Due to a death close to the event organizers, this month’s Jimmy Fund fundraiser at Westgate Lanes has been rescheduled for next Thursday, Oct. 25. Registration and bowling times will remain the same.

There has been a group called the “Bad-Ass Bowling Circuit” who have started a monthly bowling fundraiser at Westgate Lanes for the Jimmy Fund, and I have learned that their next event at Westgate Lanes will be held on Oct. 18, with registration at 6:30 PM and bowling beginning at 7 PM. $25/person includes two games of tenpin bowling, along with shoes, food, games, and prizes.

I will try to pass along information on these, as there’s not a set day of the month for the event, except that it’s always on a Thursday night. You may also contact Kelly Rich via email at pea2375@msn.com for more information or to be added to the mailing list (invitations to these will be sent via eVite).

I used my birthday and summer league cash to purchase some new Storm gear: their “Triumph” jersey, which I ordered online from their web store. Alex Frisbie was kind enough to get a picture of me in it tonight (I hoped to have the jersey delivered in time for the first night of fall league, and it was):

I will say the jersey is very comfortable, and kept me cool enough on a warm and humid night. I may buy another one, but a different design, in the future. 😀

I met my siblings for a birthday breakfast this morning (a departure from our tradition because I have another function later today), and my little sister (I’m just going to call my half-sister my big sister…who cares if we’re only half related? 😀 ) had a surprise for me with her gift: the key to a second locker. This should lighten the load for stuff like buses considerably, but I’ll still be bringing balls home to clean; I often have more time to take care of ball maintenance when I get home than I do at the center after bowling.

In the five years I’ve been back in bowling, an outing with my brother around my birthday has become a sort of tradition, and we took care of that today. The outing came about quite unintentionally, however, as we had tickets for the “Futures At Fenway” minor league doubleheader, but it was raining in Brockton all morning, so we were doubtful they were going to play (they ended up playing, after all).

My day was, for the most part, a struggle with an inconsistent release, and it affected my spare game as well. For scores, I had a 140 first game, my first game under 150 in some time. The memorable part of the day for us, however, came in the third game; I had an average-ish 180, but my brother threw a personal-best 172 and was actually in position to win the game with the first two in the 10th (he got the first, but not the second). To our recollection, it was also the first time my brother threw a turkey (three strikes in a row), starting in the 6th frame; some of you may have seen the photo of the scoring monitor on Facebook.

Before continuing to read this post, I’d like everyone to take a look at the post linked here…

That outing, my friends, was five years ago today, and, as I look back at it, I’m still amazed at what has transpired since then: my 288 league and 290 open bowling games, my two 700 series in league (not bad for someone who was in danger of not being able to walk at all, let alone well enough to bowl well 😀 ), and, most importantly to me, my closer involvement in the Brockton bowling scene and all of the friends I have made and re-made since coming back. I wish I could thank each of you by name here, but I like brevity in most of my posts, so a blanket “Thank You” will have to suffice.

There will be one person that I have to thank individually, though, and that would be my brother Frank. Even when I had doubted myself, my brother wanted me to get involved with the sport again, and that outing five years ago was what “lit the fuse.” Because of that, all of my outings with him since have been special (yes, even when he’s caught me on a bad day and took a game from me 😀 ). To make it official, thank you, Frank.

I had hoped this week to celebrate the anniversary by officially launching another bowling-related project, but something happened in the last 24 hours that put it on the back burner. I was contacted last night, and confirmed her identity today, by an older half sister whom my mother gave up for adoption at the age of 18, and we spent the bulk of the day between phone calls and Facebook posts getting her connected and acquainted with my family. As it turns out, my newly-found half sister has a daughter who bowls, so this could get interesting. As a result, I now have another reason to remember June 30 for. 😀

Wanting to make a day of the Brockton Bowling Association’s membership meeting today (during which I was re-elected for a three year term on the board), I invited my best friend Ed, his wife, and a classmate, first name Chris, whom I’ve come to know fairly well in the run up to and since our 25th reunion, to a bowling outing. The wife wasn’t feeling well, so it ended up just being the guys.

