2019-20 Brunswick Mixed Week 24 standings update

Current standings (after Week 7 of 2nd half)

Team 6 is tied for 11th with We Don’t Give A Split, eight points behind the leaders, Sweet Rolls. Last Empire is a point behind the lead, Party Of Six and Creedens Mustangs are tied for 3rd, two points back, and Still Stacked and 10th Frame Magic are tied for 5th, four points back. Tomorrow night is a position round, so we get We Don’t Give A Split.

Week 24 high scores

I had the high handicap game & series in men’s “C”, Ed Godino III the high scratch game & series in his division.

Feb. 26 Brunswick Mixed recap

Before I recap my bowling last night, I thought I’d put it on the record here, finally, that I won a ball, the Radical Conspiracy, from NEBA last year as a prize for sharing their live stream on Facebook. I’d already had the Alpha Crux at that performance point, so I was anguishing over what to do with the ball.

Hearing that NEBA was giving away a pair of 3G Sport Ultra shoes this year as the live-stream prize, I consulted with Kevin in the pro shop about a possible trade of the ball for the shoes, which he agreed to. The shoes have interchangeable heels and slide soles on the left (slide) foot, which might be overkill for me bowling just at Westgate, but I’m hoping these are also well-made and last me a long time. The trade was well-timed, as the sole was coming off of the upper on the right (trail) shoe of the pair of Etonics I bought from Ray DiSanto many years ago.

My team also made a lineup change, putting me in the leadoff spot. My reaction to it was that I’d like it, and remembered later that I was leading off when Brian Barksdale was on my team Wednesday night, and Eric Healy later that season. That had been my best season in a while in that league, so I was looking forward to the change.

My Week 24 bowling, frame-by-frame

All of the changes seemed to have paid instant dividends, as I had my best night of my short season so far. I finally put some strikes together, particularly in the first game, and, while I missed a 10 pin during the night, I made one later in a situation that might have ended up being important. The couple of bad shots at the end (including a missed spare) were me sticking at the line, but I felt my footwork was better overall with the new shoes.

Result: 200-160-190=550
Average (18 games): 163
9-game moving average: 164
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 506

Team won first two and total, with the elder Ed Godino shooting in the 190s in the 2nd game to help us get that point. Only two bowlers on the pair had a higher scratch series than me, the younger Ed Godino and one of the opponents, Ricky Chan.

Westgate youth team wins 2019-20 travel league title

Westgate 1 2020 travel league champions
2019-20 Southeastern Mass. Junior Scratch Travel League champions, Westgate 1 (L-R: Chris Zalewski, Dylan Major, coach Dan Esdale, Corey Major, Ethan Reyes)

Per the final standings, the Westgate 1 team of Corey Major, Chris Zalewski, Ethan Reyes, and Dylan Major, coached by Dan Esdale, won the 2019-20 Southeastern Mass. Junior Scratch Travel League title Sunday in the position round at AMF Somerset Lanes. In the final session,
Zalewski led the way with a 720 series, while Dylan Major also posted a 256 game.

Congrats guys! 🙂

Aaron Major slams 300/846 in His & Hers

Aaron Major had his best league night yet, according to his mother, Debbie, when he went 289-300-257 for an 846 the other night in the His & Hers league, noted also in the league’s weekly highs. Debbie messaged me asking if I was aware; I was, not having posted yesterday due to dealing with Hakim’s 5th anniversary. However, I did put it up on the association’s new Instagram, which I’ll embed here if I can figure out how to do it.

WTG Aaron! 🙂

Note: Aaron’s average in the league is currently 250.50. The highest average in the state that I’m aware of is Alex Aguiar’s 250 for 96 games in the old Westport Match Play Classic league at Holiday Lanes in the 2009-10 season. Henry Verdini, president of the state association, along with his wife, Barbara, are helping me try to find other state record candidates.

UPDATE: Attempting to embed the Instagram about Aaron’s night here:

Feb. 19 Brunswick Mixed recap

My Week 23 bowling, frame-by-frame

I ground out an over-average first game, in which I didn’t strike until the 10th frame double, but I wasn’t able to keep that up the rest of the night. The 10 pin I made in the first game was dead-on perfect, but I wasn’t able to repeat that the other three times I had that pin. The time I lined up on the 10 at the end, I had the 3 standing with it, and then chopped the 3-6 twice bookending a double. I’ll probably have a few of these nights the rest of the season, but I’m counting this as semi-competitive practice for next season, anyway.

Result: 172-126-148=446
Average (15 games): 159
9-game moving average: 159
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 492

We lost the first game by 20 and didn’t get any closer the rest of the night, so we won no points.

