Month: June 2008

First anniversary post

The first post to this blog was actually on July 4 of last year, but it has been one year since the bowling outing with my brother that started it all, so I will choose to celebrate this blog’s anniversaries on the anniversary of that outing. I’d like to first start off by thanking my readers for putting up with me the past year, but that I hope that you’ve found my adventures interesting enough to want to keep reading. 😀

Looking back on the past year, I’m amazed at how far I’ve come. I contemplated making my comeback wondering how good I could be after my injuries, and the results have exceeded even my wildest hopes. I broke 100 in my second outing with my brother, and was able to shoot 200 again shortly after beginning regular practice (a 218 on Oct. 15). I had felt I was ready for leagues around December, but the lack of openings in the leagues allowed me to bide my time, practicing through the winter season after deciding to wait until the summer to test myself in competition.

Figuring I had a new lease on my bowling life, I wasn’t satisfied with just returning to my old form, so I had a couple of lessons with Ray in the last year to figure out what my flaws were. The work on those flaws in practice allowed me to get to a point where I almost had a 700 series in practice (the recent 689), and to establish a new personal best official series (the 642 in the third week of my summer league). I have also become more consistent, averaging higher at this point (189) than my highest summer league average of my previous bowling life (which I remember being a 171). It is safe to say that my comeback attempt is now less of an attempt and more of a successful comeback. 😀

Giving thanks: I wanted to use my first anniversary post to give thanks to some people who I may or may not have already thanked on this blog, so here goes…

  • My family, first and foremost, for their support and gift cards, which I, of course, turned into useful practice. My brother, especially, has been encouraging, noting here that he’d rather see me bowling than in front of my computer. My brother also shared one of my special moments since my comeback started, my first 200+ game witnessed by family, something I had wanted my late mother to see.
  • The Minassians, and the rest of the staff at Westgate Lanes, for welcoming me back. Junior had told my sister that he was glad to see me back around the center, so I wanted to make sure they were included in this anniversary post.
  • The pro shop owner, and my coach, Ray DiSanto Jr., for his advice and support, as well as for putting my summer league team together. Here’s to many more years of a working relationship and friendship.
  • My teammates, Brian, Joy, and Ralph, for their encouragement and sharing one of my personal bowling highlights. I couldn’t have asked for better teammates. 😀
  • Everyone else in the Wednesday Summer Mixed League, just for being who they are.
  • The gang from the BowlingCommunity.com forums and especially the regulars on the #BowlingFans IRC channel, also for their encouragement. Special thanks here to “CoachJim” for his invaluable advice, including suggesting the thumb pitch change that served as the springboard to my recent improvement.
  • The WordPress user “prairieskooner” for his recent encouragement via commenting on this blog.
  • The first of two specific friends on the EFnet IRC network I’ll thank in this post, “Gozzo”, for pointing me to the story on Boston Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew that helped spark the idea for the “Cross-training” feature of this blog.
  • Another friend on EFnet of long-standing, the user “lebron” (not the one that uses caps in his nick…I knew this one formerly as “chee”), for suggesting that I try to merge my bowling hobby with my Internet one; this blog is the fruit of that suggestion.
  • Finally, the rest of my online friends, whether I’ve been in touch with them through email, other forums, IRC, or instant messaging. I won’t name any names here, but you know who you are. 😀

I have tried to use this blog not only for the entertainment of my readers, but hopefully as a resource for bowling in my area (via my posting of local bowling news) and elsewhere (through linking of quality bowling sites in the sidebar). I have things planned for the next year, but will play my hand close to my vest for now (though I’ve mentioned some of it to my online bowling friends). I hope you will continue reading.

