Thursday - June 16, 2011

2nd Place and holding

We had the bye this week in our tiny little summer bowling league. My wife had to visit her sister in the hospital (who is just fine now, thanks) so she wasn’t there. The other 2 guys on our team are fairly new to the sport, and both are monkey bowlers. That’s what I call the cranker style of bent wrist, thumbless bowling where the bowler palms the ball against the inside of his wrist. The approach reminds me of these little plastic guys from my childhood

So anyway, we had the bye, and had to “earn the points” by rolling better than our team average minus 40 pins. So I used the opportunity to explain tactical bowling to these new guys; we could win the games with ease, but bowling just enough would keep our averages low, which would give us an advantage when bowling against other teams in future weeks. They understood, but decided to just bowl as well as they could anyway. That’s cool. Nothing wrong with doing your best.

So I went tactical the first game and rolled low with a 176. We won. I rolled a 205 in the second game, and explained how this would allow them to roll low if they wanted, to spread the “tactical” approach evenly amongst each of us. They threw their best; Bill rolled a 224. We won that game with almost 100 pins more than needed. We’re a loud and raucous group, which is fun, and Bill was all in your face! at me, the experienced bowler, after his 224 game, which beat my 205. So I threw “tactical” to the winds and bowled seriously the 3rd game, pulling a 178 on a strike in the 9th. I started off the 10th with two strikes, X X, then covered my eyes and just chucked the last ball and got a 6, giving me a 224 just like Bill’s. Didn’t want to take away his moment, but I did want to show that I could match his score just by screwing around. In your face! We won that game by more than 100. That gave me a 605 for the night, but because the USBC considers summer season to be an extension of winter season, where I bowled several 600+ series, there won’t be another “wonderful” refrigerator magnet award for me. You only get one of each per season / calender year.

Since this was only week 5 of league, next week I expect our averages to go up 9 or 10 pins each. Which is the antithesis of tactical, so I’ll remind them of that then if we find ourselves up against the wall. Whatever, we had fun, and since it was just the 3 of us, we were done with all 3 games in just over an hour. Sweet.

Our team is in 2nd place. The first place team had a forfeit, which is just like a bye, so I expect they took all 7 too. So we’ll stay in 2nd, and both teams will open the margin from the 3rd place team.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/16/2011 at 03:43 PM   
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   Friday - June 03, 2011

Hope They Had Insurance

Pinheads strike it rich in 80G bowling-alley heist

Two armed robbers hit pay dirt when they stuck up a Brooklyn bowling alley—hauling away $80,000 in cash that had just been collected for tournament winners.

An employee of the bowling alley had just walked out Maple Lanes’ back door, on 60th Street near 16th Avenue, at about 4 p.m. Wednesday when the gunmen forced him back inside, police sources said.

The thieves hit one worker in the head with the butt of a gun, then rounded up the four employees in the place, ordered them to lie face down on the floor, and proceeded to bind their hands with duct tape, the sources said.

The thugs, each described as wearing dark clothing, sunglasses and a cap, then stuffed the money into a trash bag and fled.

The cash had been collected earlier in the day as proceeds for three bowling leagues. Some of it had been earmarked for tourney winners later in the day.

None of the employees reported suffering any serious injuries, police said.

Maple Lanes is one of the last remaining regular bowling centers in Brooklyn NY, in the Bensonhurst neighborhood. They’ve been a family owned business for over 50 years, the business passing from father to son. The LaSpina family also owns several other bowling centers in Queens and Long Island. The alley has 48 lanes.

We are not getting the whole story here or the correct one; no league puts more than 5 bowlers on a team, so even if the 3 leagues mentioned each took up all the lanes, that would imply that each bowler paid $111 for that week’s bowling. No. Not gonna happen. $20, maybe $25 tops. No sensible business keeps weeks worth of cash on hand either; they take it to the bank every day.

I’ve never been to this place, but a little web research shows that they run an annual scholarship tournament which raises $60,000 or more. That’s my first guess although it’s pure conjecture because I don’t have their schedule; it looks like the Peter J LaSpina Sr Memorial Scholarship Tournament was run back in April, but they could certainly have more than one such tourney per year. Perhaps the tournament runs across several months; the weekly bowling paper (see pg 3) implies that it is now over. Yes, there is a weekly bowling paper. Actually there are many many local editions of it across the country.

The only other reason I could see for them to have that much cash on hand would be if the three leagues were all doing their prize payout that day. Figure teams of 4, $6.50 per bowler per week into the prize fund, 30 week season, full size leagues of 34 teams ... yeah, that’s 80 grand. And the prize payouts are always in cash. And the last of the winter leagues have ended by now. Knowing all of this would imply some kind of an inside job; no one not familiar with several of the leagues in that particular bowling center would have this kind of knowledge.

