More difficult than it looks
K-Days midway games even stump the pros
What’s the fastest way to get rid of $40? Hit the midway at K-Days.
While spying the number of people walking around the Northlands grounds with oversized stuffed animals may not be as rare as spotting a unicorn, the reality is these games only look easy.
On Wednesday night, two pitchers from the Edmonton Prospects baseball team, Cory Duggan and Blake Mitchell, were each armed with a $20 bill to try some of the games that should have showcased their specialty: throwing.
Mitchell, a 21-year-old Orange County, Calif. native who throws between 88 and 91 miles per hour, and Duggan, a 21-year-old Toronto native who throws about 85 miles per hour, each played four different games.
The first enticed patrons to break two plates with two balls for $5.
While both hit the first plate, they couldn’t shatter the second plate, causing a thunderous noise when the ball slammed against the sheet metal behind the playing area.
“There’s a lot more room to miss than hit something,” Mitchell said.
Next, they tried Blockbuster, a game that requires the player to hit three blocks off a stand.
A simple concept that seems easy to the untrained eye, the trick was hitting the blocks correctly to ensure the bottom block managed to fall off the stand along with the other two. They couldn’t do it. “I just feel so disappointed,” Duggan said after.
Basket toss wasn’t any better. By tossing two softballs into a wicker basket, players could walk away with any number of neon-coloured animals. But the trick was tossing the ball softly enough so that it didn’t bounce out. After Mitchell and Duggan took turns, another man spent nearly $40 in about two minutes trying his luck to no avail.
Finally, they attempted ring toss: a classic, but “probably the toughest game out of all of them,” Mitchell said afterward.
Forty rings later, the last of the money was gone.
“I feel like a failure,” Duggan said.
“That’s baseball though: a game of failures,” Mitchell replied.