umpire for that game!) I remember he joined us at game stores for the Commissioner's Surprise Hockey Blast Tournament a couple of times. He also came over to the house for one of our "locals only" get-togethers just before the holidays, where gave a sneak-preview of the upcoming holiday game (Fury Hardball that year). Mike loved all kinds of sports, he especially enjoyed the golf and NASCAR games.
I often wonder whether there will be board games in heaven. Many years ago, Billy Graham was a guest on the Johnny Carson show, and he and Johnny were talking about what it will be like in heaven. Like, will we be able to play golf? Rev. Graham said he surely hoped so, because he loved playing so much! He said he'd asked his wife Ruth (a Bible scholar in her own right) whether she thought there would be golf in heaven, and she said "if golf is important to your happiness, it will be there." What a great perspective! And, if it applies to golf, it applies to sports board games!
The following is the website re-cap of the original “All Saints Day” event in 2014, along with a couple of photos from the event. Apologies for the low resolution, I grabbed these from the old PLAAY.com website files, my Photoshop skills were (and still are) not that great. That’s Dave Gray in the photo at left, playing the ‘68 Vikings against the ‘68 Saints. In the photo at right, Danny Saukkola, Bill Hild, Dave Gray, John Ewing, Mike Olsen.
PLAAY Games in St. Paul, MN, November 1, 2014
A couple years ago, I had the idea of celebrating "All Saints Day" by playing a series of tabletop sports game featuring teams with the nickname "Saints." (As many know, I am a life-long fan of the New Orleans Saints, and as such have developed an affinity for ALL "Saints" teams.) Well, in 2014 year, All Saints Day fell on a Saturday, so I thought, why not make this an official PLAAY Games event? And--even better--why not HOLD the event in a city named after a saint? After a flurry of e-mails, it was decided: the first-ever PLAAY Games "All Saints Day" would be held in St. Paul Minnesota, Saturday, November 1, 2014!
After getting the green light from several Twin City PLAAY Gamers, the next step was to find a place which would host our event. I contacted Level Up Games in South St. Paul, and they were excited to have us! THAT was easy! I composed a list of PLAAY Gamers who lived within a couple hours of the Twin Cities, and asked those who expressed an interest in attending what their preferences were in tabletop sports. Then, I put together an itinerary of Saints games that would match the sports interests. Originally, I thought we'd have one game for each sport, but I realized that we had a majority of football and baseball gamers coming. So I extended the HMB action to three games, and added a second football game.
With a carry-on stuffed full of sports games and wearing my "Saints Football" shirt (underneath a fleece jacket!), I caught a VERY early flight out of Denver and arrived in Minneapolis airport Saturday morning around 9:30. After picking up my rental car (with the heater turned on full blast, it was 26 degrees!), I headed out from the airport on Minnesota route 5, past historic Fort Snelling, over to St. Paul and Level Up Games.
The event was scheduled to begin at noon, but when I arrived around 11:30, Bill Hild was already there! (He had altered me to the fact that he'd be wearing a Minnesota North Stars cap--so when I saw it, I knew it had to be him! We had much about which to get caught up--like me, Bill's a former radio guy, so we talked some radio. Bill has written a book about Presidents, "They Were President’s, Weren’t They?" so we talked about how sales were going (well!) and then some chit-chat about tabletop sports in general.
Right around noon, just like clockwork, folks started to arrive. (Something about us tabletop sports hobbyists, we tend to be punctual!) David Gray, Mike Olsen, and John Ewing arrived first, followed shortly after by Danny Saukkola--dressed in his Jared Allen Vikings jersey, ready to avenge the 2009 NFC Championship Game loss to the New Orleans Saints with a SECOND SEASON re-match. After the introductions were exchanged, and a little bit of small talk, we decided to get right to the action, with Mike Olsen talking the reins of the '09 Saints to face Danny's Vikings. On the other side of the game table, John and David faced each other with a different Saints-Vikings match-up, featuring the 1968 teams. About 1:00, Andrew Cleary arrived, and the last of our first-round action was underway: game one of a three-game HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL series between the 1955 St. Paul Saints and Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, using home-brewed cards courtesy of Bruce Scott, from Sterling, CO.
During the game, our group grew to ten: Bill Szydlo and his son Caleb arrived and sat down to watch the '68 Saints-Vikings game. Shortly after, Wayne Anderson stopped by on his way to the Minnesota Wild game, and hung around to watch the Millers and Saints action.
Here's a re-cap of all the "All Saints" game action...