Maple Lanes is located in a demographically dynamic area; right now it’s smack dab in the middle of a big Jewish neighborhood with a synagogue right across the street. But a changing democgraphic makes for an uncertain future for the lanes, because the cold truth is that some demographic groups just aren’t into bowling. There have been plans afoot for several years now to rezone the property and to sell the land to apartment builders.

So who knows? I just hope that they followed USBC’s directive and had everything insured. That’s what it’s there for.

Which reminds me, as President of the little rinky dink summer league I’m on, I’d better get to my bowling alley and see if I have to sign papers and stuff. Including the insurance policy, just in case. Yes, I’m the president. I didn’t get elected; I volunteered. I have to talk to the owner about the schedule too; after 3 weeks of bowling it looks like we only have 5 teams, not the 8 we thought we would. Bowling is not doing so well in my part of the state.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/03/2011 at 09:27 AM   
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   Wednesday - April 20, 2011

Pathos

What an embarrassment.

No, not my lack of recent bowling blogging about Team Loser. We continue to lose. We haven’t won more than one game in the past 4 weeks. Last night we got creamed again, 0-7. I threw in the 580s, keeping my above average streak going. It didn’t matter. Most of the rest of my team bowled pretty well too. That didn’t matter either. All the guys on all the other teams have selective excellence, which means they can pull a 240 game or better out of their ... pocket ... whenever they want. While our team works on improving our averages, those guys have perfected the art of keeping their averages artificially low. And no matter how well we bowl, we get beaten every single game.

But that wasn’t the point of this post. This league is one of those Miller Lite sponsored groups. I think that means that the beer company donates some cash to our prize fund, and once a season they come by the alley and hang up all sorts of advertising banners and have their exciting Miller Lite Night with the fabulous Miller Lite Girls, give aways, and drawings for awesome prizes.

This league is on the verge of death. A few years ago it was 26 full teams, which took over the entire 26 lane alley for the evening. The annual Miller Lite Night was a real blow out, with a dozen happy and adorable Miller Lite Girls attending, loads of shirts, hats, can coolers, and blinking LED beer cap pins to give away, and some pretty decent prizes raffled off. Bowling balls and bags, NASCAR jackets, hunting coats with their beer logo on them, etc. There were games with prizes, etc. A regular little carnival. There wasn’t free beer, but I think it was discounted. It was a decent party all around.

Due to mismanagement or some pretty stupid practices, the league has shrunk. It was 12 teams last year, but the insanely top heavy prize money allocation at the end of the year caused the lower half of the league to simply quit. Every guy pays $20/week during the 35 week season. That’s $700. Each. First prize was over $1000 per man, and 12th place paid $25. No wonder they left. This year the league is 8 teams, which is the last phlegmatic death rattle cough point. Actually it’s worse than that: to make 8 teams the alley had to sponsor at least 2 bowlers (I’m one) and 2 teams have a vacancy. Which means they could only get 7 full teams this year. Any league of 8 teams or less is going to die, because it’s boring. The competition quickly stratifies, and the season may as well be over by the 10th week. Our league was no different. Team Loser was locked in dead last 8th place by the 7th week, and the next better team was locked in 7th place by the 9th week. 1st and 2nd place has gone back and forth a couple of times, but it’s been between the same 3 teams the entire season, leaving the remaining 3 teams to wobble around in the middle. I don’t care. I get to bowl for free, my average is up 13 points, and I’ve learned not to get frustrated with my team losing or mad at myself for bowling poorly. But I digress.

So last night was Miller Lite Night. Hooray! Party! Party! Party!!  The alley has had a great huge banner hanging up for a month advertising this stupendous annual event. Come one, come all!

“Come one” was too bloody accurate.

Miller sent one beer rep who handed out 1 T-shirt to each bowler. They had 1 Miller Lite Girl. I felt sorry for her. Ok, she was somewhat nice looking under all the make up and giant false eyelashes, a young Asian woman with a model’s figure, fairly tall and slender, with really nice legs and hair down to her waist, ("bitch has extensions” sniped ‘becca) absolutely poured into a very tight shiny bright blue mini-dress. And sent out in her 4” heels amongst the animals to push their beer. She had her little digital camera with her, so we all got our pictures taken. I have no idea where those pictures are going, but I doubt if I’ll ever see mine. They had one little wheeled plastic cooler to raffle off. That was all. Miss beer girl did her thing and then got the hell out of Dodge ASAP. Actually, she went around to the other two micro-leagues that are there the same time we are, and gave out the rest of the goodies (bottle opener key rings and stickers) in her bag. They signed those folks up for the raffle too, and then delayed and delayed and delayed the drawing until well after our league was finished. I have no idea who won the cooler: we all went home. I was one of the last to leave, and still no drawing. Screw this.