Feb. 8 youth league notes

Going oldest to youngest by age division, here are the notable youth league scores from last week:

  • Cody Esdale, with a 224 game and 600 series (156 avg.) in the Seniors
  • John Beaudet, with a 192 game (131 avg.) in the Seniors
  • Gabi Lynn Puglia, with a 127 game (64 avg.) in the Juniors
  • Riley Clinton, with a 189 series (28 avg.) in the Preps

Nice bowling, everyone! 🙂

Jayme Silva Sr. & Ed Grossett win NAT One-Ball Doubles at East Providence

Feb 16 NAT One-Ball Doubles
Finalists of the Northeast Amateur Tournament One-Ball Doubles at East Providence Lanes on Feb. 16 (L-R): Champions Jayme Silva Sr. & Ed Grossett, runners-up Jim Ferguson & Sean Richard (Photo courtesy of NAT)

Per the Northeast Amateur Tournament’s Facebook post (must be logged in to view), Jayme Silva Sr. & Ed Grossett won the One-Ball Doubles event yesterday at East Providence Lanes with a 541-475 victory (handicap added) in the final match over Jim Ferguson & Sean Richard. This was the first NAT doubles event with the One-Ball format, meaning a competitor used his same ball for all shots in qualifying and in match play if his team qualified.

A notable game was turned in by Sean Richard in qualifying, a 300, the video of which the BPUSBC obtained from Sandi Litchfield and made the first video on their new Instagram, which can be found here.

Nice bowling everyone! 🙂

Ed Roberts inducted as first bowler into Brockton Athletic Hall of Fame

Ed Roberts Athletic Hall of Fame
The Tenth Board writer/editor Rich Vogel shown here presenting Ed Roberts with his trophy at his induction into the Brockton Athletic Hall of Fame on Dec. 22, 2019. (Photo courtesy of The Enterprise/Alyssa Stone)

I’ve taken on a few service projects on the side recently, and I’m proud of one of them that has a bowling connection.

I’ve developed an association with Bill “Hogie” Hogan, a Brockton native and resident who’s a big Brockton history buff, particularly in sports. He’s known I’m a bowler, so when his idea to develop a Brockton Athletic Hall of Fame for Brockton sports figures that would include the public high school’s Hall of Fame, but also those who can’t be in the BHS Hall of Fame because they didn’t graduate from BHS or their sport isn’t offered by the high school, came to being, he asked me about who would be worthy bowlers to include. Of course, I agreed to join the committee, but, because I also know a fair amount about other Brockton sports, I slid into a role as his lead researcher.

Our first official inductions started last summer with Mike Gordon, a late Brockton High School star in the 1970s who reached the major leagues in baseball as a catcher for the Chicago Cubs, and the Brockton High School Sports Foundation, AKA Save Our Sports, as an organization, at Campanelli Stadium before a Brockton Rox game. Former world welterweight boxing champion, and a friend of the late Rocky Marciano, Tony DeMarco, was recognized last October at the main Brockton Public Library at his book signing, which was part of the Downtown Fest Brockton event.

It was decided that we would induct our first bowler at last December’s Bristol-Plymouth USBC Holiday Doubles tournament at Westgate Lanes, and, with the cooperation of the center and association, the induction was for New England bowling legend Ed Roberts of Braintree, who has bowled in the Coke/Pepsi league at Westgate since the league’s inception over two decades ago, and, indeed, many of his more notable bowling achievements have come since becoming a Westgate league bowler. There will be more bowling inductions to come, so readers should keep an eye on the Hall of Fame’s Facebook page; we will have at least one to announce in the coming week, in fact. As this post’s “administrivia”, the Hall of Fame’s Facebook page is in the Local/New England sidebar list.

Finally, everyone will note the jersey I’m wearing in the photo, which is another design I wanted to promote the website and Facebook page. Although it’s not quite what I had in mind, everyone still seems to like it. Thanks again to Danny Khuu and Solstice Sports Gear, who helped me with my first custom design, the red & black Brockton Boxer design.

Aaron Major shoots 755 in Raynham

I don’t know if he’s had an 800 in this league yet, but Aaron Major got fairly close to one in the Thursday Night Mixed league at Ryan’s Amusements in Raynham last night with a 755 set, per the league’s weekly high scores. Note: If I haven’t mentioned it here already, Aaron bowls in this league with two of my former Brunswick Mixed teammates, Barry & Donald Wood.

