SI.com noted today that newly-acquired San Francisco Giants outfielder Aaron Rowand organized bowling outings for team-building about as soon as he arrived at spring training, something a certain former Giant, whom you all may know, but I won’t mention the name of here, would never engage in.
Archive for February, 2008
Cross-training #4
February 28, 2008More sites added
February 28, 2008A couple of important sites were added to the sidebar list today…
First, I put up a link to the USBC Open’s page, which is bowling’s national championship tournament. It will provide daily updates when the tournament is in progress (as it is now). If you’re interested in the USBC Women’s Championships, you can find a link to that tournament there.
The other site I added today is the Kegel Bowling site. Of interest here is their online oil pattern library; if you know the lanes you’re bowling on, as well as the lane machine and lane conditioner being used, you can get a list of all of the oil patterns available at your bowling center. While this may not be of interest to the beginning bowler, it is definitely of interest to the more advanced bowler.
Another link added
February 27, 2008BowlingBallReviews.com has been added to the sidebar. As its name implies, the site gives ratings and reviews of bowling balls from the most important people of all…the bowlers who use them. This one is worthy of being bookmarked.
Thanks to “Dennis Michael” from the BowlingCommunity.com forums for pointing me to this site. 
Cross-training #3
February 27, 2008The USBC’s site has posted a feature on Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, who is apparently a very good bowler, boasting of a 244 high game.
Hoinke Classic link added
February 26, 2008As it is one of the largest and best-known of the private amateur tournaments, I have added the link to the Hoinke Classic’s site to the sidebar list. It generally runs from February to November of every year in Cincinnati, and features singles, doubles, and team events (as well as an all-events competition) for men & women (including mixed doubles and teams) in both handicap and scratch divisions.
Reorganization
February 26, 2008Figuring there’s “room for growth”, I have reorganized the blog to make it easier for readers to find the topics that interest them. I have added a few new categories, and I’ll summarize what’s in each category (including the old ones) as follows:
Administravia: Posts about the blog itself, including new links, edits to old posts, and errata.
Cross-training: For posts about athletes in other sports doing bowling-related things.
Equipment: Posts where I bring up equipment will be filed here.
General: General topics, including stuff away from bowling and open bowling activity I don’t consider practice.
Leagues: Posts about my league-related activity. Honor scores that I post about that took place in a league will be filed here, as well.
Practice: Practice summaries.
Tournaments: Tournament news, mainly the tournaments in my area.
As I said, this system should make it easier for readers to find what they want to look at. Enjoy it. 
Class-action suit against USBC (commentary)
February 25, 2008Shippensburg, PA bowling proprietor sues USBC over lane conditions
I have two things to say about this…
First, I have a new ball and bowl on the usual league condition at my house, but I’m not really noticing any difference in my own game, as my practice average is about where my league average was when I left the game 15 years ago, the time of the early-generation polyurethane balls and the introduction of the “three-unit rule”.
Second, the article says people no longer have to practice much to be good. Hooey! I know I could improve more with more practice, and the only reason I’m not practicing more is because of my budget.
Feel free to add your comments.
Brockton-Foxvale-Tri-City mixed doubles results
February 25, 2008Unofficial results of the annual Brockton/Foxvale/Tri-City mixed doubles tournament this weekend at Westgate Lanes:
Handicap
- Debbie & Tim Major 1492
- Gwen & Warren Su 1466
- Bonnie MacDonald & Shawn Coles 1449
- Diane Warming & Mike Johnson 1434
Scratch
- Jane Welch & Harry J. Thibeault 1252
- Shirley & Bill Major 1245
Congrats to everyone who cashed!
Back on track
February 25, 2008Before I left for practice, “Atochabsh,” one of my new friends from the BowlingCommunity.com forums and (more so) the #BowlingFans IRC channel, gave me some suggestions for keeping my bowling hand relaxed, so I kept those in mind as I practiced today. Along w/ a newly “rejuvenated” ball, they seemed to work. In my first game, I had a double in the 3rd and 4th frames and a turkey in the 6th-8th frames for a 212. If not for a miss of a single 10-pin in the last frame, it would’ve been a clean game. My ball hooked past the pin, emphasizing the need to get a polyester ball down the line for spare shooting. My other games were only around my average, mostly because I feel I bowl my best in practice when I have a good rhythm going, and said rhythm was being interrupted by pinsetter and dead wood issues. I will still take the 212, though.
Result: 212-156-160=528
Running average (57 games): 164 Last 9 average: 162
New podcast site linked
February 24, 2008After some controversy about foul language being used in initial episodes, a new bowling podcast, “On Strike,” has its first official episode up. The link to the podcast site has been added to the sidebar list. Subscriptions through iTunes, Google, Yahoo!, and RSS are available on the podcast site.
Mike Zeoli perfect @ Brockton-Foxvale-Tri-City mixed doubles
February 24, 2008I don’t have full results from the annual Brockton/Foxvale/Tri-City mixed doubles tournament at Westgate Lanes (at least yet), but I can report that Mike Zeoli rolled a perfect 300 game in the first game of today’s squad. Congrats Mike!