I bought a bottle of Miller Lite beer to show willing. And drank it. Effin’ swill. Bottled dog piss. It’s sour water with a slight bit of foam and a hint of alcohol. It’s an insult to poor beer.

Pathetic.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/20/2011 at 08:50 AM   
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   Wednesday - March 02, 2011

Squaring The Turkey

There haven’t been any bowling post lately for a reason. I got tired of writing variations on “I bowled OK but our team got beat anyway” every week. Team Loser has been doing worse than the Mets or the Cubs in an off year. That’s bad. Last week we won just one game. The two weeks before that, none. One game the week before that, several weeks of no wins at all. You get the picture. I don’t think we’ve taken as many as four points since ... around Christmas? We’ve got such a lock on last place that, with 8 weeks left, even if we won every game from now until the end of the season we’d still be in last.

So last night our guy Joe didn’t show up, so our effective handicap got reduced by his absentee penalty. Thanks Joe. Thanks for calling ahead and lining up a sub. We were bowling the 2nd place team; their team average is roughly 175 points higher than ours. Every guy on their team has thrown at least one 300 this season. We were in for a slaughtering. Again. As usual.

So I didn’t care. Fuggedabowdit. So I just bowled. I’ve mentioned before how my game improves when I don’t try. Seriously, for me bowling is an inversely proportional activity. The less I do the better I do. Go figure.

During warm up I realized that the right lane was one board off from the left lane, so I did my best to remember that. I’m the lead bowler, so I started the first game and rolled a strike. And so did the rest of my team. Nice. Then I rolled another one. And another one. A turkey! Yay! Out on the approach going into the 4th I had a moment of doubt and figured I’d mess this frame up, but I talked myself out of that and threw another strike. Ham bone! Then I threw two more in the 5th and 6th. Nice. Never in my life have I ever thrown more than seven in a row, so the self-doubt came bubbling up again in the 7th. And I put it away again, and just relaxed and kept my head down and kept my eyes focused on my target ( the 7 board, about 15 feet out, even though I always throw inside that. This is because I don’t have binocular vision and I’m right handed but left eye dominant. So I target off to the right to compensate ), came through the ball, and threw another strike. Hell yeah. But I kept my elation hidden as was cool about it; you never tempt fate by crowing about your own success. At this point the rest of Team Loser is doing just a little over average, but enough so that we are holding on to our entire net handicap of 130-something. I was savoring the sweet sweet mental taste of a 150 in the 5th, which is a perfect score at the halfway point. I’ve only known that taste once before. [ in bowling, scoring a strike gives you 10 points plus the score of the next 2 balls you roll, so when you roll a big bunch of strikes each one earns you 30 points for the frame before the previous one. Thus a 150 is a perfect score in the 5th frame because you’ve rolled 7 strikes in a row, a 180 is a perfect score in the 6th frame because you’ve rolled 8, etc. ]

I kept my Zen state and threw a strike in the 8th, and broke my personal best record. Forget that 150 in the 5th feeling; 180in the 6th is sweeter. So is 210 in the 7th, which I found out when I struck again in the 9th. Nine strikes in a row. A turkey of turkeys; squaring the bird. Horry Clap! And then I realized that I was Almost There. Could I do it? Could I go all the way? Why not? I wasn’t nervous at all starting the 10th frame. I wasn’t thinking that I was on the very edge of throwing a perfect 300 game. At least I wasn’t actively thinking that, right at that moment. I think. But something inside said “let’s try for it” ... and trying is the wrong thing for me to do. Just as my arm was swinging past my offside foot I felt that something was wrong. My elbow bent in too soon, and I pulled the shot. 7 pins, leaving the 3-6-10. Crap. But more of an “Oh well” than a “#*&!!” because I was still in that Zen state. I shifted left 3 boards, threw my strike ball line, and made the spare, then casually threw another strike to finish the 10th, so I wound up throwing 10 strikes and a spare for a 277.

Which is the best game I have ever thrown, by 19 pins. And I won myself another exciting USBC refrigerator magnet award. And I’m quite pleased with that, even if the prize itself is a cheap bit of cardboard.

The 300 game? It will happen, someday. If I can roll 10 and a spare, then I can roll 12.

We won that game by 148 pins. The other team beat us in game 2; I went back to throwing strikes, but spared in the 2nd frame and a couple others, so I finished with a 193. I really really wanted to hit over 210 in that game, to put me in a good position to roll a 700 series, which is another bowling milestone I have never managed. But it didn’t happen. This time. We lost the 2nd game by about 100 pins. Our opponents were getting tired in the 3rd game, and the rest of my team finally woke up. That’s a good thing, because by that point I had lost the focus and had forgotten to keep my head down and my eyes on the target. So I messed up bad, and only threw a 161. We won that game, and actually got wood for the first time in I can’t remember when. 5 points for Team Loser! Woo hoo! And I finished with a 631 series, which is pretty darn good for me, but nowhere near the 700 I dared to dream of for half an hour. Someday!