FOOTBALL: 2009 New Orleans Saints (Mike Olsen) 20, 2009 Minnesota Vikings (Danny Saukkola) 17
This was a game for the ages, Danny told me afterward his heart was pounding just like it was during the real game in ’09! Minnesota seized an early lead, capitalizing on a Drew Brees “pick six” that was returned to the house by Cedric Griffin, 57 yards for the touchdown, followed by a Brett Favre to Sidney Rice touchdown pass that made it 14-0 near the end of the first quarter. But after that, the game began to eerily resemble the real-life version, with Adrian Peterson alternating killing Viking drives and setting up Saints scores with a series of critical fumbles. Brees connected with Pierre Thomas from 2 yards out to make it 14-7, and Peterson’s fumble at the Minnesota 16 led to a Garrett Hartley field goal to make it 14-10. Darren Sharper then picked off Favre and ran it back to the Viking 26, setting up a go-ahead Saints TD, Brees to Shockey from 4 yards out, and New Orleans had a 17-14 halftime lead.
At that point, we all thought it was going to be a 34-31 shootout just like the real game was. Instead, it settled into a field position battle, with the Saints getting a 31-yard FG from Hartley in the third period to make it 20-14. The game’s pivotal play came early in the fourth period. Facing a fourth and three from the Saints 36, Danny elected to go for the first down rather than have Ryan Longwell attempt a 53-yard field goal. Favre dumped off to Petersen on a screen pass, and Peterson galloped down the sideline for a 23 yard gain. BUT—a flag on the play, the Vikings called for holding. That not only took away the first down, but also eliminated the chance for a field goal. Danny wound up punting, with Mike and the Saints taking over inside the ten yard line.
The missed opportunity loomed large late in the game. After a Saints punt, Danny drove the Vikings downfield, getting to the Saints 20 before fizzling out with 4:30 to play. Longwell’s 37-yard kick made it 20-17. After the kickoff, Mike managed to eke out one first down for the Saints, but then punted with just over 2:00 to play. At that point, the buzz around the table centered around what if Danny had taken the field goal on the earlier fourth-quarter series instead of going for it on fourth down? A 53-yard field goal was no “gimme,” but it assuming it was made, the score would now be tied 20-20. Instead, Danny’s Vikings trailed. Danny got the Vikings close to midfield but a fourth down pass to Percy Harvin fell incomplete with 36 second left, and New Orleans escaped with the win—again!
FOOTBALL: 1968 Minnesota Vikings (David Gray) 23, 1968 New Orleans Saints (John Ewing) 13
I was keeping the game book and stats for the 2009 game, so I was only able to follow the action on this game intermittently. It was a see-saw battle—another awesome game! The Vikings opened by trapping Billy Kilmer in the end zone for a safety and a 2-0 lead, but FB Tony Lorick put the Saints on top with a two-yard touchdown burst. Minnesota regained the lead near halftime, on Dave Osborn’s 4-yard scoring catch, making it 9-7 at the half. After a scoreless third period, Kilmer found Dave Parks on a 6-yard TD pass early in the fourth period and again the Saints had the lead, although Charlie Durkee missed the extra point. But Minnesota drove down the field and regained the lead, Bill Brown bulldozing in from the seven, making it 16-13, Minnesota. Then came the turning point of the game, as John went to the trick play page for the Saints—resulting in a “trick play disaster,” Parks throwing an interception that set the Vikings up for an insurance touchdown, again carried across by Brown. For the game, Brown carried 20 times for 88 yards—overall, the Vikings rang up 212 yards on the ground, while Saints were held to just 51 yards on 27 carries.
BASEBALL: 1955 St. Paul Saints (Andrew Cleary) 20-9 vs. 1955 Minneapolis Millers (Bill Hild) 6-9
Again, being part of the football action, I was unable to keep close tabs on what was going on with the baseball games. There was PLENTY of hitting in this series, though—Bud Hutson for the Saints set the tone in the bottom of the first with a three-run home run before the first out was even recorded!! That opened the floodgates for the Saints, who would score in every inning except the third enroute to a 20-6 thrashing of the Millers in game one. Notable for the Saints was Bill Sharman’s performance: Sharman drew walks his first FIVE at bats, then got on-base with an error for his final at-bat!
Game two looked like more of the same, with the Millers committing a pair of errors in the first inning sandwiched around three hits, and the Saints took a quick 2-0 lead. By the end of the eighth, St. Paul had a comfortable 8-3 lead, with Sharman smacking a home run in a three-run fifth inning. Top of the eighth, though, a Billy Gardner home run drew the Millers to within two runs, 8-6. and after a Bob Lennon HR in the top of the ninth, Gardner drove in Irvin with a run-scoring single to tie the game at 8-8. St. Paul went down 1-2-3 in the ninth, both teams scored a run in the tenth to make it 9-9. At that point, with round two of the event beckoning, we decided to call the game on account of darkness…(to be continued!)…
Round Two of "All-Saints Day" got underway around 3:30...
Danny shed his Vikings jersey and swapped it for a vintage (and very cool!) gray flannel Minneapolis Millers jersey and cap, and picked up game three of the Millers-Saints HMB series, with John Ewing taking the Saints. David and Andrew took their places on the pitch coaching the EPL’s Southampton Saints and Newcastle, respectively….
