At age 7, Scott Berzon could often be found in the basement of his home playing pinball. That long-dormant experience kicked into high gear on Mon., May 12 when he won the gold medal in the 2025 St. Louis Senior Olympics pinball competition.
“The old man was looking down at me last night,” said Berzon, director of community impact at the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. “Growing up, my father was really into pinball and billiards. We had a ‘Tommy – The Who’ pinball machine. It’s still sitting in my mom’s house, but it needs some work. We used to go up to 7-11 at Olive and 270. They had a machine that was my dad’s favorite called High Speed, with race cars. He’d give us money and let us play pinball there.”
Pinball is one of the new events added to the senior olympics this year. The event was held at The Waiting Room in St. Ann, and rules met the standards of the International Flipper Pinball Association. They stipulate how to handle unforeseen malfunctions, like the balky right flipper on the Ghostbusters machine. Doc, owner of The Waiting Room, performed some minor surgery and corrected the glitch before competition began.
During the final round, Berzon came back from being down two games to rally back and win top honors. Silver and bronze medals went to Lisa and Roy Kramer, who are both members of Congregation B’nai Amoona. Like Berzon, while growing up the Kramer’s spent a good portion of their leisure time playing pinball. They said muscle memory from decades ago helped them capture victory.
“It was around 1975, and we used to go to Strike and Spare bowling alley,” said Roy Kramer. “We played Fireball. It had a spinning disk in the middle.”
“After school in junior high, I went to Strike and Spare every day,” said Lisa Kramer. “I was a program for both the Jewish Community Center and the YMCA, and I took the kids on field trips to bowling alleys, so I always played pinball.”
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