Posted by Drew458     on 03/02/2011 at 09:43 AM   
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   Tuesday - December 28, 2010

Bowling Blahs

I had a rancid time last night. Bowled poorly, and no matter what I did, it didn’t work. Only time I got any strikes was when I did something wrong. And I got pissed. Frustrated. Grumpy. Not that I shot anyone, beat anyone up, yelled, screamed, or abused the alley’s equipment. I was just sour so I went and sat by myself. Guess that’s not allowed.

So now I’m a problem. I’m probably on double secret probation or something. I had to be talked to. After all, when I went to write down the scores and found that both the pencils provided to us had broken points, and then I had to scribble out one of the scores I wrote down because the other team wasn’t bowling in the same order as what was on the score card (that’s allowed, but decent folks will change the order of the names on the scorecard. And bowling pencils have no erasers) Arrgh. I squeezed the pointless pencil so hard that it broke in two. And then I threw them in the garbage when I went up to the front desk to get new ones. And we all know that the next step right after that is Columbine, with extra explosives.

That’s me, in need of anger management therapy. Prozac at least. Maybe the rubber room.

Yesterday I got a phone call from the wife of my team captain on the Tuesday league. Team Loser. G is really sick, and in the hospital for a week now with “ammonia” she tells me, cranial palsy, and diabetes. He’s on oxygen. That’s all she could tell me. Cranial palsies - the muscles that control the movement of your eyes go haywire - are often caused by diabetes and usually subside once the diabetes is under control. But the guy got to be in his mid 60s before the diabetes struck, so I have no idea how long it will take to stabilize him. Not to mention the pneumonia. So I don’t think he’ll be back to bowling anytime soon. Sad. Maybe we can get a sub this week, but he was out last week too; if he gets behind in his dues he gets pulled. That’s the rules, but I can’t say if they will be applied or not. If he’s out, then we have a vacancy, which puts us at an even further disadvantage.

And on the Monday league, I just made contact with our other teammate who has been absent all season. We’ve kept a slot open for her, running with a vacancy and taking a weekly beating, because she was involved in some kind of management training for her job. The idea was that she’d be back at Christmas, thereabouts. The few emails I sent her in the fall all got “very busy, can’t talk” responses, so I backed off. Now she says she’s in the middle of getting a divorce, and her mother is in, and has been in, the hospital for long term care, so she isn’t coming back. Ever. That’s so sad. But a divorce doesn’t happen overnight, nor does long term care. We all know “Mom”; she bakes stuff and brings it to league while her daughter bowls. I know these kind of life events take absolute priority, but am I bad for thinking she could have spared us just one thought a few months ago and made a call or sent a text message? Especially since she’s Vice President of the league? We could have found another bowler ages ago.

And ya wonder why I get frustrated?  Well, aside from this mess, and the typical laziness of all the other bowlers on the other teams - who have been in the league for 10-20 years and yet have no idea how to enter scores, write them down, make score corrections or anything like that, but why haven’t I put their guy’s absentee score in YET?? - I get frustrated because it’s a competitive activity, and I am a very competitive person. I don’t mind losing too much, but I hate when a) we lose because I’m screwing up and b) they win because suddenly their 200+ average bowler, who has been plodding along the whole game, suddenly can manage 5 or 6 strikes in a row at the end of the game to pull them ahead. I hate being played with. Bowl your best and beat us, fine. But being on the dirty end of “tactical” bowling really chaps my ass. And I see this kind of “strategery” all the time. I bowl my best every time I hit the lanes. Sometimes my best sucks chunks, sometimes I’m covered in roses. But it’s always the best I can do. I don’t shave points and then pull off just enough “miracle” to save the day.

Sometimes it’s no fun at all.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/28/2010 at 01:30 PM   
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   Tuesday - December 14, 2010

lifetime best +1

A small miracle at bowling tonight. Team Loser was down one man, Joe being absent. With a 10% absentee penalty that put us at a decided disadvantage. Um, I mean an even worse disadvantage than usual. Just for fun, last week I went over the scores, and my suspicion was confirmed: 8 out of the 10 best scores each other team and each of their bowlers has bowled has been when they bowled against us. I guess they just drift the other weeks. Or maybe we bring out the competitive edge in everyone; they don’t want to lose to the team that’s got a deathlock on last place. Perhaps it’s the Kick Me sign we all wear. Whatever.

