"Bowling Blind"-The PBA Experience

PBA Xperience-Farmingdale Lanes

Back to business...back to a quick understanding of why sometimes, at 25 years old, I am not a professional bowler, but merely a nice player locally. Last week, I performed smartly and consistently on the Cheetah pattern shooting an 846 on my way to a sweep of the night's weekly 17 points. This week's effort??? Simply a case of a bowler still learning how to become better and also smarter.

This week's pattern: Scorpion, 42 feet long, usually requiring a direct line in the track area to start then migrating inward on the lane.

Opponents: Chris Paroly and Adam Chase-righthanders-and Frankie Calca, lefthander. Two righties, two lefties.

Practice: Sunday afternoon, I tried to warm up and evaluate the nature of how the pattern would play and it played tight downlane. When you get to Thursday, your initial ball reaction to the pattern might be a little bit different due to the cleaning of the lanes, or the humidity in the bowling center so you must go in with an open mind and use the 10 minutes of practice to come up with a game plan and ball path. During practice, the backends SNAPPED alarmingly so meaning that despite the pattern, there would be a little more backend reaction on the lanes than what I encountered Sunday. It also was noticeable that there was some aided recovery room wide of target as well which is a green light special for most players.

Ball of choice: C300 Power Swing, standard layout, pin under, GC out but with a little more sanded finish (the same surface I used Sunday to some success).

Game 1: 196. Talk about a waste of great bowling. Front five to start, have the look on the lanes to win that game easily and then the 6th frame came along, leaving the Big 4 split and then only getting one pin (keep this in mind). 8th frame: move right, get softer and leave a 3 pin. You figure a gimme spare...whiff it because I tried to hook it getting another read on the lane, meanwhile Chris Paroly is rolling off a string of 8 strikes in a row to shoot right past me. 10 frame: absolute horrible shot leaving a 4-5 split, then missing it. Lost the high game, then watch Frankie double in the tenth to beat me by 3 pins. Front five got me one single point.

Game 2: 244. Front 6 this time and did not waste it but with one bad break comes the defeat of this game as well. It should be noted that i am laying it down around 10 and getting back from as far right as 3 on the left side of the lane so I had area but carry is always the critical ordeal on the lanes. The tenth frame comes a-callin' and up comes a pocket 6-8 split. Not a great shot but with the lanes holding up well, it was a surprise, much like the Big 4 was. On my conversion attempt, I miss both pins instead of getting one. Why was this important? This time, Adam was hot on my tail, needing a double and 7 for the win. I get one, he must go double, 9 for the 3 point win. Adam steps up like the talented young player he is and get the double, then on his fill gets...you guessed it, 7 to win with a 245 and a snide, 'thanks for getting nothing' remark as he walked by.

Game 3: 189. Not much to say about the game except it was the smartest game I bowled and it was the lowest game I bowled for the whole night. Keep in mind that we are moving pairs and both Frank and I were chasing Darren Andretta. Darren elected to take a Storm Virtual Gravity and sand it down to a 1000 to really blow up the track area on the left side of the lane. While Frankie and I did not get a lot of the early hook, we got Darren's carrydown and thus, lost our area on the lane. Chase shot 193 for the 3 points, while I got 2 just keeping it close and avoiding mistakes, which were plenty: a missed 3-9 spare, 4-6-10 split, and washout in the game leading to 3 opens yet enough tinkering to strike enough in the game to hold off Paroly by 1 pin.

Game 4: 190. Went to a C300 Perfect Rival, shined to a 1000 to try and generate some more kick downlane, which did work but my carry was not very good at all that game. Ring 7, solid 8, shaker 10, plaque 7 but I was in the pocket so my objective was to just clean the game and hope that the lanes didn't give up a 220 game on the right. It was evident that Frankie had lost his look entirely on this pair shooting only 163 and 158. Adam shot 176 with a lot of pulled shots and mistakes. The last game was up Chris and I to get for 3...to say the least, Chris had the look. While my carry was bad, he rattled off 4 in a row to open up a big lead in the middle of the game but then the nerves set it for him: 2-4-8-10 in the 8th and a washout in the 10th gave me the chance to steal the point with a mark in the 10th. My response...cut one short and leave a 2-7 baby split. Not the easiest spare in the world, but certainly convertable. Naturally, I pull that one as well and chop the 2 pin off to lose by 4 pins. So to review, I gave away 1, potentially 2 points in the first game, 1 in the second, and 1 in the last game. I also ended up losing to Chris 39 pins in total wood giving him 13 for the night, and 10 for me. It also put Chris in the overall lead in the league with 41 points to my 40 going into next week.

Overall, just a mentally poor performance by myself giving points away with small mistakes on the lanes. It is a part of growing up as a player and 819 most nights is a solid night, however when you feel like you have an 880+ ball reaction and fall well short of that number, you feel like you let it go for one night. The beauty is that I am getting very comfortable being more aggressive on the lanes with decision making and for not bowling well in two of the 3 weeks to start the summer, being one point out of the league lead is to be considered a small blessing.

A quick word about Chris Paroly: he will not excite you like Adam Chase does talent wise, nor does he have Darren's bag of tricks as a bowler (you can say the same for myself and Frankie as well, as we do not have what most would call tools), nor is he as smooth as Joe Costanzo on the lanes but he is a tough bowler, smart on the lanes, keeps the ball close to the pocket, and understands ball motion. He has a funky style of game but he repeats and understands the scoring pace of most pairs which allows him to stay close in every game. He shot 858 for the 4 games and has averaged 216 so far for the first 12 games this summer, while I have averaged 205. Most people may not like his game but like his philosophy...he is a force to be reckoned with this summer.

Next week: Time to tackle the ever confusing Chameleon pattern. Until next week folks in the Long Island area...stay dry because Damn, this weather is a pain in the ass to look at! But don't forget that you must learn from my lessons and you can strike for show...but you spare for dough.

Namaste...