Most of the reason I was there was to catch up with some old bowling friends, but in particular, I was hoping Joyce Bernard (she’s a big part of my tournament win story, which I will tell in the future) would be there, and she was. Wanting to post local bowling news, I also gave one of my email addresses to the Tri-City Women’s Bowling Association manager with a request to send honor scores and tournament results my way. As a bonus, my cousins David and Debbie turned up, so I chatted with them a bit while I was there. I told David that the thing I missed about bowling the most was the camaraderie, so I want to tell my bowling friends reading this that it was great seeing everyone again.
February 2008 TPT @ E. Providence Lanes
February 23, 2008Joshua Engelhardt, carrying a 165 average and bowling at his home center, won the February “People’s Tournament” at E. Providence Lanes. Notably for Westgate Lanes bowlers, Brian “Hawk” Earle was second. Good show, “Hawk”…better luck next time!
Plan for today: I plan on making a run to the lanes to get my ball in the “Rejuvenator”. Saturday’s about the only day I can do it b/c it’s the only day I know for sure that the pro shop is open.
Update: The operation took longer than I planned, so I had to take a later bus home. I mentioned to Chris about my problem with the thumb sticking occasionally, and he thinks it may be because I’m squeezing the ball. I do kind of grip it too tightly, now that I think about it, so this is something I’ll work on in practice.
Tomorrow’s plan is to check out the mixed doubles tournament, but when my brother took me food shopping this morning, he was still suffering from a bad cold, which may ruin this plan, depending on how I feel tomorrow. If it’s bad enough, it could also jeopardize practice on Monday.
Various sites added
February 22, 2008Found a number of sites in the last few days, so I added them all in one shot, and posting about them here…
First, I found Sean Rash’s blog, “Rash’s Rants”, on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s site today. Sean Rash is a PBA Tour exempt player, and winner of the 2007 USBC Masters. He blogs his views about life on tour, so his blog’s been added to the blogroll.
The next couple of sites aren’t really new to me, but I’ve become more involved with them recently. BowlingFans.com describes itself as “a site for bowling fans by bowling fans” and features an array of bowling articles and tips for bowlers at every level. They have an associated forum at BowlingCommunity.com, and I have registered there and posted an introduction. I’ve received several welcome replies, so their billing as “the friendliest bowling forums in the world” is true. Both sites have been listed in the sidebar.
I am an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) veteran, usually hanging out on EFnet and Undernet, but I have been very disappointed in #bowling on EFnet, as the times I’ve been in that channel, no one was really talking (5 users, all ops, and no way to really tell how many of those users are the channel bots). I have, however, found #BowlingFans (yes, related to the above site) on a small network called WyldRyde. I have added a link to the Flash client on BowlingFans.com to the sidebar, however, if you prefer a standalone IRC client (I heartily recommend mIRC for Windows users), instructions on how to log in using those can be found once you log into the Flash client. I could add an IRC link (beginning with irc://), but would rather thank BowlingFans.com by directing everyone to the Flash client initially. Hope to chat with everyone there.
Cross-training #2
February 22, 2008I think, from now on, I’ll post anything I see about players in other sports (especially the Boston teams) going bowling and file it under “cross-training” like this.
Boston.com’s Bruins blog had a note today about the Bruins going bowling as a team-building activity rather than run a normal practice. I don’t quite get the Alex Auld bowling ball reference, though.
Cross-training
February 21, 2008According to this article in the Boston Herald, Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew took up bowling in the offseason in search of a way to deal with a lower back problem that he’s had on occasion. He reports that it definitely helped. Maybe this is something that he can take up more seriously when his baseball days are done.
“My Bowling Diary” added to sidebar
February 18, 2008The hits just keep on coming…hehehehe!
I stumbled on the above site while checking the TPT site for news about yesterday’s tournament. It’s the homepage of a logging application for Windows which will generate not only score-based statistics, but also such things as spare percentages. I’ve been keeping a practice score log on an Excel (actually OpenOffice.org) spreadsheet (used to calculate the averages in my practice summaries), but this program will give more detailed reports, and you can even get reports based on type of event (some tournaments are now requiring you to provide past tournament scores). The link has been added to the sidebar list.
“Bowling Info & Tips” added to blogroll
February 18, 2008The blog titled above has been added to the blogroll. The author of this blog is unknown, but it appears to be used to give information and advice to the person just getting into the game. If you’ve been thinking of taking up the game seriously and don’t know how to start, this would be worth a look.
Note: The blog mentions the American Bowling Congress, which has been folded into the USBC.
January 2008 People’s Tournament
February 18, 2008Forgive me for not posting about this earlier, but The People’s Tournament site reported that Westgate Lanes’ David Diamond won the January TPT at East Providence (RI) Lanes. Westgate Lanes bowlers did very well in the tournament, as several bowlers calling Westgate “home” cashed, including Ray and Chris from the pro shop. Good show guys!
The February TPT was back @ E. Providence Lanes yesterday, and I’ll post when the results are up.
Addendum to “Having a ball”
February 18, 2008I keep meaning to bring this up, but, as an addendum to the “Having a ball” entry, I’d like to mention that, in my bowling past, I had blister problems with my thumb when trying out newly-drilled balls, which went away once I got used to the ball. There was no such problem with this ball, however…maybe a pitch was slightly off when the guy who used to drill my balls did it? Thanks again Chris!
Squaring away links
February 17, 2008I’ve given the blog a once-over, checking to see that all of the web pages linked in this blog have the “blank target” set and edited the entries that needed them. I also recently removed my homepage link from the “About” page for security-related reasons (read: possible harvester bots).