So we did our bowling, and the first game went as expected. We lost by 118 pins. I was 3 under average, and the rest of the team was close to average, but the other team was way over average. So I tried to rally the troops for Game 2. I’m such a cheerleader. And it worked, even though my game was pretty awful at 23 under. I just could not catch a break. I was so close, so often - I threw 8 or 9 9’s that game, but only 2 strikes. I was hitting the pocket every damn shot, but no luck. Move left, move right, more outside, more inside, more hand; nothing would make the pins all fall on the first ball. I made my spares pretty well, but you need strikes to score big. And lots of them. But the other guys did well, and our opponents were just cruising along, so we managed to win by 15, cutting the overall lead to 103. Late in the game I decided I would talk myself through every frame if I had to, and just work on being consistent. I’m not sure if it helped my score much, but I was starting to put the ball down and across where I wanted it. I just couldn’t find the right line.

Game 3 I opened with another 9. Then I slang the ball down and across to try for the 10 pin leave. And it started to hook, and broke just in front of the corner, but the ball breathed heavily on the corner pin and pushed it - not knocked it, but pushed it - off the deck. 9/. Oooh rah, big whup, at least I marked. 2nd frame, same line as the first, but I started my push away just a little bit higher, to put a bit more speed on the ball. “Go slow, go low, be smooth, follow through” was the mantra in my head. And the ball went down, out, back, and right into the pocket for a strike. So I did it again in the 3rd, and struck again. And in the 4th as well for the turkey. Coming up on the hambone in the 5th I thought “now I’ll blow it” but countered that, and just did the mantra and the motion. And struck again. And I kept that going through the 8th frame, bowling

9/ X X X X X X X 9/ Xs71

for a 258. We won that game handily, but didn’t make up the 100+ gap, so we took 4 for the night. I Gumped the second ball in the 10th too. The front desk lady was yaddaing on and on on the PA system for the late night league. I waited for her to finish, but she kept going on and on and on “and the lady’s Super Jackpot is $385 and the men’s Super Jackpot is $129. And if you haven’t paid up all your dues ... “ and in my head it was “WILL YOU SHUT THE F&^* UP!” and then I threw the ball. I should have taken another breath and just waited. So it was a flop shot with no hand, and went wide of the pocket and nailed the 2 pin. That took down 7 and left the 1-2-10. Great. Thrills. I knew if I threw Brooklyn I could get the headpin to go right, but I also knew that if I threw “Brooklyn and just a little more” I could kick both the 1 and the 2 towards the 10. Better odds, right? So that’s what I tried for. I moved right 6 boards, considering how fat a Christmas Tree the lane had become after 9 guys bowling 3 games on it, kept my target and made my throw. And the ball went down and broke, and came over ... and missed the headpin by a quarter of a shadow, but hit the 2 and drove it over, but too far back. So I got 1, instead of the safe shot that would have given me 2. Hey, it’s just points at that point. And I scored a 258, which is 1 pin better than the best game I have ever bowled in any league. And if there’s a USBC fridge magnet award for “75 pins over game” I earned it tonight. Hey, I’ve got most of the better end of the set so far this season, and I want them all.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/14/2010 at 10:25 PM   
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   Saturday - November 20, 2010

Smokey this is not ‘Nam, this is bowling. There are rules.

Man cited for using stun gun, pepper spray on opposing bowlers

A league bowler went over the line when he used pepper spray on two opponents after zapping one of them with a stun gun, Lincoln police said.

The man accused of misdemeanor assault told police he was defending himself.

According to police reports, two teams were trash talking during a league match at Sun Valley Lanes on Thursday night.

“But everything was friendly,” one of the bowlers told police, according to the report.

Three of the team members walked outside and, they told police, were followed by opponent Matthew Lafon, 20. According to reports, Lafon and one of the team members, a 30-year-old man, were arguing face-to-face when Lafon pulled out an 80,000-volt stun gun and applied it to the man’s abdomen.

The man hit Lafon in the face and pushed him away. One of the other bowlers, 28, went to break up the confrontation and was pepper sprayed when Lafon pulled a canister from his pocket and aimed it at the man who pushed him.

Lafon drove home and was contacted by police at his apartment at 2820 Jameson North. According to police reports, he said he was “placed in fear of my safety” outside the bowling alley at 321 Victory Lane.

Police said he was the instigator and cited him for misdemeanor assault.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/20/2010 at 01:26 PM   
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   Monday - November 15, 2010

I see a blue moon arising

Yup, another syzygy tonight. Definitely. Jupiter’s influence waxing. Or perhaps there is a blue moon out tonight. Yeah, that’s it.

Once in a blue moon you get a wonderful concurrence in bowling. Everyone on your team bowls well and well above average. Everyone on the other team bowls well, and well above average. And both teams have nearly the exact same team average, so the net handicap is either zero or close to it. Scratch bowling. And your team wins. Seriously, this is a rare thing, and I almost didn’t notice until it was too late. But I did, so I was able to savor it while it was happening.

