Look Out, PBA Bowlers

Looks like I’ve finally reached the 200 level at bowling. Over the last eight weeks, I’ve averaged 204, (combined practice and league games) and managed to get my first sanctioned 700 series, a 704 (a 254, 211, and 239).  Now I’ve rolled 700’s before, but all in practice sessions. The best I had done in league previously was a 698 (that one really frustrated me!).  And I’ve pulled my league average to 202. Now at least I’ll be able to qualify for entry into the PBA Regional tournaments. Might be a while till I can go to one, but that will be the real test of whether or not I’m ready to compete with the big boys. Who knows, I might end up as the oldest rookie on the PBA tour!

The $250,000 Bowling Shootout Final

I watched the final round of this tournament on ESPN yesterday, and I must say I was happy to see one of the amateurs,  Sim Dysart , end up with all the marbles. His strike shots weren’t pretty, but they all fell down, and that’s what counts. I also thought the pros, Chris Barnes and Pete Weber, acted very professionally, and accepted their loss as good sports. This kind of behavior does much to make the sport appealing, not a bad thing in terms of attracting new people to try the game, and the very fact that it shows that even someone who’s not great at the game can end up with a large amount of dollars has to be another attractor.

However, I noticed a couple of things about how this final round was run:

1. They required the players to shoot at spares if there had not been a strike rolled in that frame yet. This is contrary to the original rules and all the advertising, which indicated that it was strictly based on the first ball pinfall. I didn’t even take my spare ball with me for this reason, and if I had made the finals, this might have been a real problem.

2. After a tie had been established in a frame, they immediately went on to the next frame, not requiring those who had not rolled yet to finish the frame. Again, this is not how it was done for the rest of the tournament, where everyone had to roll every frame. I can understand them doing this in the interest of saving time for the telecast, but it was not how the rules were published.

3. In the 10th frame, they continued the rule of ‘one tie, all tie’, so that even those who didn’t strike got to continue. During the earlier rounds at Vegas, only those who struck got to continue, and the other players who didn’t were out. However, in the local qualifying at my normal lanes, we followed the rule they used for this final round. Again, there is an inconsistency here.

Now obviously the tournament organizers and sponsors can set whatever rules they want. My complaint is the lack of communication to the participants, about both these rule changes and, while qualifying was going one (for seven months), there was no feedback about who had qualified at what score. For me, this meant that I had no idea if would be going to Vegas until just two weeks prior to the playing date, making it difficult to get vacation time so I and my wife could go. If they plan on running this tournament again next year (and I understand that right now they are planning to do so), this area must be addressed. I think this lack of feedback is part of the reason that they didn’t get nearly as many participants as they had expected. I found that many bowlers weren’t even aware of this tournament or what its rules were, whereas if they had provided continuous updates about how things were going I think that many more players would have noticed, and possibly participated.

Still, this was a fun tournament, and I’m glad I participated.

$250,000 Shootout Jitters

Well, I’m back from Vegas, and for a change I return somewhat richer than when I left.

We began the bowling shootout bright and early Wednesday morning, and were allowed 20 minutes of warmup practice - but even that generous number wasn’t enough, as the lanes were just what I feared, very heavy oil, though not down quite as far as they could be - appeared to be something like 39 feet. This meant that it was possible to get the ball to ‘break’, though not a large amount, something like 6-7 boards for anything other than the power bowlers. This, while difficult, was not an impossible condition, and I managed to throw a least a couple of balls that got it right, with good results.

But my main enemy was not the lanes, but myself. I found I was incredibly nervous for this thing; my legs were actually trembling in the first match, and my approach timing was off. So for much of the tournament I watched helplessly as the ball would drift high, then light, and then (once or twice) completely off line. Still, I did manage to win the first round, even though I shot only two strikes in that game - but they were at exactly the right time, the first one allowing me to gather up the points available for the 7th and 8th frames, and the second to capture the 10th, giving me enough points to win the round and collect $500.

The second round was played an hour and a half later, and while for this one I wasn’t as nervous, lane conditions had changed quite a bit, with a lot of carry-down oil from the prior matches, and I spent the entire match trying to find the ‘line’. I had two strikes in this one also (compared to my normal 5-6/game), but this time they weren’t in the right places, and I was eliminated.

I don’t know the results of the final round against Pete Weber and Chris Barnes, as my return plane’s departure time would have made it difficult to go and see the match and still make the plane.  Of course, if I’d made the finals, I wouldn’t have had any problem, if necessary booking another flight. But when my wife and I actually got on the plane, after a fifteen minute delay while they had ‘maintenance come and look at the plane’, we found ourselves sitting on the tarmac for what seemed an inordinate amount of time. Then the captain announced that there was something wrong with the parking brakes on the plane, and we would be returning to the terminal. Another hour and half went by while they fixed whatever the problem was, and we finally got on our way, arriving only two and half hours later than expected. But if I known that things would be delayed like this, we could have gone and watched that final round.

Still, a lot of fun, and some cash in hand. Not bad.

