PBA Xtra And with that, the DWSSC
was underway. Tour champ Steve Wunderlich’s wife Cindy would sometimes grouse about the lane fairy that would appear at the witching hour, magically transforming the shot for the next day. Some of us were wondering if the lane fairy had visited us in the afternoon. (While changing pairs, I asked one of the hall-of-famers about this, and he said, “No, it’s just Mark Sabatine—the lane man. Practice and the first block are never the same.” What we had was an even more
pronounced OB and less hold. A burn was already developing. Some guys were moving right, others left. Everywhere I looked, there were 2-10s, washouts and 4-6s. One guy on our pair got a swish strike and a runaway Brooklyn for a double, then went PBA washout. Nobody had a path to the pocket.
Well, no right-hander. McCordic
and a couple of lefties on the low end seemed to be packing every shot. “Oh well,” I thought. “The lefties get a little help early, the right side opens up after a couple of games, and things even out.” A little whistling past the graveyard, Dennis? One more personal note: In the
fourth frame, I left a plaque 10. On the spare, I jammed up and felt a twinge of pain in my knee. Not bad, but it was with me every shot. Did it play a role in my timing’s total collapse? I just don’t know. I started with the IQ Tour, sanded
to about 320. I flushed the first strike and thought I was on my way. Then I went face, breaking up a big split. Then a headpin whiff and a spare shot that took off and almost missed left. Then the flat 10 and the slide that wasn’t (the ball hung on to nip the pin). A high four that could have been a 4-9, another whiffed head pin, another four, and then through the face for a 4-pin with lots of company. One open, no doubles, a 179 and
I’m in 66th place. Not quite dead center of the pack. I grab the Optimus and move
Tom Carter, who bowled the PBA50 Pro Bowl West Fort Wayne Classic instead of the super senior event, was one of nine pros to bring an RV to Fort Wayne.
deep, hoping the glassy surface will give me a smidgen of hold and the strong layout a bit of recovery. It does—for another glorious first-frame flusher. Then bucket, face, whiff, two flat 10s. Left-right-left. 175 and I’m 64 under, still in the top 75. Or the
United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer, Linda Kelly, bested most men in the field at the PBA50 Dick Weber Super Senior Classic. She placed 25th.
bottom 53. Is the glass half full or half empty? McCordic, meanwhile, is 64 over
and looking like he invented the game. Other lefties are giving chase. I hear some whining from the righties. Too bad Dave doesn’t provide complimentary cheese.
DENNIS BERGENDORF The plan to have the bowlers enter
the totals in the scorer fizzles. I give it a try the third game, but I can’t find the recap sheets. Only a couple of pairs are keeping up. But from what I can see, lots of bowlers are under. If I can only find some timing and a little hold. I go to the Mastermind Genius,
which mows down ten pins in the first frame, but which is clearly going too long. After a 2-7-8, the Hyper Cell gets the nod. Playing deep, I get good recovery, but the ball is drilled tame, and just doesn’t quite go through the pins. Another one-open, no-double game—a 180 and I’m still not that far from the cash line. Then it really hits me. I can’t cash.
I’m a JAFO (just a freaking observer), a participatory journalist whose perfor- mance won’t mean any more than the pass George Plimpton made to How- ard Cassady in that 1963 Detroit Lions scrimmage (part of the book Paper Lion). I’d gone into the DW Classic like I had a thousand other tournaments— wanting to win. Thinking that I should win—or at least cash. But in the fourth game, I realize that I can only root (quietly) for everybody and especially the bowlers I know. Pappas (a God when I was starting out); my friends Kerry Painter, Dave Hurtt and Gary Hi- day; Pete Gurskis, Marc Lineberry and Chuck Huckleberry (guys I’d crossed with in the old Jim Brenner Midwest tour); McCordic, cruising to 100 over,
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////// September 2014 48
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50