And that’s what happened to us tonight. We took all of it. The other team had a real strong anchor, a 204 average guy who was throwing in the low 240s. We’d get way ahead in the frame, but he’d roll another strike - 5, 6, 8 in a row, and tack another 30 onto their score to shrink the lead down to just a tiny bit or even pull ahead a little. And it went like that all night, almost down to the wire in every game. Great bowling. Plus Amy the Babe was drinking, and she gets all giggly and touchy flirtatious after 2 beers. So that was fun too.

I threw 2 in the 190s and 1 just over average, so I had a good night. Nothing prize winning, but a good night. Upper 500s, but no 600 series.

I hope this blue moon is still working it’s mojo tomorrow night for Team Loser. It would be nice to win a few, so we could dig our way up to last place. That may not be possible: we’re 17 games in the hole at this point. Oh well. But that league is dying anyway, and we all know it. I see the signs, and one of these days I’ll post a How To Kill Your Bowling League In Just 3 Years post. I’ve been on a league that died that way, and this one is going down too. Can’t be stopped at this point. This is the last year, I guarantee it.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/15/2010 at 09:55 PM   
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   Tuesday - October 05, 2010

Secret Syzygy?

Nope, only 5%.

High Tide? Nope. The tide was in around 7pm last night, though the ocean is 60 miles to the east.

Secret planetary alignment (ie syzygy)?  Not even close.

I’m running out of explanations. It was cold and wet today; we’re having a cold snap in the middle of a solid week of rain. So it was actually quite cool at the bowling alley tonight, but this early in the season they aren’t going to put the heat on. Both temperature and humidity both affect the lane oil’s viscosity and stickiness. Maybe that was it. Whatever.

Team Loser took 5 points tonight. We lost the first game by just a bit, mostly because Frank (on the other team) bowled a 277, nearly 90 pins over his current average. 9 strikes in a row. We were really hoping he’d pull a 300, but alas. I bowled really well too, pulling a 205 for top score for my team, but they beat us anyway. But we won the 2nd game by quite a bit. Looks like my team woke up; I had the low score of 176 in that game. And the other team started hitting splits halfway through the game. And we simply ran away with the 3rd game, winning by nearly 100 while the other team just fell apart. And I ... bowled a 257. Horry clap.

I had a 108 on an open in the 5th. For me that’s a good mid-game score, although I’d prefer a mark there. And going into the 3rd game with a 381 total I knew I’d have to break 200 by 2 marks to make another 600 series. I was hoping for some strikes. So in the 6th frame I threw one. And in the 7th frame I threw another. And again in the 8th. And the 9th. And the 10th. The 10th again. Then I “screwed up” and closed out the 10th with a 9 count. Which gave me a 257, and a 638 series. This ties my lifetime best ever score, in league or out. I’ve never rolled better than that. I have had a better series; once I rolled a 656. Once. So I’m quite happy.

I’d like to attribute it to skill, but that wouldn’t feel right. Sometimes the planets just seem to align, or the angels of bowling descend ( the holy Ebonite and her assistant Columbia ) and smile upon you. And they were grinning at me tonight, because in those 5 frames I could do no wrong. Not that I was trying to. But I Gumped the ball several times. Bounced it down the lane. Held on to it far too long. Came over the ball instead of through it. And. It. Did. Not. Matter. The ball went down the lane any old which way, moved into the pocket, and BLAM. Strike. But I was relaxed. I wasn’t even looking at my score or thinking that I’d bowled a certain number of strikes in a row. No nerves. The only thing I knew was that it looked like I needed a little extra ball speed to beat the conditions, so I just lifted up my hold a little, did the same pushaway, and kept it smooth. And for the 3 strikes and the 9 in frames 9 and 10 I was like a velvet Elvis poster. Smooth baby. Yeah.

Yoiks, this is going to spike the hell out of my average. But I’m certain I’ll get 2 refrigerator magnet awards out of it! That’s what I’m here for, the goodies.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/05/2010 at 09:46 PM   
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   Wednesday - September 29, 2010

Busy Morning

Up in the morning ‘fore the rising sun
making some money, getting things done

Started my day off by repairing an office door and doing some soldering to repair a lamp for a precision optical instrument. The soldering was pretty easy. I used a good silver solder so that little connection is never ever going to come loose again. Fixing the door was bit harder. It’s another one of those outside hinged external doors, weighs about 200lbs. The top hinge is just a rider. All it is is a floating pin locked in place by a set screw. The lower pin is used to adjust the height of the door above the threshold. So pretty much the entire weight of the door is carried by the 3/4” inch diameter aluminum pin, which is screwed into the door’s lower hinge bracket. Turns out the thing rides on a thrust washer that’s down in the bottom of the frame’s hinge cup bracket, and this one had worn right through. The proper part is about the size and thickness of a nickel and is probably made from hardened steel. I greased two dimes and put them in, because that’s what I had. Seems to be working fine, and now the adjusting pin has some range to work with again. Hey, if it wears out in 6 months I’ll go and spend a dollar on the proper part. Now that I know how to take this kind of door apart, and now that I own a proper gigantic screwdriver to do that with, I can have the door on and off in 4 minutes or less. So both tasks ate up an hour and some this morning, and I was done long before the office opened at 8:30. Cha-ching! Pay me please, thank you!