Vegas on the Cheap

I made the cut for the $250,000 Bowling Shootout! This means I only need to beat another 502 bowlers to win this thing I’ll be leaving on the evening of May 1 to go to Vegas (expenses paid!), with the tournament being held on the 2nd and 3rd, in four rounds. The final round, with the two amateur finalists going up against Pete Weber and Chris Barnes, is supposed to be televised on ESPN on May 20th. In preparation for this, I’ve ordered up a new ball, a Total Inferno, and will have it drilled aggressively for the greatest hook potential. Hopefully this new weapon will give me enough power to actually reach those finals, as I expect that lane conditions for this tournament will be extremely tough, with heavy, long oil.

But if nothing else, I get a free vacation to Sin City. Of course, I do have to pay to bring my wife along, but that’s still cheap.

A Difficult Adjustment

Starting last Thursday, my bowling center started using some of the PBA oiling patterns. For last thursday, it was the regional/seniors pattern #3. This is probably the second easiest of the PBA patterns (easiest may be the Cheetah). Between my practice and league games last week I at least proved to myself that I can get to the pocket and have reasonable carry on this pattern.

But last night was a enough to give me a headache. For my practice games I was at one end of the alley, where this same PBA pattern was laid down. To play this pattern, which has a lot of oil on the lane, I lined up on the 13 board and shot 7th board, with a soft, easy delivery, and I averaged 193 over 5 games (199 for the last four, first game was poor as I figured out where to play it) - pretty reasonable. Then I shifted to league at the other end of the alley, and found that they had laid a ‘house’ pattern which was very stingy on the oil. To handle this I had to move over to board 20 and shoot board 10, with a hard, fast delivery.  And it took me awhile to make these adjustments. Net: I only managed a 181 average for league, and got very frustrated, as I left 10 pin after 10 pin even when I did get lined up properly. I just hope that next week the house uses the same oiling pattern, whatever one they choose, across all the lanes. Switching between patterns that are this different is a fast way to mess your mind over.

Positive, Think Positive

‘Tis a new year, and hopefully a great one. That’s one thing people can always have, plain hope. Now 99% of the time, all the hopes don’t pan out, and you end up with something less than envisaged, but that’s alright, new hopes will come along to replace those that didn’t make the cut. It seems to be something that is hard-wired into the human makeup. If that wellspring ever dries up, the end result is a broken person, a stick figure that looks human but is really a zombie. So, anyway, my hopes/projections for this year:

1. My family will end the year together and happy. There have been some rough times in the past, and there probably will be quite a few shoals this year, but so far we’ve muddled through, and finally it looks like there will be some conclusion to a few of the ongoing problems.

2. Congress will get hip to the fact that this planet is a very fragile place and start doing something about it: provide truly adequate funding to the space program,  develop rational plans to handle all the various eco-catastrophes waiting around the corner, initiate a major upgrade to the nation’s infrastructure to make it more efficient and less taxing on the world’s resources, and actually develop a road map for the future of this country that encompasses a time frame longer than the next election, with strong enough controls enacted that they’ll actually have to follow it. Yeah, I know - this is blue-sky dreaming. But I can hope.

3. While Congress is doing (2), they’ll also wake up to the fact that security is never a 100% guarantee, and repeal the most obnoxious intrusions into personal privacy and the almost limitless police-state powers they have granted to various federal agencies. This country was built by people who took risks, and one of the major reasons they did is that they could see the direct benefit to themselves, without fear of the government tromping all over them.

4. Wars will continue to happen. It’s a given. But perhaps there will be a few places where compromise and real discussion will break out. It would be very nice to see the almost 60 year debacle of the Israeli-Arab conflict get to a point where “suicide bomber” is no longer a revered profession and the reasons for them no longer exist.

5. I could win the $250,000 bowling shootout in May. This one actually has a real chance of happening, though the odds aren’t great.  It would certainly go a long way towards making my financial position tenable. Along these same lines, maybe I can at least get my chess rating back into the Class A category. Higher than this doesn’t seem to be in the cards - I just don’t see enough time to do the really heavy studying Expert and higher would require. But here again, I can hope!

6. I’ll get off my tail and actually finish writing a story, and be able to sell it. Even if I only get $2 for it, this would be an accomplishment I’d be happy with.

7. I’ll be granted a couple more patents this year. This one is pretty likely, as the applications are already in, the concepts are sound, the technology exists, and my company is already building systems that utilize the concepts.  Now I won’t get any great financial reward for this, and the patents are ‘group’ things, developed along with quite a few other people, but I like the feeling that I’ve help add to the world’s knowledge by developing something new.

8. We’ll be contacted by the aliens from Acturas IV about next Christmas time. Fermi paradox be damned, they’re out there somewhere, and what better time for humanity’s hubris to be taken down a couple of notches when it finds out that it’s not unique, that intelligent life exists elsewhere.

