James Fremont

After 15 years of covering jocks throwing balls around a field, I've moved on to writing on a "sport" where the ball and the field are under glass. That's why I'm here for Kineticist.

I wrote, produced photography and did layout for a few daily and weekly newspapers in Texas, before a few stints living in other parts of the country. Then, I ended up in Chicago in 2019. While I've played pinball since I was young enough to need a stool or chair to see over the lockdown bar, it was only here in pinball's hometown that I took up playing competitively and regularly. This is already more than I'm used to writing about myself and, if I were to actually write an article about myself playing pinball, the resulting piece would be built around the great folks in the scene here, more than anything else.

You might say that's what I'm here to do. It's their world, and I'm just living and playing in it. And I wouldn't prefer it any other way.

 

I still enjoy the other, more traditional sports for which I used to sit in press boxes. As such, perhaps you'd might find me at The Pinball Capital on Frank Thomas' Big Hurt or Bobby Orr's Power Play.

 

Especially the latter. Classic Bally and Stern are in my wheelhouse in any pinball competition.