MBBB28 Recap

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Franklin, MA

Schedule

• • Breakfast at Mak's Roast Beef and Breakfast and Elizabeth's Bagels and More in Franklin, MA at 9:45AM

  • Four Square Volleyball at David's house in Franklin, MA at 11:30AM

  • Croquet (and Foosball) at David's house in Franklin, MA at 1:35PM

  • Lunch at Panera Bread and Five Guys in Franklin, MA at 4:00PM

  • Candlepin Bowling at Ryan Family Amusements in Mills, MA at 5:00PM

  • Wiffleball at Oakland Park in Medway, MA at 6:45PM

  • Ladder Ball at David's house in Franklin, MA at 7:55PM

  • Dinner from ?? at David’s house in Franklin, MA at 9:30PM

  • Movie and Codenames at David's house in Franklin, MA from 9:45PM to 12:00AM

Participants

Dave (28th), Marc (28th), Span (), Brian (), Eugene (), Matt (), Mehr (), Eric (14th)

Photos: Highlights | Complete Set

Videos: Highlights | Complete Set | Four Square Volleyball

Anecdotes

Reviews

Planning

On January 24, 2025, Mehr reached out via group text asking about setting a date for MBBB, noting that he has to request his time off from work very early in the year. Matt felt that the event usually happens around the same time every year, and Marc sent over an image showing the past 5-6 MBBB dates for reference. Mehr also asked about potential locations, suggesting the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Poconos. During this discussion, David offered to potentially host the group if people were interested, which they were.

Then, on February 8, 2025, Mehr followed up again to keep the conversation moving regarding the location, events, and dates. David reaffirmed his offer to host the event at his place in Franklin, MA. To lock things in, Brian sent out a Google Sheet to work on the date, as David mentioned that nailing down the timing was the most "interesting" item on the agenda. A few days later, Brian sent out another sheet to help the group begin planning a treasure hunt.

On April 8, 2025, after utilizing Brian's spreadsheet, the group officially confirmed July 12 as the date of the event. Matt suggested that since David was hosting, he should get to choose some of the events directly, and then everyone else could vote on the remaining three events. In the weeks leading up to the event, Eric mentioned he wanted to go into Boston, with part of that trip including a Red Sox game. He asked if anyone else wanted to join, and Mehr and Matt both expressed interest.

As the event grew closer, the final logistics came together. On July 6, 2025, David suggested some activities for the day's schedule. The next day, July 7, saw more suggestions roll in and the official creation of a vote. David noted that he was completely fine with doing events the group had already done before; he pointed out that table tennis was perhaps the final new event they had ever talked about trying without actually doing, and they had successfully checked that off the list the year prior. For meals, David suggested Mak's for breakfast and a local shopping plaza for lunch. For dinner, the plan leaned toward ordering in, with a local Indian restaurant brought up as one of the top options.

Pre-Breakfast

Eric, Brian, Eugene, and Marc drove together and took a ferry across the Long Island Sound. While on the ferry, they met up with a friend of Eric's who also was a big fan of geocaching. While Eric was talking to his friend, Marc overheard that his friend was a big fan of Star Trek; as Marc was as well, he had Eric formerly introduce him so that they could talk Trek.

As noted above, during the planning of this MBBB, Eric had mentioned that he really wanted to visit Boston again for the first time in a while. He could scout out some new geocaches and also attend a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. Eugene mentioned that he had taken a tour of Fenway many years ago, but with whom? Marc remembered going with his wife and not Eugene. Meanwhile, Eugene said that the tour took him into the Green Monster, and no one else who had toured Fenway remembered that part of the tour. So it remained a mystery.

Eric dropped Marc, Brian, and Eugene at a hotel that was pretty close to Dave's house. He couldn't drop them off at Dave's house because he was on his way to Boston. None of the three wanted to download the Uber app to order a car, but then Marc realized that he already had an Uber account because he got a free year of Uber Eats. The problem then became ordering the car; Marc could not get the app to accept numerous types of payment despite his use of Uber Eats in the near past. They reached out to Dave who was able to order an Uber on their behalf.

During the Uber ride, the three of them had to sit in the back of the car together as the driver did not want anyone to sit up front with him. After arriving at Dave's house, they mentioned it to him (as Dave had to leave a review and asked them how the ride was), and he noted that this had happened to him as well. There was apparently some unwritten rule with Uber drivers.

