Last Bowling Blog...for 4 months or so

So, two weeks ago was our last night of bowling. We made the finals. We usually always make the finals but I don't want to sound arrogant. It is pretty tough to make the finals in that league because it is a handicap league and we all know that handicap means that anyone can beat anyone on any certain night. Handicaps level the playing field thus the worst bowler could beat the best bowler! This league isn't setup that way, the worst will never have to bowl the best. It is handicapped in a way that the worst bowler on each team bowls the other worst bowler on another. Then so down the list where the best bowler has to bowl the best bowler on the team. On finals night however it is a total pins handicap so it doesn't matter if you beat the bowler you are normally going up against. There were 4 pretty tough teams in the finals. My friend Mike who I have mentioned was in the finals, his team won 2 of the 4 quarters in the league. We beat them in the third quarter if you can't remember by one and a half points. They are the toughest team to beat for sure. Another team has a pretty good bowler but the other members probably aren't strong enough to help him win the whole thing. Then there was this other team that had a bunch of extra pins in handicap and I knew that they were going to be the most likely team to upset Mike's team. Mike's team won it all last year. I have always been a pressure player. If it is the end of the game and I have a chance to have the ball I want to take that last shot. There are those who can't stand the pressure and don't want to be in that situation. This league doesn't pay hardly anything for the finals, but it is the bragging rights that I wanted! Everyone in the league is usually afraid of Mike's team. I relish the nights that we get to bowl against them because I have (even in my slump for the past ten years) never backed down from the challenge of bowling against the best. Obviously Mike has been one of the best in the city for the past three years. With me coming out of my slump I wanted validation on finals night. I wanted to win that league and gain enough confidence to bowl a scratch league next year (scratch means no handicap). Mike's average along with another person on his team was over 215, Mike's was probably 220. Sure I was only at a measly 205, but I only had 4 pins of handicap myself. Even with Mike's team having two players having no pins handicap to start our team was still actually the same as Mike's team or a little lower. So our team and Mike's had the lowest pins to start. Finals night begins and everyone on our team were bowling pretty dang good except for Sheri. She only bowled a 144 or something like that. Barbara bowled a high 180 game. Jeff and I put on a show! Jeff hit a 279 and I hit a 276. We hit the highest scratch game as a team (not just on the night, but the whole year)! We took an early 100 pin lead over the other three teams after game one. Game two wasn't so kind to Jeff as he hit a 179, Sheri bowled over a 200 which helped a lot and I had a good game of 245. Our lead was only 60 going into the last game. The team behind us was the ones that I feared the most. That being the team that had the most handicap. We had an 80 pin lead over Mike's team and I knew they would have to bowl a huge game to beat us, or we would have to really suck. Well, Jeff tried to really suck by only hitting a 178 his last game. Going into the tenth and last frame the handicap team had taken the lead from us! Their last two bowlers had 3 strikes a piece going into the tenth. It looked as if they were going to pull an upset. I told Jeff that if him and I got three strikes a piece in the tenth frame and if both of their last two bowlers (who had the 3 strikes a piece) didn't strike or spare that we still had a chance. Well Jeff stepped up in the tenth and hit his first strike! Their bowler didn't strike and left himself a pretty hard spare which he did in fact miss! Jeff only got a 9 spare in the tenth after his strike, but I knew we still had hope. I needed to strike out and their last bowler needed to open. I watched their bowler leave a horrible split on his first ball! He in fact did open, but I still felt that I needed to strike out to win. I stepped up and threw three great shots and struck every ball! Jeff and I filled 50 pins out of the last 60! We won by 45 pins! Mike's team did bowl dang good and actually passed the handicap team to take second place! We had won! Sure there was good fortune in that last two frames, but I bowled great. I hit a 723. My 5th 700 series in the last 11 weeks of bowling! The following Saturday we went to the banquet to get our money and rewards. I didn't plan on winning anything as an individual. I had hoped that I might win most improved bowler on the year, but on a handicap league that is way hard to do because someone could have a 100 average and end with a 130! 30 pins is going to win most improved all of the time! I had only improved my yearbook by 12 pins, but I was still hoping to win. We get to this mexican resteraunt and first eat. Then the sheets were passed out showing everyone's awards and games throughout the year. I had wanted to figure out what I averaged since having my bowling balls redrilled and since I figured out a new release. I was mainly interested in that. I didn't really pay attention to the award sheets since I didn't figure I was going to win anything. You get a little extra money for having the top three high scores for high games handicap and scratch along with high series. I knew I wasn't going to win any of those because there was a lot of great bowling by other people. I had to only hope for most improved average! After looking at all my scores through out the year I finally turned to the award pages. I see that we obviously took finals, took second in most points won by a team all year (that is where a team makes most of their year end money). Of course Mike's team was first, I think they have won that 4 years in a row! We also won high handicap series as a team or something like that to win a few extra bucks too. Then I turn the sheet over and see that I did in fact win most improved bowler! I was pretty dang happy about that! I got to looking through the other awards and noticed that my name was on another! You can only win one individual award because they want to reward a lot of people. There was a clause though that stated one person can only win one award except for the person that took most improved average! That person is eligible for two awards! What other award did I win? I had to ask because I didn't even remember there being this other accolade? It said bowler best w/lo % of the year Jason! I asked the secretary of the league what that was? He informed me that I had the best win/loss percentage of all the men (actually the entire league). Which meant that you were more likely going to lose against me over anyone else on the whole league! I was going to beat you more times than Mike beat you. There are 4 other people on that league that are pretty dang good bowlers! It is a handicap league which helps level the field which means a person with a high handicap could beat a person with a low handicap. All of that aside I had the best winning percentage! I won just over 66% of my points. I was most pround of the last 11 weeks though. I think I had to bowl Mike twice and I remember taking 8 out of 10 points from him. I bowled this other guy who averages almost 220 on this other team and took all 5 points from him those last few weeks. I probably had the highest series that was printed in the newspaper 4 of the last 5 weeks on that league! It was the first time in over ten years that I was actually sad that bowling was over. It is the first time in those ten years that I wanted to bowl from week to week. To have my highest winter average in all of my life after all these years of being in a slump, after only bowling the one league, and no practice between weeks all year shows me that I can for sure be one of this cities elite bowlers again. If I pick up another league next year (a scratch) and maybe get a few practice sessions in then I have no doubt that I will get that elusive 800 series. I will be asked to bowl city and state tournaments again! I will be feared. I will always now be known as the best bowler in my family. Sorry Josh you tried your best this year. I really appreciate you bowling with us this year. You starting off the year so great fed my hunger to figure this game out again. I owe you for helping me pull my head out! I have to thank Kevin for redrilling my bowling balls as well. With a bowling ball that fit properly I was able to figure out a release that helps me stay consistent. I know that I am not all the way there to figuring out that release, but I am close. I hope with this summer's break that I jump right back in the swing of things next fall! Only time will tell.