Bowling mini-blogging: 602. Me!! Last night. First one in ages. And even with a 217 pin net handicap, Team Loser still lay down and died, twice. Once by 3, once by 19. Horry clap.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/29/2010 at 12:16 PM   
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   Tuesday - September 21, 2010

Just Missed, Again

I may have mentioned once or twice that I bowl? Yeah. Well, I was in a downward slump for quite a while, half of last winter season and most of this summer. So I finally bit the bullet and got a lesson, and stopped using one of my balls that was drilled too long.

The lesson stopped me from making me “bowl small”. For years everyone has told me “Slow down Drew, slow down!”. And I did. But it cramped me. My swing was really short and my approach was perhaps 6 feet long, and I wound up muscling the ball up and out to get any kind of hand on it. Moving to a natural approach was like waking from a nightmare. I’m very adaptable, so changing my timing wasn’t a real issue. To keep myself walking slow, I now do almost the entire pushaway before starting my first step. And by taking small steps the timing works out just right, so that I can take my last step and go into a low and slow lunge with a foot of slide just as the ball comes forward past my heel. Thumb out, hand turned, snap those fingers and swing the arm up - elbow locked!! - and drive through the ball. I’m not ready for the “answer the phone” elbow snap yet. Whenever I try to do it I pull the shot, because I’m snapping it too early. It’ll come with time. Patience Drew.

So I’m still not Mr. Rev, but I’m getting a lot more on the ball without any apparent effort. And along with a change in my swing and approach I’ve taken a deeper out and back line. And it seems to be working. At least until my arm gets tired deep in the second game. Then I start to throw inside, managing to spin the ball almost right down the middle. Hey, that gets strikes too. So I move a couple boards to the left and really focus on my target, and that gets me back in the groove for another 6 or 7 frames.

I’m bowling two nights a week now. Monday is my regular league, but I was invited to bowl in the Tuesday group. Sponsored actually. There’s money in an envelope for me at the desk, so it doesn’t cost me a thing. Plus I get a slice of the prize money, though I intend to give all of that back except for gas expenses. It’s free practice for me, and that’s prize enough.

I threw a 576 Monday night, starting with a 213 and then holding in the 180s. We won 5 out of 7. I threw a 588 tonight, but we got slaughtered. So that’s two 600 series I just missed by a single mark. Upset? Bothered? Disappointed? Heck no. I’m throwing a 190 or better average. I’m more than happy with that. It’s a long, loong way up from a 170 average, when half the time I was throwing 140s.

The Tuesday league has some really superb bowlers on it. Really superb. Everyone on the team we played tonight had a 200+ average, and 3 of them threw in the 240s the first game. 2 of those 3 threw in the 240s the second game, and one guy kept it going by tossing a 268 in the third for a 759 series. Horry clap. We fought them pretty well, turning in scores well over average, but they were just on fire; even with a 132 pin net handicap we just couldn’t hold them off across 10 frames. And we lost all 3, 0-7. Actually, my Tuesday team is in dead last place. In 3 weeks of this season so far we’ve managed to win 2 games. Ouch. But we have a rather impressive pin total nonetheless, which shows that we never made it easy for any of our opponents. Not that that really matters. Hey, maybe we’ll win a game next week.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/21/2010 at 09:26 PM   
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   Wednesday - September 01, 2010

More Bowling!

Yes, yes, it’s time for winter league already!

We finished off summer league 2 weeks ago, and wound up in 3rd place ... and collected our massive $19.25 per person prize money. Killer. But it was fun, and that’s what matters.

I got out and practiced twice in the week off between seasons, and spent considerable effort trying to clean my collection of balls and get the oil out of them. Lots of detergent and alcohol later, and they may actually be Ok. A new set of fingertip inserts in one ball, and I’m good to go. I thought. No, the balls seemed to be slipping off my hand. Bad. So I got out the thumb tape tool and put some fresh tape in the thumbholes. And kept right on doing it; one ball now has 4 layers of tape inside. A loose thumb is not good. Sure, you’d think that would mean you could get your thumb out nice and easy, and that’s true. But you want your thumb to come out easy only when you want it to, not when centripetal acceleration pulls the ball off your hand. So with those extra layers of tape, I’ve got a more secure grip. And it turns out that that allows me to put a whole lot more action on the ball. I’m liking that. Nearly double the number of revs I was doing before, and I can now “git ‘er out there’ easier, several feet past the dirt and mess up at the foul line.