The Uber dropped the group off at a strip mall, and they went to a Stop and Shop to buy some food. Marc and Eugene both planned to eat a lot of their own food during the weekend as opposed to eating out. Around this time, Mehr texted the group advising that he had arrived in Franklin. Since Dave wasn't quite ready yet to have people as he was still cleaning up, he recommended that Mehr drive over to meet Marc, Brian, and Eugene. David had originally thought that he would pick up those three and drive them back to the house; through a happy coincidence, Mehr ended up driving them.

Dave originally thought that he wouldn't be able to attend the Red Sox game because he thought he had to host people at his house. But then he realized that he could leave them there and on their own?

The three people who didn't go to the Red Sox game spent the night very differently. Marc and Eugene played around with the OLED TV in Dave's living room trying to change various settings including the color to make it look the best that it could.

Later in the evening, Marc decided to do a 10 mile run. He usually wakes up very early Saturday morning to do his runs but felt it would be smarter to do it the night before. This ended up being a smart choice since the group stayed up very late that night partially because Span arrived after 11:00PM due to working a full day at a new job and having to drive all the way from Delaware.

After Marc arrived back the house after his run, he was surprised to find that the house was very dark. Brian and Eugene had fallen asleep very early and remained so until the group that attended the Red Sox game came back to the house, and Mehr drove Eugene back to the hotel.

In the morning?, Span mentioned that he could hear beeping that was apparently a smoke alarm with low batteries. David said that it came from the basement, and he had been unable to find the offending alarm for so long that he didn't even hear the beeping anymore. Taking it as a challenge to find the alarm, Span went down into the basement with David and amazingly found that the beeping was coming from ??

Breakfast

Upon arriving at the restaurant, the non-hotel group called the hotel group to see when they would get there. While waiting, a few people went across the street to buy bagels and coffee, as Brian had been wanting to try the bagels there for a while. Once the hotel group arrived, most of them only ordered coffee or a light breakfast since they had already eaten at the hotel breakfast buffet.

With everyone together at the table, the conversation covered a wide mix of topics. The group started by talking about local food, debating which burger and pizza joints were the most popular. This led into a discussion about video games, specifically Mario-themed role-playing games. The conversation shifted slightly when Mehr mentioned that he had recently been in a car accident where his car was rear-ended.

The rest of the meal was dominated by sports and conspiracy theories. Eric, David, and Matt talked hockey for a while, covering recent trades, free agents, and draft picks. From there, the table started talking about conspiracy theories, including the moon landing and the NBA. Specifically, they debated how the Luka Dončić trade supposedly "led" to the Dallas Mavericks getting the number one pick in the next NBA draft. Finally, when it came time to pay the bill, Matt showed off his "George Costanza" wallet, which was so stuffed full of papers and cards that he couldn't even fit any change inside it.

Four Square Volleyball

Getting to actually playing the game took a considerable amount of time due to the construction of the net and an explanation of the rules. Additionally, a major challenge arose regarding how to record the event. Because all eight members of the group were to play simultaneously, there would be no one on the sidelines to operate a camera. To solve this, Dave jerry-rigged a setup so that his phone would film the game automatically. While setting it up, Dave joked that someone would inevitably hit a ball directly into the phone and knock the whole thing over. However, that prediction proved to be incorrect, as the phone was never in any danger of being hit during the game.

GAME 1

Mehr and Span: 11 points

Eric and Marc: 8 points

Dave and Matt: 4 points

Eugene and Brian: 1 point

Note: Teams would count off the amount of points they had after each stoppage in play. It became a running joke that Eugene and Brian had zero points for such a long portion of the game.

GAME 2

Eric and Marc: 13 points

Mehr and Span: 11 points

Dave and Matt: 9 points

Eugene and Brian: 9 point

Note: Early on in the game, Eric and Marc became the butt of the joke of having zero points as they took the longest to score a point. Meanwhile, the team that was the previous butt of the joke, Eugene and Brian, got out to an early lead over the other teams.

Note: Afterwards, Marc mentioned that he felt that he didn't contribute much to his team, but David said maybe he did better than he thought. They could verify this by viewing the video that David took.