Chris hadn’t seen me bowl before (other than possibly on YouTube), so I had some motivation to show him I “know my stuff,” and I didn’t disappoint him. I had a 588 on the day, including a clean 217 that I later told him I felt better about the fact that it was clean than about it actually being over 200. I was disappointed that I couldn’t finish, as I had two straight open frames to close the series for a 179 when I needed the first two strikes in the 10th for my 600. I did end bowling by making sure Chris knew that my set was better than my summer league average.

OK, so I’m not far off of my league average for two games, and hanging in there in the third game when I get three splits in a row. I had been getting the ball over the foul line before that time, but then execute some poor shots, and I probably needed to make a move, as well, b/c I found the pocket again when I did. In summation, I’m glad I’m not a morning bowler on a regular basis.

The bright side was that I was perfect on single pins, including three 10s.

I had been leading up to something on this blog the last week or so, and I feel I can let my readers in on it now…I went in for day surgery today for something that was unrelated to bowling. I’m relieved that the less invasive option worked, but wanted it “on the record” that it could have turned into bigger surgery, and that my four-year streak of not missing a league night was in jeopardy, but will likely continue tomorrow night.

To those bowlers I’ve told the specifics, thank you for your support. 😀

My night with my brother didn’t start that well for me, and I knew I was in for it fairly early when I left a 5-10 split on what I thought was a shot that contacted the pocket (if I leave the 5-10 at all, it’s usually when I go wide left). In a rarity, he beat me 161-137, the 161 which we believed was his best game since he’s been bowling with me, and he had five marks in a row in that game, also a first.

Taking the loss as motivation, I buckled down, recovering a second game in the 150s after making the decision to shell up from my Hy-Road to my Reign of Fire and play deeper in. Continuing the trend toward improvement, I also made a breakthrough with my spare game mechanics: I noticed that I tend to let my swing drift out when shooting spares, particularly corner pins, so keeping my swing straight on second ball was a point of emphasis. On the night, I only missed one single pin, a 10 that I just barely missed left, and, in the third game, I felt comfortable enough to try to throw my spare ball at my 7; I had two 7s in the third game and did not miss either of them.

Indeed, I was on my spare game enough to have a clean game in the third game, a 215. My brother actually got the first double of the night in the middle of the game, but I matched that double, and kept marking until the 10th frame. In the 10th, after getting my first strike, I wanted to leave no doubt with my brother that the game was clean (I’ve posted before that he doesn’t consider a game clean unless you left no pin on the deck to end the 10th frame), so I threw two more. With my best game in weeks, I considered my ego salved from my first game loss.

Why didn’t I think to try to play inside with strong equipment sooner in my season?

As I usually do at the end of my winter bowling season, I dedicate a post to breaking down my league performance with the help of the BowlSK reports. First, the first-ball numbers (numbers before the pipe | character reflect last year’s performance):

Strike percentage: 46.4% | 36.4%
Pocket shots: 78.2% | 64.0%
Carry percentage: 58.6% (529/903) | 53.7% (392/730)
Double rate: 49.1% (250/509) | 37.2% (149/400)
Average first-ball count: 8.9 | 8.7
Average first-ball non-strike count: 7.9 | 7.9

As has been noted in many of the league night recaps, I had more of a struggle with my shotmaking this year, which is reflected in a noticeably lower overall strike percentage as well as the percentage of my pocket shots.  The thing that helped is that my carry rate was only slightly lower, but I couldn’t really string them, which is reflected in my double rate.   My spares continued to be fairly manageable, as my average non-strike count remained the same.

Now, breaking down my spare game:

Overall spare percentage: 51.4% (303/589) | 55.9% (384/687)
Single-pin spare percentage: 70.9% (183/258) | 68.7% (184/268)
Multi-pin spare percentage: 56.1% (110/196) | 60.9% (179/294)
Makeable (non-split) percentage: 64.5% (293/454) | 64.6% (363/562)
Split conversion percentage: 7.4% (10/135) | 16.8% (21/125)
Washout conversion percentage: 26.1% (6/23) | 16.7% (5/30)
Percentage on single 10 pin: 63.6% (68/107) | 53.3% (49/92)
Percentage on single 7 pin: 71.4% (20/28) | 56.3% (27/48)

Overall, I did show a bit of improvement in my spare shooting, but most of that was improvement in making my multi-pin spares (including splits).  My single-pin percentage went down slightly, and most of that was not picking up my corner pins; I wasn’t leaving as many 10s, but I left a lot more 7s (20) while only making 7 more of those.  What may help is work not only on picking up the corner pin spares, but trying to learn to adjust so I don’t leave as many of them (I think the increased 7 pin leaves were ones where I left shakers coming in light).

