An encouraging statistic!

You two or three folks out there that make up my fan base know that in early January I received a no-strings-attached Defiant ball from Roto Grip.  Before I started using this new ball, my Tuesday night league average was a 176 (53 games); Thursday's was a 172 (54 games).  Considering that my entering/book average was a 177, this season was falling short of my expectations.

Then I received that Defiant.  Check out the averages for using that ball in each league: Tuesday - 197 (21 games, current avg. 182.5), Thursday - 182.5 (24, 175.6).

So I've decided to keep this statistic on the sidebar somewhere.  And I'm going to call it Defiant Stats (clever, eh?).

Roto Grip, I owe you.

Not a bad league week!

I averaged 201 over this week's 6 games... Still Defiant!  :)

Tonight Dos Equis opened a can of whoop-ass...

...on nobody.

The 6th place Dos Equis (75 points out of 1st place after last week's miserable showing) bowled No Team, a vacancy team that's not easy to beat because you have to be within 10 pins of average, within 30 pins to win the series, and the team has to win by 150 pins.

But we had a record team night tonight!  A 204 pbpg avg.!  A season high 3059 pins scratch!  A season higher handicap score of 3764!  What a difference a week makes.  We took 52 of 56 points.

Don, our anchor, debuted his brand new Roto Grip Defiant and shot a 722!  He had 22 strikes tonight!

Our two Ricks combined for 1207 scratch (Rick G. had a nice 635 with a 267 3rd game)!

I had a minor STUPID attack in the middle of the 2nd game, but eked out a 618 series with my almost-2-month old Defiant.  And Tim was about 30 pins over average.

It was a good night.

(And the Laphroiag is hitting the spot.)

What are the odds?

No, really.  What ARE my odds in the remainder of this AMF $700K National In-League Tournament?

I have paid about $100 in entrance fees (but I won $25 in the center finals!); granted there are no more fees, but now I must dance at The Sandbagger's Ball.

I figure there are probably less than a dozen-- let's say 10-- AMF houses within driving distance to the district finals venue (see graphic).  Each one of those houses has 6 qualifiers, so I'll have to have a higher POA than, say, 5 dozen other bowlers in my division.  Given the potential sandbagging factor, I figure I would need to be 100-150 pins over to have any chance at winning (and there's only one winner per division).  That's a series in the 630-680 range, and in a new house.

So what are my odds?  Well, considering I'm as likely to bowl over 650 as under 450 (depending on which one of me shows up), I'd have to say 50-50 (I know, technically my odds are little more than 1%...or, as we say in the business, slim).  It's a not-very-clear-cut case of (cap)ability vs. (past) performance.

Ah, The Sandbagger's Ball.

I may have to borrow a cummerbund.

Ah, yes. I did it AGAIN.

You tell me.  How does a guy who bowls a 258 second game end up with a 588 series?

Let me tell you.  Three missed 10-pins and an open 10th in the first game + one missed 10-pin, a split, and a chopped 3-6-10 in the 10th in the third.  THAT's how.  

I take full responsibility for my team losing 3 out of 4 tonight.  We lost total pins by 5 (because of me).

I threw a lot of strikes tonight.  I also threw away a solid 600 series (411 pins going into the 3rd game).

And The Stones were tied for 1st place before I choked the chicken.  Again.  I missed all of my 10-pin spares with the Epidemic.   We took only 2 points with a fair-to-middlin' 170+ pbpg avg.

The big news of the night was Carter's first 600 series (615).  He was filling in for Mick as anchor.

The not-as-big news was that Tim and I were recognized on the lanes before we got started for finishing 3rd in our respective divisions in the AMF 700K In-League Tournament.  We're off to the district finals on March 17.

With 108 pins PER GAME handicap, we should NOT have lost tonight.  Split, maybe.  But not lost.  I'm taking this one personally.

Might the D stand for Diva?

Could be, after what I saw while watching the ever-flamboyant PDW in the U.S. Open yesterday afternoon... He was pseudo-McEnroe-like...and he did, in fact, make history...but in more ways than one?

More in a post to above180.com.

Just a rhetorical question from a THB who will never be as skilled a bowler as PDW.  Aren't there more distractions on the way up through the qualifying matches than one fan moving during the approach on tv?

In my humble opinion-- for what it's worth-- his reactions to the fan movement seemed to me to be a little, um...Rash.  (If it was deliberate or repetitive fan discourtesy, the house should have intervened.)

PBA Question of the Day

"I was real bad when I was young."

What is this pro bowler's name?