Croquet (and Foosball)

While waiting for the croquet court to be set up and while cooling off in the air-conditioned house, Brian and Mehr engaged in an impromptu game of foosball. Mehr ended up shutting Brian out with a score of 10-0, a shutout that was aided by Brian scoring one own-goal against himself. Their strategies in the game were very different, with Brian trick-spinning the players for power and speed, while Mehr was much more deliberate and tried to use aim and accuracy on his shots.

Once the croquet court was finally ready, the teams were decided quickly: it would be the Struck brothers facing off against the non-Strucks.

The competitive strategy started early on when the non-Strucks hit one of the Strucks' balls past the gate, which effectively took it out of play for the time being. The game turned out to be very long but fun, and strategy abounded throughout the afternoon, leading to numerous quiet conversations between teammates on how to proceed with their next hits.

In the second half of the game, the Strucks had to pivot. Because they were so far behind, they pulled their balls that could no longer be hit through the gates back to the beginning of the course so they could use them strictly for defense. With this move, they put all of their proverbial eggs in one basket, relying entirely on the one single ball they had successfully been able to hit through the gates.

The Strucks actually did a great job of taking the lead with that lone ball, positioning it very close to the final gate. However, the win ultimately came for the non-Strucks due to a bad decision by the Struck team. In an attempt to secure the win, the Strucks used another one of their balls to try to hit their lead ball into an even better position. Instead, the two balls ended up stopping very close to each other. This mistake allowed Eugene to make a long shot to hit one of them, which gave him two bonus shots. Eugene successfully capitalized on the opportunity, completing a combination of shots very nearby the final gate to win the game for the non-Strucks.

Lunch

Prior to going to the restaurants, Marc stopped by the local Stop & Shop to return some bad avocados that he had purchased the day before.

After that, and once the group was together, the lunch conversation kicked off. Matt mentioned that Starry is a rebrand of 7-Up, which was a surprise to a number of people. Soon after that, someone asked Marc when MBBB was last in Franklin, MA. Matt joked, if only there was a resource that they could use to look this information up. Of course there is—this website and its Google search! They pulled it up and discovered that the answer was MBBB22 in 2018.

The meal also featured a couple of gross-out moments. A man vomited outside of the restaurant; ugh, while they were still eating! At least no one captured it on video! To add to the luck, Span ended up with some gum on the sole of his shoe.

Since candlepin bowling is local to Massachusetts, people asked David if anyone had ever bowled a perfect 300, and he said that it definitely had never happened. Looking it up on Google, they found that the top score ever was 245.

The conversation then turned to something that had happened around 25 years ago. Earlier in the day, there had been talk of a trip to Dave's apartment when they were all in college. Dave had just moved into a new apartment, and the group traveling to visit him didn't get his address (they might have had the street name but not the house number) or phone number. What a silly thing to do! Eventually, Marc used a pay phone (remember those?) to call Information, and thankfully, they had Dave's new address, and they were able to find him. They were actually considering sleeping in the car if necessary. There was also a moment where they asked some people coming out of a party if they knew who Dave was (they didn't).

Anyway, the question became who specifically had participated in this trip. Marc was sure that the group included Brian and Eugene. Eric claimed to be part of this trip, but the others were pretty certain that he hadn't been with them. Marc argued that Eric couldn't have been part of the group because he was too responsible and would have never let them take the trip without making sure that they had Dave's phone number and/or home address. And so, during lunch, they asked Dave if he could remember who had made the trip to visit him; he couldn't be sure of anything except that Eric was not one of those people. Though Eric had a distinct memory of the trip, Marc reasoned that perhaps it was a false memory because, no doubt, the group had called him when they realized they couldn't find where Dave then lived.

Candlepin Bowling

As everyone was getting their bowling shoes on and choosing a ball or two that they would be comfortable throwing, they decided that there would be no competition, individual or in teams. Instead, they would simply play for fun.

And the games would be fun even though strikes and spares were exceedingly tough to come by. Though David had a nice run in his second game, there was a distinct lack of high scores despite the fact that the group had chosen to use bumpers! And classic Span, despite those bumpers, he still found a way to throw a gutter ball or two!

After the first game was complete, Marc expressed disappointment in the fact that he just missed out on getting a score of 100 in his first game. He missed doing so on the final throw of the game when only 2 pins were needed to reach the milestone. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. With that said, Marc was surprised that, despite doing much worse in his second game, he still ended up with the second highest score for that round.

