Bowling Video--How Lane Machines Work

Why I'm not Bowling the USBC Open Championships

I've lived in Sacramento since late 2004. Reno's National Bowling Stadium has hosted the USBC Open Championships three times since I've lived here. The National Bowling Stadium is only 131 miles away from my driveway, according to Google Maps. Yet, despite the fact that some travel thousands of miles to bowl the Open, I've never bowled "nationals," and I won't be bowling this year either. Why is that?

Well, for one thing, I'm too darn lousy a bowler to waste that much money on a tournament. If there's one thing I've learned from doing this blog, watching Xtra Frame, and from my humiliating experience this interminable season in a travel scratch league, it's that even though I never thought I was very good, I'm a lot, lot worse than I thought. The fact that I didn't bowl well in the two tournaments I've bowled at the National Stadium also doesn't light my fire to bowl the Open there this year.

And if that's not enough to keep me away, I see guys like Matt McNiel bowling monster scores there. And lest you say, "Well, he's a lefty. Maybe you can't beat the lefties at the Stadium, but you can hang with your fellow righties," I counter with, "Well what about Matt Weggen?"

Matt Weggen (see photo above) is a 31-year-old right-hander who took the singles and all-events lead at the Open this year by shooting 806 in doubles and 826 in singles yesterday, April 19. Now, how the hell can mere mortals like me compete with that and all the other 800 series, 300 games, and 2100+ all-events totals that have already been shot?

And what's with with all these astronomical scores? I don't expect the USBC Open to put out a U.S. Open oil pattern, but it's still supposed to be a "sport" condition, and people tell me it's tough. So why are all these guys I've never heard of before shooting these monstrous scores? And if they can do it, why can't I? Well, because if I can't even average 200 in a travel league on house conditions, how am I going to average 230+ on a "sport" pattern in the biggest bowling tournament on earth, no matter how loosely the term "sport" may apply to the lane conditions in Reno right now?

How about you? Are you bowling nationals this year, even if your name isn't Matt? If so, how do you feel about going up against these incredible scores?

Matt McNiel's Lightning Almost Strikes Twice At USBC Open Championships

Matt McNiel made bowling history last year at the Reno National Bowling Stadium when he rolled 740 in the team event, 780 in doubles, and 806 in singles to win the all-events title at the USBC Open Championships with an astounding nine-game total of 2,326.

Not only did McNiel win the coveted all-events "eagle," but he also broke the "unbreakable" all-events record of 2,321 that Ron Vokes set at the Open in Las Vegas just a year before. It was an amazing performance.

So, when the 25-year-old left-hander returned to Reno last weekend to compete in this year's Open, all eyes were upon the defending champion to see how he would do this time around. And McNiel didn't disappoint. In the team event Sunday evening, he began with a 258, followed it with a 263, and finished with a 224 to shoot 745 and lead his team to eighth place in the team standings.

After reading about this in Jeff Richgels' column yesterday, I decided to tune in Monday evening to watch Bowl.com's live streaming of McNiel's doubles and singles outings. And, again, disappointment was in short supply. McNiel led off his doubles effort with a 245, then blasted a 300, and began with a five-bagger before going a little high in the sixth frame to leave an 8 pin and finish out with a 277 for an awesome 822 series. That 822 made McNiel only the second person in history to shoot two 800 series in the USBC Open Championships.

At this point, with a 6-game total of 1567, McNiel needed to shoot 760 in singles to break his all-events record, and he needed a 691 to take the lead in all-events this year. And if he'd been able to stay on the pair on which he began the evening, he might well have been able to do the latter or even the former. But having to move to a different pair presented problems with carry that McNiel was unable to fully solve, as he shot games of 236-215-223 for a 674 series and all-events total of 2241.

By normal standards, this was still an outstanding effort. Yet, "normal" is hardly a word one would use to describe the extraordinary accomplishments of Matt McNiel over his previous fifteen games at the Open.

Matt McNiel is an outstanding amateur bowler with a smooth yet hard throwing lefty style somewhat reminiscent to my eye of Ryan Ciminelli's. But you can judge for yourself by checking out his performance last night in the embedded videos below. The first video is of his entire performance, and the second video is of the tenth frame of his second game of doubles where he shot 300.

As a side note, McNiel shot 299 and 800 last year at the Open but didn't receive USBC sport condition honor awards for them because he didn't have a USBC sport league membership at the time. And he still hadn't upgraded his membership when he shot his first 300 on a sport condition last Thursday night. So when he got to Reno this year, he asked one of the USBC folks if he could upgrade his membership there, they let him do it, and it's a good thing he did.