To test my overall split improvement, I ran both this year’s and last year’s spare percentage reports and looked for my 3-10, which is one of the easier splits.  I found I actually made it one fewer time, but left it two fewer times, so my percentage remained the same (50%), so I shouldn’t count on making splits at this rate, as the improvement was probably picking up one or two of my tougher ones (indeed, I picked up both the 2-4-8-10 and the 4-7-10 for the first time in my recollection this season).

Westgate Lanes will host a cosmic bowling fundraiser for Gracie’s Mission on Saturday night, March 31, from 8-10 PM. The cost is $25/person, which includes shoes, and reservations can be made by emailing the organization.

The goals of Gracie’s Mission are education on holistic veterinary treatment and providing financial assistance to low-income households with veterinary treatments for their pets. More information is available on the organization’s website.

I put in a rare Thursday night appearance at the lanes last night, and, during my stay, Adam Johndrow told me that on Wednesday, while I was bowling league, he was practicing on one of the lanes by the desk and picked up the 7-10 split. He added that this is the second time he’s done it in practice, but never in competition.

As announced on their Facebook page, the Brockton Bowling Association has elected Tony Attardo and Maureen “Mo” Morrison to the Hall of Fame, and they will be inducted at the annual Hall of Fame dinner later this season. Congrats to both Tony and Mo.

As had happened in 2009, my brother and I had some time on our hands with our family obligiations for Christmas wrapped up on Christmas Eve, so we went bowling on Christmas Day for the second time. There were more people bowling this time, including a couple in another league that I knew. I told Junior afterward that I wouldn’t complain, because I actually had two games over my league average. I had missed a 7 pin, but made the single 10 every time I had it, but left a pocket 7-10 twice during the session. My brother was rusty, but did have a 115 third game, which is a bit better than he usually bowls.

The USBC reported that Al Uttecht of Anaheim, CA, who has visited Westgate Lanes many times for the AWBA national tournament, has been elected to the USBC Hall of Fame in the Pioneer category. Uttecht, who has been confined to a wheelchair after sustaining injuries in the war in Vietnam in 1970, is considered the most successful wheelchair bowler in history, having won the AWBA Tournament of Champions 13 times in addition to being a 12-time AWBA national scratch champion and a seven-time national All-Events champion. Uttecht was elected to the AWBA Hall of Fame in 1985. A quote from Uttecht follows:

I am totally blown away by this honor, and I have no words to describe how I feel. This is from someone who when I was first asked to join a bowling league, I said you cannot bowl from a wheelchair.

Al Uttecht will be inducted on April 26 at the USBC Convention in Arlington, TX.

I got to play host to my friend from the BowlingCommunity forums, “MikeHL,” again today. If I wanted a challenge, I could’ve had the Coke shot on one of the 5 pairs by the desk today, but I really just wanted us to relax and have fun, so we only took a pair with the house shot. This time, Mike got to see me at my best for at least one game, as I threw a clean 236 out of the gate. It was downhill after that however, but Mike liked to say afterwards that he dragged me down to his level (his problems bowling have been well-documented on the forums, as I may have said in my post about his first visit). He managed to beat me in the last game when, needing a double in the 10th, I failed to get the first strike. I missed a number of multi-pin spares, but only one of my single pins, and that the 7 pin, which I had been making more consistently; I made all of my 10s, but did manage to leave the pin standing after chopping the 6-9 off of the 6-9-10. Afterward, I introduced him to a couple of the other bowlers I knew, my friend John Hayes, and Tyrone Thornton, who was one of the cashers in the Hall of Fame Classic last season.