Seriously.  He was 86 pins ahead of WRWJr after 18 games in yesterday's U.S. Open qualifying round.  (By the way, the stepladder finals will be on ESPN at 2pm CT on Sunday.)

(Our Man Bill V. has the answer in his post yesterday to pba.com.)

Tough week for anchor bowlers!

Has anyone seen my bowling book?!  I need it!!  If you have it, please return it asap!

Last night the 5th place Dos Equis was eviscerated by the last place (because of handicap) USBC training center team, not necessarily because they're the best, but they are definitely the most talented.  We walked out of there Una Equis.  Their one blind bowler, who has the lowest average on the team, shot a 612 without even showing up.  They had a 241 pbpg avg...without the blind guy.

We, as a team, were a soup sandwich.  Our anchor last night was a regular sub, a very good bowler carrying a 207 average, who finished 111 pins under... Tim had his second worse Thursday night series (75 under).  And I, too, was part of the problem-- 21 pins under; my contribution was one heapin' helpin' of down-home STUPID. (P.S. to Tamara: You win.)  Our pair of Ricks (regular Rick G. and sub-turned-regular Rick A.) both shot about par, but it's not enough when the other 2/3 of the team are chokin' the chicken.  We took 10 points, of which 6 were mine.  Go figure.

Once again, I spent $10 to try and get back to first place in the AMF $700K National In-League Tournament center finals (which end this week).  The good news is that I'm still 3rd of 6, which means if my luck holds out I'll go onto the district finals next month.

Oh, well.  On to next week.  Sigh.

Open Letter to Roto Grip

Dear Roto Grip,

Thank you for the Defiant bowling ball you sent me last month.

I have to tell you that I have never really had a ball like this one.  While I'm not yet ready for the PBA, I'd like to share some figures with you.  Since debuting this ball on January 10, I have bowled with it a dozen times in two leagues.  Over the last six Tuesdays, I have averaged 198 with this ball; over the same number of Thursdays, a 181.  Overall, that's a 190 (well, a 189 and some change) average in my last 36 league games.

I have been improving at a painfully slow rate since I started league bowling in 2005.  I have gone from a 151 book average in '06 to a 177 last  spring.  Last summer I topped out at a 189 average in a summer league, but finished with a 185.  One of my goals this season was to break the 190 barrier.  My Thursday league average has been under book all season (it's on the rise), and on Tuesday-- well, it's been a rough go in this league as well; on October 18 I was carrying a healthy 185 average, but by January 3 (one week before I debuted the Defiant), my average had dropped to 175 and I had become discouraged about my bowling in general.

With this Defiant, I have added 6 pins to my Tuesday average in 5 weeks!  That's pretty awesome, considering we're almost 3/4s of the way through the season.  While my progress in my other league since getting this new ball isn't as great (so far), I did shoot a 637 with it on the first Thursday I used it.

I'm no pro bowler, but I'm no slouch, either.  With this Defiant, I feel like I am progressing again...and a 190 average on Tuesday is no longer entirely out of the question.

Consider me a member of the Roto Grip Nation.

Very sincerely yours,

Thumbhole

We tripped and fell...

...into possible sole possession of 1st place last night... And last night was an odd one, really.  The Bowling Stones were tied for 1st place at 36 points apiece before league started.  In the end, the other team (not our opponent) got swept and we split our series-- how, I don't rightly know.

In the last frame of the last game, either Mick and the other team's anchor would decide the outcome; Mick choked (I can say that because, well he did, but he also single-handedly saved us in Game 2).  It was a nail-biter, but when Mick left the 10th open, I was certain it was over.  The other team's anchor had struck out in the first two games; however...

The other anchor threw a first-ball strike, then a gutter-ball.  If he knocked down 9 with his last ball, we would lose... He left 3 standing and we won the last game by 1 pin.  Our team scores weren't great, but they weren't terrible, either.  We had about a 165 pbpg (we need to be 170+) and we gave up 55 pins of handicap each game.  I'm still amazed that we split the series.

So my goal of dethroning the queen went south in the first game.  I shot a 166 (opening with a missed 8-pin...gahhh!...ending with a 7-10 split...gahhhh!) and promptly wadded up my $10 entry ticket.  STUPID charged out of the gate and put up a good fight for 3 games.  I managed a 576 series with very few strikes.

With little help from me and a lot of help from the now-former first-place team, The Bowling Stones now have 40 points.  The three teams behind us were in striking distance, so it's really only possible that we'll be perched all alone atop our division.  But stranger things have happened.