9.  They’ll actually implement a fix for Social Security and Medicare and develop a real, workable universal health insurance plan. More blue-sky stuff. While they’re at it, they’ll revise the tax code so Mr. Average Joe can actually figure it out.

10. People will actually act more rationally to world events, instead of reacting with hysteria over every blip reported by our excitable (and deliberately provoking) media.

You never know. It all could happen.

(Root)Beer and Bowling Don’t Mix

Bowling last night was a disaster. Everything was going just fine, my warmup practice games were good with a 256, 201, 192, and 202, and in the first league game I’d opened with a double, when I managed to spill my root beer, soaking my shoes. After cleaning up the mess, I went and got a pair of rental shoes, as I obviously couldn’t bowl with my soaked ones. Unfortunately, the rentals weren’t much better than using those wet things - I still stuck at the line, and after the first couple of balls thrown with these shoes, I got very leery of approaching the foul line. Of course, this played havoc with my game. I managed to finish the first game with a 187, but I had to turkey the 10th to do it. And it didn’t get any better in the second game, resulting in a 163. I’d had enough of this by now, so I went into the pro shop and bought a new pair of shoes. It took about three frames to break these in, but after that things got quite a bit better, and I ended with a 193 for a 543 series. Which is the lowest total I’ve had in four weeks. And really disappointing after Wednesday night’s performance, where I turned in  a 216, 265, and 200, for a 681 series. I guess this will teach me to have back-up equipment!

200 in Sight

My bowling average may have finally kicked up into the 200’s. For my last five sessions I’ve averaged 216, 209, 200, 215, and 218, a total of 18 games worth, with lane conditions ranging from pretty wet to almost bone dry. Hopefully this is related to a change I made in my backswing, where I now keep a small break in my elbow and a crooked wrist throughout. This seems to force me to put more fingers into the ball at release, imparting more spin and drive, and it seems to help with my bugaboo, the infamous 10 pin. It also has seemed to reduce the number of bowling-god splits - pocket hits that leave 8-10s, 7-10s, or other nasty things. Proof of the pudding will come, I hope, in the next couple of weeks. If it’s real, though, I will definitely think about joining the PBA.

A Little Different Tournament

I competed in the first round of the $250,000 Bowling Shootout tournament this last weekend. The format for this is a little odd. Qualification  is accomplished by rolling over your average in the second game of your normal league games. Then they pick on the top 2/3 of those who have qualified within your bowing center to compete in the first round shootout. The shootout itself is a ’skins’ game: each player rolls only one ball per frame (max of four players per qualifying lane), and the high pinfall total gets the points for that frame. The number of points is variable, anywhere from 5 points for the 1st frame to 60 points for the 10th frame. If there is a tie in pinfall for a frame, the points for that frame are not awarded but carried over into the next frame, until someone breaks the tie and grabs all the points. In three games, there is a maximum point total of 555.

I managed to snag 461 of those points, rolling 17 strikes and six additional frames with a winning pinfall of 9. Now my name goes into a national database, and at the end of the entry rounds they will pull the top 125 point totals within each division (there are four divisions based on average) to go to Las Vegas and compete in the final shootout, with big money on the line plus the chance to bowl with a couple of PBA stars. With the total I rang up, I think I might have a realistic chance of being in that group. If so, look for me on ESPN in February!

Bowling in Bakersfield

Just got back from the California State Open Bowling championship. This was the first major tournament I’ve participated in, even though I’ve been bowling on a regular basis for about thirty years. Unfortunately, I didn’t do nearly as well as I’d hoped. On the first day, in the team event, I could only muster up a 172, 158, and 165, some really poor scores, and I didn’t have a single double in all three games. Very frustrating. Day two started with the singles competition, and it got even worse, a 165, 156, 166, with still no doubles and with the added scourge of opening every first frame. Finally we moved to a new pair of lanes for the doubles competetion, I changed both my line and my delivery, and things started to look up, with a 236 for my first game, and my partner rolling a 195. Perhaps we even stood a chance of winning something if we could just keep those kinds of scores coming in for the second and third games. And I was doing OK in the second game till the 10th frame, when I missed a stupid 10 pin and ended up with a 189 (making that 10 should have put me in the 200s again). And my partner fell apart, with only a 155 (he’d rolled a 258 in the singles competition, but it looked like he’d lost the line). The last game was not good, a 153 occasioned by three splits, and my partner turned in a 147. Still, the whole thing was fun, and I’ll probably play in next year’s tournament.

The Bowling Gods Smile…

Last night was my normal league night, and at the beginning it looked like it might be a very long night, as the oiling pattern that had been laid down was a tough one, heavy oil and oiled very far down the lane, to about 48 feet. This meant that my ball did not ‘break’ very much, and for the first game this resulted in several splits and few strikes, for a net of a 168 score. Then I made an adjustment to work the ‘outside’ line, and game two became reasonable, a 201. But in game three, the bowling gods decided to be nice, and let me carry a couple of Brooklyn hits and didn’t leave me with a bunch of ten pins, for a final score of 258. For a change, I left the alley with a smile on my face…