Result? Over the summer I was struggling terribly, and managed to drop my average down to 165. First night of winter league, where I have a 170 average, I threw a 542, which is a 180 average - 10 points better.

Then I got called in to be a long term sub for the Miller Lite Tuesday league - I’ll be bowling for free for 8 weeks, perhaps a lot longer - and the first night of that one I threw a 556, which is a 186 average. It would have been over 190, but I blew a few right corner spares. I’ve given up trying to use a special ball and a special throw for that corner, and am just using my strike ball and throw, so I have to learn the new line. Just going 6 boards to the left doesn’t work, because that puts the ball out into the dry way too soon, and it winds up coming back too much, missing either the 6 or the 10 by a frustrating hair. So I’m trying for a more centered line that’s deeper into the oil. I’m pretty close, but those 3 opens in game 2 probably cost me a 600 series. I made all of them in the 3rd game and rolled a 213.

My Monday team went 2-5, boo, poor showing. I don’t know how my Tuesday team fared. 2 of the 5 guys on the other team were bowling for average, and that league uses the 3-6-9 method for calculating entering average, plus their handicap is individual, 80%, based on a 240. Too complicated for me, so I’ll let the Secretary figure it out. But at least the Tuesday league uses your book average for the first 9 games, unlike the Monday league that just uses it for the first 3. I think using the book average for the first 9 or 12 discourages sandbagging, and it encourages getting your bowlers to practice a bit before league begins. All I know is that I’m one beer down to Rick, who was on the opposing team last night. We’d bowled together in this league 3 years ago, and we’re both subbing there now, so we went head to head for beers. He got me twice, I got him once. And that was scratch; Rick is 40 points better than I am, book. I shoulda gotta handi!

Somewhere around mid-season Miller sends the Miller girls around to all their leagues. T-shirts, prizes, free beer, and some amazingly good looking young women in really tight sexy referee outfits. Hope my subbing lasts that long!

Posted by Drew458     on 09/01/2010 at 10:46 AM   
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   Tuesday - July 27, 2010

Interesting Emails and bowling stuff

Here are two of my newer BMEWS fans:

That’s Harold on the left, a domesticated “Rouen” Mallard, and Skokie, a “Khaki Campbell” on the right. I hear that they are Conservative, home schooled ducks, who would rather climb than swim. Their owners go to great lengths to protect them from the leftist turkeys in the woods who try to harass them all the time.

What, you were expecting a bowling post, just because it’s Tuesday night? Ok fine. We won 2 games but lost the wood by 12. My team was utterly dead tonight, so I had to bowl my ass off so we’d win anything. I threw a 166, 188, 224 for a 578 series against that family team of spaz bowlers who is still in first place. So we narrowed the gap by 1. Whoopee-do. Sorry, I’m a bit cranky. Even fun-time summer league is hard to stay completely emotionally detached from, and when your #2 team mate throws 7 opens in a row it gets nerve wracking. Like, Dude, could you do any worse if you tried? Actually, yes he could. He threw a gutter ball on a double in game 2. Then recovered and threw 9 with the 2nd ball.

So I said to hell with it all and stopped off at the beer store on the way home. I’ve got to work in the morning so I’m limiting myself to 2. So I bought the Sam Adams Imperial Double Bock, which turns out to be nearly 10% alcohol. So my “just two” is closer to “almost four”. Tastes great; really really heavy beer. Not overly sweet either. Thick enough to cut slices off of and eat them with a fork. Half a pound of malt goes into making every bottle they say. Yikes.

Harold and Skokie, the home schooled fowl that are BMEWS fans. And yeah, that’s a real log cabin. Ain’t that great? 

Is it true that right wing ducks fly in counter-clockwise circles? They should, if you think about it.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/27/2010 at 08:49 PM   
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   Tuesday - July 20, 2010

Took Six

Another bowling miracle. We won every game tonight. Mostly. Actually, we tied the first game. That’s fairly rare, so in tying both teams get half the points. So we got 1+2+2+1=6.

I gave up on the out & back line, and just went down and in, and threw a 195 and a 203. The oil was strange again tonight. People were leaving splits all over the place. And not the usual splits. Weird stuff, like 1-2-7-9. I think a long even pattern will do that, with a very clean and dry back end. Balls were going too fast, breaking late but really hard. The edges weren’t as grabby as they usually are. I was playing the 5 and 6 boards without any early breaking.

So this will move us up a little, but it won’t close the gap on the leaders. They took 7, against the team that tromped us last week. TANJ.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/20/2010 at 08:53 PM   
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