Today’s practice: So how did I celebrate one year since my return to bowling? Well, it happened to be a practice day, so I hit the lanes as normal. I continued working on keeping my arm in close, but also mixed something else in today: John Jowdy’s ring finger lead drill. The work resulted in me having a lot of good-quality shots during practice. I had a five-bagger in both my first game (a 226) and last game (a 236) sandwiched around a 181 middle game that could’ve easily been better for a 643 series, a pin better than my personal best official series. 😀

Standings update: I finally learned through the standings sheet posted at the lanes that my team had slipped to 4th place despite taking 6 points last week. Given the fact that I’ve been able to follow up good practices with good league nights, the fact that we’re bowling on the pair I had the 642 on, and who the opponents are, I feel good about Wednesday night. 🙂

Hall of Fame Classic canceled: I was told not a lot of people showed up for the Brockton USBC Bowling Association’s scheduled singles tournament at Westgate Lanes yesterday, so, unfortunately, the event was canceled. Here’s hoping they’ll run it next year at a time when bowlers will want to enter the tournament.

June “People’s Tournament” results: The People’s Tournament site reported James Ruscio out of Town Line Ten Pin (176 average) as the winner of this month’s event at Westgate Lanes. Ruscio defeated Roger Pemberton (Boston Bowl, 187 average) in the title match 270-206 (with handicaps). One of the teams in my league, “Fun and Games” (who else?), was well-represented among the cashers, as Sally Toppan finished 3rd, while Sean Richard was reported as finishing in 18th place.

Rolly Savignano and Ed Roberts inducted into USBC Brockton Association Hall of Fame

Rolly Savignano of Brockton and Ed Roberts of Braintree will become the first two bowlers in 24 years to be inducted into the USBC Brockton Association Hall of Fame tonight at Nocera’s in Stoughton. This Enterprise article has a detailed profile of Savignano and also notes Roberts’ accomplishments on the lanes. Congrats to both bowlers.

Delay in standings update

There has apparently been a delay in posting the updated league standings, as LeagueSecretary.com currently still shows the standings after last week’s bowling.  I’ll keep an eye on the page and let everyone know when the standings have been updated.

Still on a roll

We finally had some semblance of a normal league night tonight, as all four members of my team were present. My ankle was feeling better than it did last week, so I didn’t feel a need to take a warm-up game to test it. I’ve gotten into the habit of getting my medication stuff out of the way before the lanes were turned on for league, so all I had to tell my sister was that league was about to start, and she knew I had taken my evening medication early.

The only blemish of the first game was a 3-10 baby split where I hit the 3 pin too full and failed to convert the split. I had a turkey in the middle of the game, and had a double plus 9 in the 10th for a 211…a nice start. I opened the second game with a double, but then only picked up the 7 pin on a 4-7 leave after getting distracted by a scoring error and having to make the appropriate change. I was leaving an awful lot of corner pins in the middle of the game, including the 6-10 twice. I had a double in the 9th and 10th frames, but needed the second strike in the 10th for another 200+ game and left a 3 pin with the first fill ball; I converted the spare for a 199. There was a scary moment to start the third game where the lead bowler for our opponents left her shoe covers on and slipped, falling over onto the lane, when she threw her first shot in the game; she was OK, but the score had to be changed to reflect the obvious foul. I left the 6-7 split to start the third game, had a strike in the second game, but then missed the first of two single 10 pin leaves I would miss in the game left. I had a double in the 4th and 5th frames to make up one of the open frames, but then missed another 10 pin left in the 8th frame. My personal highlight of the night came in the next frame, not because I had a strike, but because I left the 4-5 split, one of the more difficult “fit” splits, but converted that, which Ray managed to catch and told me he liked seeing me pick that up. I ended with a 169, the first time I had been under 170 since the opening week. However, the 579 total was 6 pins better than what I needed for the average-plus-1 (total needed to raise average by one pin…I’ll start including that information in the wrap-up with this post), so I still had a good night. Brian was still a bit untracked (after having practiced Sunday on the slicker tournament shot), but Joy and Ralph had decent nights for them. The opponent that slipped on the lane recovered to have a decent third game, along with the other female on the team, so, although it was close, we lost the third game, which prevented an eight-point sweep for the night.

