Yet another boring bowling thread.

[Davey Rootbeer]

and this one doesn't have an interesting story tied to it, because my head is KILLING me.

so, we're on lane 1, with the huge wall to the left, and after bowling 3 fairly standard games (156, 173, 193), i realize this is going to be my last hurrah here at the 99 cents thursday night bowling madness, since there's a 4-game limit per person, and i go away to school in less than a week.

all of my friends, and my sister, and some of my sister's friends, are there.

The kid (from the last bowling story. Remeber that? YOu never read my threads, do you? Shame yourself. You're probably not reading this right now.) Bets me a dollar wager in this game. i have a pounding headache from the children to my right, and have just consumed 3 churros and a huge salty pretzel.

so, yeah, i open with a strike. he get a 9 miss. I strike. He strikes. I strike, he gets an 8 miss.

He gives up and gives me the dollar, because he's as good as finished already. I strike. I strike. I strike, and i strike.

That's 7 in a row to start the game.

People start staring at me, and i feel the pressure building up.

I throw a perfect ball. It justs out with too much head and misses the 9.

The entire house applauds.

I finish up the spare, and hit high on the next one, leaving a 7 pin, which i easily make. everyone's still watching me, even though the perfect game is gone.

i'm thinking "hey, maybe i can come away with like, a 250 or something. that'd be awesome."

10th frame. I strike. I strike. I look at the scoresheet. i have a 258 with one ball left to go. i can bowl the best game i've ever bowles before, if i can get 7 pins or more.

So i overcompensated, threw the ball in the MIDDLE, hooked jersey, and somehow caused a pin reaction which left only the 6.

267. Best game i've ever bowled in my life. And the crowd behind me cheered, because i had just thrown a no-tap perfect game.

It's great, because, well...it's a great game. you don't usually even see games that high on TV by Pros. and i was only 3 strikes away from perfection.

and it's kinda sad, on two levels, that i'll probably never do that good again, and also that if i had the practice and experience i SHOULD have had after high school, then i'd be bowling games like that much more often.

So feh.


<img src="http://www.roomwithamoose.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=13347&stc=1">

[MST3Kakalina]

yeah well, i wish 170 was a standard game for me.



don't you laugh at my 115 average!



my dad bowled a 300 while i was in stockholm, and the ABC gave him a pretty pimp looking ring.

[Davey Rootbeer]

I'll bowl a 300 one of these days...

i hope...

but the only time i can actually afford to bowl is when it's like, a buck or less. and that's really rare.

[MST3Kakalina]

aww, davey. live in PA so i can treat you to bowling more often.

[Davey Rootbeer]

i swear, if i was still bowling 3 games a week free courtesy of the school league, then i'd be kickin' names and takin' ass right now.

my average went up 15 pins every year i was in the school league: when i "retired" in 2001-02, my average was 170.

I'd be averaging in the 220's by now at the least. Damn.

[töm]

two sixty seven. wow. i'd like to bowl with you sometime; i would surely learn a lot. it is a nice game. the only thing i can compare it to in my experience is going down to the driving range with a bucket of balls. it's a very mental game; one which works well with patience, composure, and eastern spirituality.

99&cent;. wow. i think the reason that i never bowl is because it turns out to be $20 just for one frame where i live; between shoe rental, lane fees, and game fees. that's a rather lot to ask, i think. but when someone else is picking up the tab, i'm always up for a few frames.

you can certainly do this again. and again and again. i don't think that's much to be sad about. if you can do it tonight, you can do it tomorrow night. you've got the chutzpah, man.

[Davey Rootbeer]

Yeah, i only bowled once a week this summer because of the fact that a certain alley had this 99 cent special on thursday night.

Regular prices: 5 bucks a game.

so, yeah. pretty much the same story.

and now, i'm going back up to school, where there are no bowling alleys. so, that's going to be my last game for a long, long time.

I don't have the mental game for a 300. I physically go to pieces after bowling 4 or 5 strikes in a row, because i put so much pressure on myself.

My mental game used to be WONDERFUL back in high school. but 4 or 5 years without any competition really takes it out of you.

[töm]

i think the only real competition has to be within your mind. i don't know, it's a strange thing. sometimes i've strived as hard as i can just to bowl a strike and threw the ball straight into the gutter. then there's times where i clear my mind, just make as fluid a motion as possible, and don't even look at the pins and i hit a strike.

booh. it's also kind of like swinging a bat. just keeping your mind on the motion and willing the ball and bat to connect, rather than trying to smack the ball as hard as you can with the bat. you might not get a homerun, but a line drive over the head of the first baseman isn't so shabby a hit either.

sports and psychology is so very interesting.

i think the best remedy for the pressure would be to not even keep track of frames or scores. just bowl for the action. i think that is another thing that sucks about bowling alleys. you have to purchase a set amount of games, rather than, say, an hour's worth of time of just bowling. i recently had the pleasure of such a thing at a bowling alley in New Orleans named <i>RAWK N' BOWL!!!</i> (which is basically an old bowling alley/discotheque above some greasy guy named vinny's apartment). there weren't any scores, or any games. there was just continuous bowling for the goddamn sake of bowling.

and that's cool.

[CSMatt]

Hot damn. You're a freak of nature, Davey.

And that' not necessarily a bad thing.