BASEBALL: 1955 Minneapolis Millers (Danny Saukkola) 12, 1955 St. Paul Saints (John Ewing) 5
Another classic American Association slugfest, with the Millers striking for five runs in the bottom of the second inning, Irvin and Sawatski each clubbing home runs for a 6-1 lead. Lennon got his second dinger of the series in the fifth to make it 9-1. The Saints rallied for four runs in the eighth, but the Millers responded with three in their half. Carl Sawatski ripped his second home run of the game in the 9th to provide the icing on the cake in an easy Millers win, 12-5.
SOCCER: 2013-14 Southampton Saints (David Gray) 1, 2013-14 Newcastle (Andrew Cleary) 1
Sadly, I seem to have misplaced the score sheet for this game—I thought it was with the other game score sheets, but it’s MIA! Perhaps it will show up later and I can update this report. From memory, the Saints scored first, midway through the first half, Newcastle used a boost chip late to gain the equalizer.
HOCKEY: 1972-73 Minnesota Fighting Saints (Keith Avallone) 3, Alberta Oilers (Mike Olsen) 1
Bill had to leave a little early to be able to make it back to South Dakota before dark, so I took his place coaching the ’72-73 Fighting Saints in the redux of their playoff play-in game against the Alberta Oilers, who were coached by Mike. After a scoreless and mostly lifeless first period, Minnesota got on the board with a power-play goal in the 10th minute of the second period, Wayne Connelly with the unassisted goal. Then, a frenzy of shots—bare misses and great saves all around, until Connelly put the puck in the net again in the 17th minute, assisted by Terry Ball and Jim Johnson. Alberta finally got on the board with six minutes left to play, Jim Harrison’s shot trickling past Mike Curran, and the Oilers were back in it, 2-1. In the final minute, Mike pulled his goalie, hoping to send the game into OT, but instead the Saints clinched the game with an empty-netter by—who else?—Wayne Connelly, for the hat trick.
BASEBALL: 1955 Minneapolis Millers (Danny Saukkola) 11, 1955 St. Paul Saints (John Ewing) 9
Since we had some game time left, Danny and John decided to resume Bill and Andrew’s Millers-Saints game that was called by darkness, tied 9-9. The Millers got the go-ahead run in the top of the 12th on a solo homer by Ron Northey, and an insurance run from Dan Bollweg’s run-scoring double. The Saints were unable to get anything in their half, so the Millers took the game 11-9, and the series 2-games-to-1.
“ALL-Saints” Series FINAL RECKONING...
That left the series tied, 3-3-1. The Saints had won a football game, a baseball game and the hockey game, and the non-Saints had won two baseball games and a football game—and then there was the soccer tie. We collectively decided that the best way to settle it was to break the soccer tie with a penalty kick shoot-out. Talk about DRAMA! With eight remaining PLAAY Gamers, we split off four each for each team, with each of us rolling the dice for a penalty kick for our respective team. If tied after four kicks, we’d go to sudden death. It wasn’t necessary, as the Saints PLAAY Gamers converted all four kicks, while the Newcastle PLAAY Gamers missed one—(I don’t remember who it was, but I do remember that it was a SPEC SAVE by the Saints’ keeper that kept the ball out of the net!)
So, the game—and the All-Saints Day series—goes to the SAINTS!!
All-Saints Day Round Three: BOWLING!
That took us to 5:00, and the final event of the afternoon—the “All Saints Open Bowling Tournament” with BOWL-O-RAMA! I read the results from the bowling cards and kept score while the seven remaining PLAAY Gamers bowled for PLAAY Games gift cards—$50 for the winner, $25 for the two runners-up. It was a two-game series, no handicap, total pins, participant mode, using the generic 195 average card—putting everyone on equal footing, not quite at the pro level, but pretty good.
For the first game, scores were a little low as people got the hang of rolling the d20 down the card stock alley. Andrew rolled the high game with a 198, followed by David with a 193 and Michael with a 181. Game two, Bill came on like gangbusters, rolling strikes in the 7th, 8th, and 9th frames, finishing with a 214. Added to his 167 from game one, that gave him an All-Saints Day best two-game total of 381—the winner!! David and Michael ended up with 374, tied for second place. Here are the final two-game totals…
Bill Szydlo, 381 (214-167)
David Gray, 374 (193-181)
Mike Olsen, 374 (181-193)
Andrew Cleary, 338 (198-140)
Danny Saukkola, 335 (146-189)
John Ewing, 323 (178-145)
Caleb Szydlo, 264 (122-142)
Amazingly, the bowling tournament ended exactly at 6:00, just as planned! We hung around a little while longer and visited, and then Danny and I headed out to grab some dinner at the Mall of America while everyone else headed home. All in all, a memorable time with good games and GREAT people!
A special thanks to Coary and the gang at Level Up Games for being such great hosts for our event. If you’re near the Twin Cities and looking for a great game store, this is IT. Spacious, clean, comfortable, bright and friendly!