Result: 211-199-169=579
Average (15 games): 189 Last 9 average: 200
Next week’s Average-Plus-One score: 579

Errata: The Bowler’s Ledger, a bowling newspaper published in the area, reported Rosemarie Daniels as a member of the Tri-City USBC WBA in the results of the women’s state tournament, but Ray informed me that she actually bowls out of Boston Bowl, so she calls the women’s association for Boston her home association.

Tuesday note

Took a trip to the lanes again today to have oil removal done on my ball before the pro shop closes for vacation this weekend. I found the full league schedule and got some good news and bad news. The good news? With the redone schedule, my team is scheduled to face my cousins’ team, the “Lounge Lizards,” later this season. The bad news? We are scheduled to do so on July 23, which happens to be my sister’s birthday, so if my family has something planned for her that night, I may have to either be absent or pre-bowl (if I get enough advance notice).

Monday notes

  • I had kind of a “blah” practice session today, but I did save the best for last…a clean 205 that found me having to make the 5-7 split in the middle of the game to keep it clean. Again, the work focused mostly on keeping my bowling arm close to my body in the swing.
  • I saw a reorganized standings sheet posted at the lanes, and we are now Team #15. This means we will not bowl against my cousins’ team this week (though they may be on the schedule later). The bad news was that I found out that we have to bowl “Fun and Games” (Bob Hamilton and Sean Richard’s team) again next week. Here’s hoping a second go-around proves better.

Cross-training #34

This Bainbridge, GA-based newspaper bowling column notes that James Butler will be running a celebrity bowling tournament in that area next weekend. A quick Google search identifies Butler as a safety for the world champion New York Giants. The article said that several NFL players would be participating, but it did not say if these would be Butler’s Giants teammates or other NFL players making their offseason homes in the area.

Standings update for June 20, 2008

According to the updated standings, my team fell out of first place, as expected, but we didn’t fall far, as we’re only 4 points out of first place (now held by “Shihoots” with 24 points), sitting in third place by virtue of having the best handicap pinfall among the teams with 20 points. There has been a consolidation of two teams with less than 3 actual bowlers, so there are now two vacant teams, which will be deleted with next week’s standings. Looking ahead, my team faces my cousins’ team, the “Lounge Lizards,” next week, making it another night for me to look forward to.

A mixed bag

I had been feeling a twinge of pain in my right ankle for the last day or so, so I wasn’t sure I would aggravate it bowling. With this in mind, I went to the lanes at my usual time, but then told Brian and Ralph when they came in that I wanted to warm up with them to test the ankle out. When I found out that the ankle would not bother me while bowling, I pronounced myself ready to go and finished up the warm-up game.

As I’ve mentioned previously, we faced the league champions from last year, the team paced by Bob Hamilton and Sean Richard. The pair we were on wasn’t hooking as much as the previous weeks’ pairs, but it was only a board difference in my stance, so I felt good about my chances of doing well. Joy once again pre-bowled (this league only allows two pre-bowls per bowler), and when I saw her scores, I knew the three of us would have to do well in the first two games, because only her third game was over her average.

As this was the first time Sean Richard had seen me bowl, I made a point of flashing a wink at him after I had my first strike, which came in the 2nd frame of the first game, a 201 that was marred by a washout (the 1-2-10 leave), which I missed, and a sleeper 2-8 where, again, I only managed to pick up the front pin. I missed a few easy spares in the second game, including a single 7 pin, but because I had started off with a double and had a strike in the “foundation” 9th frame, I had a chance to save average, and nearly did with two strikes and an 8 fill in the 12th for a 184. I started the last game with a hambone, and was nearly clean, but I missed the single 10 pin in the 8th frame and left the 2-10 split in the tenth, picking up only the 2 pin, for another 201. Brian, as he would later tell me in his car taking me home, felt out of sync all night and wasn’t up to par, and also told me then that he felt bad about having a bad night, as he really wanted to bowl with me last night knowing the hot streak I’ve been on. Bob and Sean had their usual good nights, and their female teammates did enough to have their team take 6 of the 8 points.

