Bowling Against a Legend

I bowl league at Fireside Lanes near Sacramento, CA. Yesterday afternoon, I subbed for a team in an excellent senior scratch league there. These are three-person teams, and each person is matched against his or her opposite member. My opponent yesterday was Betty Morris-Laub.

If you've followed bowling for a long time, the names Betty Morris and Laub should sound familiar. A certain Betty Morris was female Bowler of the Decade for the 1970's, three time female bowler of the year, and a holder of 17 women's professional national titles and numerous other bowling awards. In other words, she's one of the most accomplished female bowlers ever. And PBA Hall of Famer Larry Laub was voted the 37th greatest bowler in PBA history.

Well, it just so happens that Betty Morris married Larry Laub, and that same Betty Morris was my opponent yesterday in the Fireside Senior Classic. With her husband Larry looking on, she put on a veritable bowling clinic, shooting over 900 for four games and winning three out of five match points against me.

She bowls only once a week yet still averages well over 200 and retains the famous form and smooth execution of yesteryear. And although I haven't seen Larry bowl recently, I understand that he's still got game too, except that he now projects the ball a lot further down the lane than he famously used to.

As I've written previously, I feel blessed to bowl in a center that has one of the finest junior programs and junior coaches (Debbie Haggerty) in the nation, features the Steve Cook Classic and other fine leagues, has a pro shop owned by Gary Hulsenberg and Leanne Barrette- Hulsenberg, and in which I've been able to compete against the likes of bowling legends Steve Cook, Leanne Barrette, and Betty Morris, and even be coached by Bill O'Neill, P.J. Haggerty, and bowling psychologist Dean Hinitz. Every bowler should be so fortunate.

Just don't expect to be able to beat the "old legends" there. Like I said, they've "still got game."

On Watching Mike Flynn and the Outlaw Doubles Tournament in Stockton

Last weekend I bowled in a tournament. This weekend I just watched one. But what a good one it was. 54 doubles teams of some of the finest bowlers in Northern California descended on West Lane Bowl in Stockton, CA to compete in an eight game scratch tournament. Among the participants were two-time Collegiate Bowler of the Year and exempt PBA player PJ Haggerty teamed with PBA Western region standout Jeff Frankos, exempt PBA player and two-time TV finalist this season Wayne Garber, and a guy you may have never heard of named Mike Flynn.

If you ever see Mike bowl (check out the brief video below, even though it doesn't begin to do justice to his incredible physical game), he should make a big impression on you. He throws one of the most effortlessly powerful balls I've ever seen at any level. He bowls in the Steve Cook Classic league at Fireside Lanes in Citrus Heights, CA near Sacramento. I'm guessing that he also bowls leagues in other houses in the area. He used to tear up Wayne Webb's league at another house in Sacramento.

He bowls sanctioned 300 games and 800 series like they are nothing, and he had a pin ripping 300 game in Stockton on Saturday. I understand that Steve Cook is so impressed with Mike that he offered to sponsor him on tour a few years ago but Mike declined. Anyway, I love to watch Mike bowl as much as I do anyone on or off the PBA Tour, which is another way of saying that I would watch him as readily as I would any bowler in the world. That is how much his physical game impresses me.

I also saw two people shoot 300's in the same game on the same pair, one right after the other. In all the tournaments and leagues I've watched over decades and decades, I've never seen this before. Yes, there was a relatively easy house shot out there. There's no way people would have shot those kinds of scores on the new Shark pattern I bowled on recently. But these were still good bowlers, and they put on a very entertaining show.

I'll post the final results of the tournament when they become available. And if there's any way I can, I plan to bowl in that tournament next year. Anybody want to be my doubles partner?

Would You Rather Bowl on a Sport or House Condition?

I blogged recently about bowling last weekend in a tournament employing the Shark pattern. I wrote that even though I struggled like mad to make my ball hook, hit the pocket, and carry and averaged under 180 for six games, I wanted to bowl only in sport pattern tournaments and leagues if I could, because I thought that if I upped my game some, I could actually be more competitive on a sport condition than I could on a house shot against young crankers.

I have also reached the point of being bored with booking relatively high averages and shooting high games and series on house patterns where I have area of five boards or more to get the ball to the pocket and strike despite glaring mistakes. When I score well or average 200 on a sport condition, I feel so much more gratified, because I feel like I earned what I got. I love the challenge of bowling on conditions at least remotely similar to what the pros face instead of striking on the adult equivalent of bumper lanes. And if I average only 176, the way I did last weekend, that's okay with me. It just motivates me to get better.

Now if I didn't know better, I'd think that virtually every bowler at or above my level of proficiency would feel the same way. Yet, clearly they don't, as two people really made clear to me this week.

I was practicing with one of the top bowlers in the Steve Cook Classic league last Sunday. The Steve Cook Classic is one of the best, if not the best, leagues in the Sacramento area. Featuring such luminaries as Steve Cook and Leanne Barrette Hulsenberg (yes, THAT Steve Cook and THAT Leanne Barrette), it makes up in talent and skill for what it lacks in size.

You'd think that the bowlers in that league would want to bowl only on sport conditions, but the guy I practiced with said that while he and some of the others would like that, most wouldn't like it and would probably quit the league if it became a sport league. When I asked why, he said that most don't have the time to practice as much as they think they'd need to in order to score decently on sport patterns, and so they want to bowl on an easier house shot where they can score well.

Later, I bowled with a young woman who seems quite serious about the sport. She bowls in a scratch league and participates in many tournaments where she's enjoyed considerable success over the past few years. But when I urged her to bowl in the PBA Experience league this summer, she declined. She said she doesn't have the right equipment for it. I remember thinking that her reactive resin equipment was plenty good enough and, besides, strategy and execution mattered a lot more than equipment anyway. It seemed to me that she may have been worried about bowling lower scores than she was accustomed to and of being emotionally deflated by this. If so, I think this is unfortunate.

What about you? Would you rather bowl in a sport or house shot league or tournament?

Bowling Video of the Day--Steve Cook Yesterday and Today

I patronize a wonderful old bowling center near Sacramento that features one of the finest scratch leagues in the area--the Steve Cook Classic. Yes, the name refers to THE Steve Cook who was a formidable force on the PBA Tour during the early to mid 1980's and was voted the 25th greatest bowler in PBA history. And, yes, he bowls in the league. So does Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg. She won 26 national titles in the PWBA and is one of the greatest female bowlers ever. And, even though the league is relatively small, it features some of the other finest scratch bowlers in the area.

It's a draft league in which those who carried the top averages from the preceding season are designated team captains who choose or draft from the remaining pool of players to fill their teams. I'm planning to submit my name for next season's draft whether or not I have a snowball's chance in Hades of being drafted. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Below are a video (top) of action in the Steve Cook Classic from 2007 and of Steve Cook in his heyday winning the Firestone Tournament of Champions in 1981.