You can read Jeff Richgel's excellent profiles of McNiel last year here, and this year here, and Bowl.com's recap of McNiel's entire outing this year here.

Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV

Bowling Bytes-4/26/10

~ Minnesota bowler breaks all-events record at USBC Open Championships -- "After a disappointing performance at the USBC Masters in February, Matt McNiel of Chanhassen, Minn., worked hard to make sure he was prepared for his return to the National Bowling Stadium for the 2010 USBC Open Championships. The 24-year-old left-hander was determined and focused this weekend and blistered the tournament lanes for a 2,326 all-events effort Sunday, the highest nine-game total in 107 years of Open Championships competition..."

~ Dorin-Ballard continues to lead at USBC Queens -- "United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer Carolyn Dorin-Ballard of Keller, Texas, continued her dominance Sunday at the 2010 USBC Queens as she broke the five and 10-game qualifying records to lead going into Monday's final block of qualifying at the El Paso Convention and Performing Arts Center. Dorin-Ballard came out of the gates with a 299 game, and continued to strike as she added games of 254, 250, 235 and 256 for a five-game total of 1,294. Combined with her first-day total of 1,224, she is at 2,518 through the first two days with a 251.8 average..."

~ Oklahoma bowler shoots 299 at USBC Open Championships -- "On a day when the leaderboards at the USBC Open Championships were given a slight jolt, Darrell Banks of Edmond, Okla., etched his own name into the history books with the fifth 299 game of this year's event. The 38-year-old right-hander started his team event with 11 consecutive strikes before leaving the 10 pin standing on his final shot. Banks finished his set with games of 206 and 222 for a 727 series and helped Lil Bit A Shine to a 2,999 team total at the National Bowling Stadium on Saturday night. There have been nine perfect games at the 2010 Open Championships..."

~ '09-'10 X'tra Frame Top 5 Moments Motor City Open Position Round -- "This week's featured moment was from the position round of the season-opening Motor City Open at Taylor Lanes in suburban Detroit. This one had just about everything you could ask for: two legends (Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Chris Barnes) tied for the lead, safely ahead of third, Pete Weber shooting a big game to lock himself onto the show, then four guys (Osku Palermaa, Rhino Page, Bill O'Neill and Tommy Jones) fighting it out for two spots on the show..."

~ PBA South Region Leaders through April 25, 2010 -- "The top 25 players will be invited to the 2010 Regional Players Invitational (RPI). The RPI is scheduled at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev., in December, 2010. 2010-11 LLPBA Tour exempt players are not eligible for the RPI..."

~ PBA Region East Leaders Through April 25, 2010 -- "The top 25 players will be invited to the 2010 Regional Players Invitational (RPI). The RPI is scheduled at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev., in December, 2010. 2010-11 LLPBA Tour exempt players are not eligible for the RPI..."

~ Mohamed Kamel, Chan Shuk Han move to the top in 12th Sinai International Open -- "Mohamed Kamel of Kuwait and Chan Shuk Han (pictured left), Hong Kong, overtook the lead in the men's and women's division of the 12th Sinai International Open Bowling Tournament to lead the field of 121 men and 36 women going into Monday's final qualifying day at the International Bowling Center in Cairo, Egypt..."

~ Dana Miller-Mackie sets 10-game record at USBC Senior Queens -- "Dana Miller-Mackie (pictured left) of Albuquerque, N.M., set the USBC Senior Queens 10-game qualifying record Sunday as she took the lead after two rounds of qualifying. Miller-Mackie, a 16-time women's pro tour winner, shot 2,287, an average of 228.7, at the El Paso Convention and Performing Arts Center and easily surpassed the old record of 2,097 set by Sharon Powers in 2008. A day after being in fourth place after the opening round, Miller-Mackie had games of 229, 206, 279, 235 and 209 for a 1,158 total to add to her first-day score of 1,129..."

~ USBC President Jeff Boje answers 10 Questions before USBC Convention Convention opens in Reno -- "Jeff Bojé (pictured right) delivered the most inspirational speech I have ever heard at Bowl Expo when he was elected president of the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America during the 2004 convention in Las Vegas. That was the beginning of a long series of Email exchanges with a man who thrives on challenges and apparently hates any down time..."

~ Bill Allen (1959)

Bowling Quote of the Day--4/26/10

"The biggest thing I was focusing on was not winning anything or placing, but coming out here and making good shots and being happy with myself...All I can say is that I have never experienced such a Zen moment or whatever you want to call it, where I was just strictly focused on making pure shots, the best shot I could, one at a time..."
--Matt McNiel, after setting a new All-Events record of 2,326 at the USBC Open in Reno

This is the mindset I try to take into all of my practice, league, and tournament sessions. How about you?