Bob and Sean both complimented me on my night when it was all over. Also, I had met some of my teammates’ family, Brian’s and Ralph’s wives and Ralph’s son, and I was generally praised by them, as well as by another bowler in the league whom I didn’t really know. So, I guess I’ll call it a good night, even though my team didn’t do well. Bob and Sean are both good men, however, so I didn’t mind losing to friends.

Result: 201-184-201=586
Average (12 games): 188 Last 9 average: 199

As an aside, I also learned that the pub at Westgate Lanes is running a karaoke contest on Wednesday nights now, so, one of these nights, I’ll have to bring the cab fare to get home with me rather than getting a ride home one of these nights so I can enter the karaoke contest. If there’s a finals type competition after a few weeks, it might offer the opportunity to win some of my winter league money.

Bowling Scorekeeper added to sidebar

CMG, one of my forum and chat buddies (and he of one of the bowling blogs in my blogroll), has recently launched a very comprehensive bowling score tracker application at bowlsk.com. He put it together out of frustration at the lack of features found on most bowling score tracker sites. What he has come up with is outstanding; not only will it show a line score for every game of a set, but it will also show your leaves (with pins still standing after spare attempts shown in red), and also has space for notes on stance (as a board number), target, and the board you actually hit, and even what ball you used for your attempt at a strike in the frame. You can take a look at the bowlers already registered on the site to see what I mean.

I do plan on using the site myself down the line, but I don’t feel I need the detail bowlsk.com offers at this point. However, I do feel the site deserves a link in the sidebar and I have added it. Last note: if you use the site, please consider donating; as the site grows in number of users, the site’s bandwidth needs will become greater, so donations will help pay for that.

Another good practice

Today’s practice session was nothing like last week’s, but I was still around 600 on the day, w/ a couple of games in the 210s and a 178 low. I worked mostly on trying to keep my elbow close to my body in my swing, and while I didn’t always succeed, I did it enough to have a powerful strike ball when I had good shots. I had a split which marred each game, had a 10 pin miss early in the third game, and only picked up 2 of the 2-4-5-8 bucket to end that game. Mostly, I’m feeling now that I can shoot 200+ on a fairly consistent basis, which should stand me well through the summer league season.

First place!

The standings sheet after this week has been posted on LeagueSecretary.com (see sidebar link under “Author’s links”), and it shows that my team is currently in first place. 😀 It’s still early, however, so it’s not time for us to relax just yet. Judging from this week, it looks like you can expect the standings to be updated on the site by Friday, so Friday will probably be the best day to check the standings.

New sidebar category and links

I’ve been waiting since before the start of my Wednesday Summer Mixed league for this…

I have added a new category, called “Author’s links”, to the sidebar. This category will be for links to my personal bowling stuff that is online. Eventually, this category will include such stuff as my USBC membership information, but there are two links to start off this category.

The first one, which is why I’ve been holding off on creating the category, is the link to my current league standings on LeagueSecretary.com. The current standings sheet shows the standings after last week (the bowling on June 4), but I believe it is in the process of being updated. Check here to track my team as we go through the season (paid members of LeagueSecretary.com can access previous weeks’ standings).

The second one will track how well I do from week to week in the league at a glance. It is a stat sheet on a site called BowlingTracker.com, and will even give such stats as averages on each lane pair. The larger site has also been added as a regular bowling site link in the “Bowling Sites” category. Thank you to Brandon from the BowlingCommunity.com forums and the associated IRC channel for pointing me to this site.

It’s official!

As per plan, I went to the lanes early yesterday because I was scheduled to have another lesson with Ray. It had turned out that Ray was running a half-hour late, so I didn’t start warming up for my lesson until about 4:30. After a while, Ray got his camcorder out and started to film a “before” session.

The “before” showed that my timing was still good, and that my release and follow-through were getting better. I was still having trouble staying under the ball, however. The “before” this time included a series to show axis tilt and revolutions. For good pin action, a bowling ball must have at least 12 revolutions before hitting the pins, but I was only getting 9 or 10 revolutions by that time. The problem staying under the ball and not getting revolutions are related, because, as Ray showed me, my elbow was going away from my body. Another problem related to leverage was that I was not bending my left knee enough in my downswing, so in my drill work during the session, the elbow and the knee were the two points of emphasis. When we filmed the “after”, Ray said I had 8 good shots in a row, and my revolutions picked up to the point where I was getting 11 of them on the ball. Ray said I would get that last revolution with practice. Foreshadowing the league night I would have later, he said he had a feeling I would bowl well.