Nice bowling, Aaron! 🙂

Aaron Major throws 300/816 in His & Hers

Per the league’s recap sheet, Aaron Major Tuesday night went 300-268-248 for an 816 set in the His & Hers league. I’m not sure what the state record average is, but I want to say it belongs to Alex Aguiar with something in the 250s. If Aaron’s heater is extended, that record could be threatened.

I also need to mention Ray Fischer’s 279 game, which is on the same page of recap sheets. Nice bowling everyone! 🙂

Feb. 12 Brunswick Mixed recap

My Week 22 bowling, frame-by-frame

A little bit of a setback with my spare game last night, but I was also not helping myself with the pins I was leaving. For what it’s worth, I did get it together somewhat in the second game, so I guess I can take what I can out of that.

Result: 150-197-134=481
Average (12 games): 161
9-game moving average: 161
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 488

All the team won was the first game, with Ed Godino III absent.

2019-20 Brunswick Mixed Week 21 standings update

Current standings (after Week 4 of 2nd half)

Team 6 is in 9th place, four points behind a tie for 1st between Last Empire and Creedens Mustangs. The tie is a point ahead of a 3rd place tie between Still Stacked and 4 Spares, and three teams are two points behind the lead in a tie for 5th. Note: Last Empire was the first half winner. Team 6 bowls against 10th Frame Magic Wednesday night.

Weekly high scores

Ed Godino Jr. was high scratch game and series, and high handicap series in his average division, shooting “the number” with his handicap.

My day at 2020 Special Olympics qualifier

I’ve made it no secret since I connected with my half-sister Pam that I’m also connected to Special Olympics bowling through her daughter, Becky, and that I’ve been able to join them most of the times she’s bowled the Special Olympics qualifier since the event moved to Westgate Lanes after the closing of AMF Taunton Lanes.

This year, however, they decided to only bowl the Saturday morning league at North Bowl, which was featured in this month’s issue of Action, as shared on the Facebook page. I still wanted to support the qualifier with my presence at Westgate, as I try to do for everything here. However, NEBA was also at East Providence Lanes this weekend, and, with some of the Westgate bowlers taking part in that, I was conflicted. I decided that it would be Aaron Major who would indirectly make the decision by his performance last night, with the odds actually favoring me going to NEBA by Aaron missing the squad cut and bowling the 12:30 squad today.

Aaron did make the cut, however, so I was at Westgate basically first thing this morning. Becky’s Special Olympics team is named Heller’s Angels, and I knew one of the coaches, Becky Dean, from seeing her with my family. I did eventually introduce myself to the other coaches, Jim and Susan (I didn’t get last names). The summary of the day appears on the Heller’s Angels Facebook page as the post at the top of this article, but I’ll follow with some more detail in the next paragraphs.

Not being tied to family this time allowed me to network a bit with the other Special Olympics groups at the qualifier, and I particularly sought out the ones that practiced at centers in my association. I was hoping to find either websites or Facebook pages to connect to, and succeeded with a few of those, which I liked as the association page when I got home.

Also, wanting to play up some of Westgate’s history, I was able to tell the more fortunate groups, including Heller’s Angels, that their bowlers were on our most famous pair of lanes, 47 & 48, which, of course, we’ve affectionately dubbed “Hakim’s pair”. I also texted about that to Pam, who told me she thought that was very cool.

Finally, by pure chance, one of Ed Roberts’ daughters, Rachel, seeing that I was wearing the jersey I wore at his Brockton Athletic Hall of Fame induction (more on that in a future post), introduced herself to me as one of the day’s volunteers, and also introduced me to her daughter, Carlee, who was also volunteering. We talked a bit throughout the day from that point.

Again, it was a great day, as I said in the Facebook post I chose to open the article with. This post’s “administrivia” was linking both the Heller’s Angels Facebook page and the Massachusetts Special Olympics website in the Local/New England sidebar list. I ran a Mass. Special Olympics fundraiser on Facebook for my last birthday and would like to do so again, particularly if I can earmark it for Heller’s Angels.

Link to Action newsletter added to sidebar

Most of my readers already know about the Action e-newsletter, but I was on the fence between adding their Facebook page immediately and waiting until they had a website. However, a piece on the North Bowl youth program, which is in the Bristol-Plymouth association, that appears in this month’s issue has forced my hand, and I’ve added a link to their Facebook page in the Local/New England sidebar list. Jimmy Bessette, a member of the UBA’s Chyna Sindrome, is Action’s lead writer, but Vicki Prevost, the IBMA board member who recently retired from the New Bedford Standard-Times, is also a contributor. As a final note for this “administrivia”, the piece on the North Bowl kids also mentions the Heller’s Angels, who my big sister and niece are associated with.