The first ever event in the Spam Triple Crown, The Spam Open, occurred. Mike showed up to his first event and won. Steve finished second to be number one in the world. Ben blew his chance for third by messing up a chance to smash Brandon's ball. But the true story of this event was grass. No, not that grass. We mowed our lawn the previous day after it got mighty high and The Lasher brothers didn't rake it up. So at the event, Steve and Ben raked the grass into traps and made one large grass pile into a hole for the game. Grassy Knoll was created.
In celebration of the premiere of " The Mummy" we had our first and last Mummy Invitational. Our fifth regular tour player, Jon, made a successful debut to get second. Steve, now known as the evil tyrant, had won again. But many great and painful memories were created that day. The ramp shot was created, sure, but the end of an era occurred when Ben swung that mallet into his ball into that happy, plastic frog.
Sure we all had tapped the frog in the past to the next hole, Wood You Like To Win, but Ben destroyed the frog. Attempting to pass Jon for second, he smashed the plastic frog full force. This wounded the frog beyond belief and disgusted the gallery. Ben received a stiff penalty and ended in third.
Brandon had more problems with the deck shot but Mike pulled the big miscue allowing Brandon to finish fourth. Going into Shed Happens, Mike launched his ball behind mounds of garden tools. After a few attempts, the field said something about the shot that had never been said before in Ironman Croquet history, Impossible. We allowed him to move it but he still finished last and had to avoid the hail.
Steve and I in our Jazz History Class set out to write up rules and maybe a shot list for future reference. The league was kinda of at a stand still until the week I asked Steve if he wanted a tournament memorial day weekend. Steve said he was doing some D&D thing, so he joked we should have a No-Steve's Tournament. That's it! So we did.
After many delays, we had it on Memorial Day. The field consisting of Jon, Brandon, Ben, and Mike. The tournament was the final appearance of legendary shots The Bob Bastard Box and The Frog Shot. The deck screwed over Brandon who was saved by the new rules Ben and Brandon wrote. But when Mike was cruising to victory passing new shot Tired Yet? when the street came back in play. The nasty new shot, Canales, caused Mike to constantly fall into the street. He finished third. Ben and Jon ended with a neck and neck race for the title but Ben's experience won out.
Brandon pondered retirement and the very first newsletter, IMC News, was wrote. It contained tournament results, rankings, and an extra story about the frog. The sport was becoming legit as the next two events were set.
We had our first night event, thanks to Ben working on June 5, 1999. The twelve hole event, The We-Have-No-Lives-Classic occurred. The event became one of the most important on tour when "The Living Legend" Scott Balthrop drove all the way up from California to attend. He drove thru earthquakes, snowstorms, thunderstorms, terrorist attacks, and droves of killer bees to attempt the chance to win the prize, a box of Life cereal. But it wasn't to be...the evil Ben and him had a nasty feud. Ben finished fourth and The " Living Legend" fifth . The Legend showed his skills by landing a ball on a lawn chair. It marked the first appearance of the Petrified Forest and Chain Link Mess.
Jon, who skipped his own high school graduation to show up, cruised to easy victory. Jon won his own bought box of life cereal. He nearly pulled out the rare hole-in-one at the Raspberry causing his to nearly pee his pants in shock. Brandon retirement talk motivated him as he finished \ for an easy second. Steve crawled to third because of Ben and Scott. The first ever league pictures were taken that day as Jon proudly showed off his box of Life cereal.
The question remained could Steve be stopped? He had run crazy through the early part of the year. But he didn't count on what would happen at The Orange Shirt Classic, ending his reign for the year.