I was prepared to have to hang around after the lesson, so I had all of my medication with me, including my cholesterol medication, which, on Wednesdays since starting the league, I would take before eating at home prior to leaving for the lanes, and I took the cholesterol pill shortly after my lesson. I later ordered a cheeseburger and a Sprite from the snack bar, and I had dinner while watching Ralph warm up. Ralph said that Brian had pre-bowled because of a school awards function that his daughter was involved in. Joy was also back after missing the regular league session last week.

My work in my lesson carried over to my league bowling immediately; I started the first game with a turkey, picked up a single 2 pin, then had a double, and the only open frame I would have that game was in the 9th frame, in which I only picked up the front pin of the sleeper 2-8. I ended the game with a spare and 8-fill for a 214. My second game was not quite as good, but I sandwiched a lone open frame, throwing an attempt at the single 10 pin in the ditch, between a couple of doubles. I made all of my other spares during the game, and I ended up with a 201. I was worried about running out of gas during the night, but my last game would turn out to be my best of the night…a clean 227 in which I tossed a hambone starting in the 6th frame. The resulting 642 series was my best ever in actual competition. Brian’s pre-bowl scores were around his average for the most part, but he did have a 235 in the first game. Except for the second game, Joy and Ralph were also around their norm, and we ended up taking 6 of the 8 points from our opponents, the team known as “G Force.”

Result: 214-201-227=642
Average (9 games): 186 Last 9 average: 186

My team faces last year’s league champions next week, so I’m really looking forward to that. If we have a good night against them, I feel that it would be a statement of sorts.

The administravia of this post is the fact that I have edited the “About” page of this blog, linked in the sidebar, to reflect last night’s accomplishment. Here’s hoping I make more edits like that in the future. 😀

BEST…THREE…EVAR!!!

After the first game of my practice today, I was going to title this post “Mr. Clean” in honor of having my first clean game since my return to bowling. I started with a double, sandwiched another strike between a couple of single-pin spares, then finished with the last seven in a row for a 259, my second best game ever in any setting. Little did I know I would follow it up with my third best game ever, a 247. I had a chance for my first (albeit unofficial) 700 series, but left a couple of splits and missed a single pin in the 9th frame for a 183, giving me a 689 series…my best ever! 😀

And I wasn’t even worried about score…all I wanted was to get my ball over the foul line and have clean releases. I was playing the “wall” (the line between the oil and the dry, which is a characteristic of many house shots), and had good angle to the pocket most of the day. I was largely building on my league performance of last week, so having a good series like this, even in practice, has to give me a ton of confidence. I see Ray for coaching on Wednesday afternoon, so I’ll be sure to tell him about this practice.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the 689 series is better than any series I’ve had on two good feet, so this is indeed special. 😀

League update: My team is in fourth place in the league after last week. A separate post may be coming if I can find the league on bowl.com (I was going to wait for LeagueSecretary.com to have the league standings posted for something special, but if the USBC site has them, I may be able to do it soon.).

Job application update

Just an update on the application process for the job at the snack bar…I talked to Arsenio, the head cook, and he told me he’d have to see what the shifts look like, but he may be able to fill them with part-time help. He was generally looking for people who would be available nights until 11 PM, and I told him that I could possibly work until that time on most nights. He then handed me an application, which I will fill out this weekend and drop it off at the snack bar when I come in for practice on Monday.

My bowling cousins were doing open bowling while I was there, joined by the cousins up from Texas, along with my uncle, and my aunt was watching until she had to leave. While I was there, I chatted a bit of bowling with David while he was sitting, including telling him about the pitch change I recently made, noting that I thought that helped me get the 564 set the other night.