The event wrapped up with a brief scare when Brian thought that he had lost his shoes. The group looked everywhere to find them, only for Brian to find them exactly where he had originally taken them off before the games started.

RESULTS

Wiffleball

Once the group made it onto to the field, they briefly thought about playing a full game as that had been the original plan. However, they quickly decided to switch to batting practice instead with the main thought being that a formal game would be too time-consuming. With each person getting a short time to swing at some balls, batting practice would certainly be better time-controlled.

Marc said that he would step up to take the mound and do almost all of the pitching for the event. Out in the field, the defense had a few standout moments, particularly by Mehr who was labeled the "vacuum cleaner" since he caught almost every single fly ball that was hit in his general direction.

On the offensive side, the bats were surprisingly quiet across the board. The balls must have been missing a bit of bounce as even the best hitters in the group, Mehr and Eric, could barely hit a fly ball much further than the innermost section of the outfield.

Ladder Ball

A couple of people decided to play ladder ball while the remainder went into the house to cool off and rest. The game was a pretty quick set up, and a discussion of rules was brief. However, they did emphasize that you couldn't bounce the balls onto the ladder and also discussed whether or not a "tight twister" would get a bonus. As far as it can be recalled, they would not.

GAME 1

Mehr and Marc: 21 points

Eric and Dave: 11 points

GAME 2

Mehr and Marc: 21 points

Dave and Matt: 16 points

Marc was a decisive factor in helping his team win both games. He made a lot of throws that scored three points and theorized that (semi-jokingly), since both ladder ball and wiffleball required underhand throws, and Marc did a bunch of pitching during wiffleball, that helped with how well he played during ladder ball. The games finished around 8:40PM, and the group ended up quite happy with how well the photos and videos came out despite the fading daylight.

Dinner

It was another meal, and so it was another chance for both Marc and Eugene to cook their own dinners instead of ordering from a restaurant. They used Dave's stovetop to cook their vegan and lactose tolerant meals.

The rest of the group ordered in, and since Dave had a new, nice, large island in his kitchen (new since their last visit), people pulled up some stools to eat their dinner there.

Movie and Codenames

The evening then shifted to the living room with the group deciding to watch the movie Office Space though they couldn't remember what exactly prompted them to watch it. Eric, in particular, really wanted to figure out what sparked the idea, but no one could pin it down. There was also an issue with figuring out which streaming service had the movie available as part of their subscription. Apparently,  none did! They were about to give up when Marc suddenly remembered that he owned a digital version of it. Though it took a lot of jumping through hoops, including multiple logins and code verifications, they were finally able to bring the movie up on Dave's TV.

After the movie was finished, Eugene said he was very impressed with how the movie looked on the TV. He thought they had watched 4K version of the film, but Marc clarified that it wasn't actually 4K. Rather, Dave's LG OLED television was known to be very good at upscaling lower-resolution content, and that was what made it look so sharp.

Most of the group then moved back to the kitchen, specifically to the island so that they could play a ew games of Codenames. During the first game, Dave and Span served as the code givers while Brian, Eric, Marc, and Matt acted as the guessers. This first game was ultimately won by either Dave or Span, but we're not sure who!

During the second game, Marc won it thanks to the help of Span guessing his clues. Dave had Eric guessing his clues, but he had drawn very hard cards to guess. This was compounded by Eric accidentally guessing two of Marc's cards during the game. The result was a final round in which Dave needed Eric to get 5 cards right to pull out a win, and that just ended up being too much to ask of Eric, though he gave it a valiant try.

Notes: The games featured some funny debates over word associations. For example, one of Marc's clues was "jail" which he gave so that Span would guess the target word "cell." Afterward, Span joked that Marc could have just said "mitochondria." Marc admitted he had tried to think of a biological part of a cell during the round but that he couldn't come up with one in the moment! During another round, Marc didn't realize that "capital" could reference a state or country capital (since "capitol" with an 'o' refers only to the physical building of the capital). As Span is a master of geography, he reasoned that Marc could have used a very specific capital such as "Montpelier" (the capital of Vermont) as a clue. Marc responded that, surprisingly, he had actually thought of using "Montpelier" during the game but held himself back!