The bowling thread

I count being in a groove on the lanes as much of a high as having been in the groove in any other sporting endeavor. It's like the basketball player who says it feels like the ball is on a string when he's shooting well. Much the same in bowling. I could feel the snap traveling over just the right board four, five, six frames in a row. You know what the strike shot is going to look like, you know what you need to do to execute it, and your body follows the script.

 

My parents both bowled (and the local alley was owned by a family on our street) so I picked it up pretty early. My Dad's high was in the 270s or 280s. Not sure what my Mom's high was, but she once won me a black & white TV for my room in a league raffle. That was a big deal in the early '80s. I Won a couple titles in a teenage league, bowled enough 200s so that it wasn't a mind-blowing event and once bowled a 250-something. This was all before I met my wife, who was one of two girls on the boys bowling team at her high school and probably would have bowled in college if she'd been born a few years later (when she graduated high school, women's college bowling was almost unheard of). So I've bowled a ton.

But I'm A.J. Burnett or Rob Dibble of bowling--I never ever figured out anything other than throwing that fucker as hard as I fucking could. Location and spin and what not are for losers. I'll still go with my wife a few times a year and I still fling it as hard as fucking possible. I even sometimes get a 12-pounder so I can throw it even harder. And I'm usually in the 130-150 range, which is fine by me. It's still a lot of fun, especially now that our daughter is old enough to bumper bowl.

 

Just looked up my cousin's stats for this year (he's in his 50s) -- averaging 212 with more than 100 games, and has had one perfect game.

 

I used to love those garish patches our league would give out for various milestones (200 game, difficult split conversion, 500 series, 600 series, etc.). Envied those who had some I would never get.

 

Did anyone else have "Pin-Money Pete" as a kid? A piggy bank in the shape of, well, you know.