onefrombills
10-30-2008, 07:29 PM
Wichita. Most bowling enthusiasts know Wichita to be the home of the Wichita State Shockers, the perennial collegiate powerhouse, and the 2008 PBA World Championship (back to this in a moment). What you may not know is that the wheat fields of Kansas are also home to a few major airline manufacturers, Boeing, Cessna, and Raytheon, to name a few, and **DRUMROLL**: the cheapest gas in the country. I must admit that the prospect of my very own airplane didn’t have me jumping out of my chair (having just bought a house, I don’t think I could take the credit hit for a multi-million dollar flying machine), but $2.17 a gallon almost had me clicking my heels, grabbing Toto, and saying, “There’s no place like home” as I left the Emerald City.
Now that I have digressed enough for one morning, let’s get back to the PBA World Championship. I must first congratulate Norm Duke on winning his third major championship in-a-row. There were many compelling storylines that would have made great media fodder; a win by Steve Jaros would have made him eligible for the PBA Hall of Fame, Sean Rash could have continued his perfect PBA record on TV, and Chris Barnes could have completed the Triple Crown. However, the plot that unfolded was the one which truly defined the true PBA experience. Remember back to my first Andrew’s Angle, when I said this would be a season of firsts? If you watched Sunday’s show, you saw the first player to ever win THREE Majors in-a-row. This tournament and its ending set the right tone for our Golden Anniversary, and certainly cemented Norm Duke’s place in what another fifty years will tell us was a great moment in history. By the way, if you didn’t catch the show, either wait for a replay on ESPN Classic or do what I did (no, I’m not a bad person for missing the show…I just happened to be driving to the next stop in Omaha) and read Jason’s TV Recap.
How did my bowling turn out this week? Let me give you this brief summary: if you viewed the standings between Tuesday and Thursday, it was evident my tournament was not going well. If you didn’t pull up PBA.com until Friday, it may have appeared that I didn’t even enter the tournament at all! To translate, that is my way of admitting that I missed the cut. And I missed badly.
Last week was certainly not my best performance. On a sliding scale, it was somewhere in between being a good “poor performance” and a decent “mediocre performance”; mostly forgettable, but with some positive outcome. My assessment from last week’s practice session was spot-on (a positive), but I just couldn’t put the whole package together. Out of 18 games of qualifying, I had three wonderfully placed games of 157, 163, and 149, all on different days. Having finished at -47, that made for 15 other frustrating games where I only managed to bowl +84.
However, on Thursday, I drilled a Maxxx Zone that had considerably less flare potential than the ball I used on the first two days. For those who are wondering why I chose to not drill this ball after such a dismal first day start, please keep in mind that we bowled at different times of the day. I bowled Even on day one without my 157 game, which was contested on a fresh pattern at night. My reaction and score got better as the lanes became more “burned-in” (oil being pushed down the lane, essentially drying up the heads). Day two found me bowling “B” squad, which was not a fresh pattern, but leftover “burn” from “A” squad; hence my decision to stick to my initial ball choice. The result was decent ball reaction but rapidly diminishing carry at the pins.
Let’s take a brief break to stifle the yawns in the audience. None? Then I am doing my job! My goal with this blog is not to give you blow-by-blow analysis of how I bowled, but mainly an overview with insight into some of the interesting discoveries I come across as I progress through each week on tour. This week I had a good game plan, but suffered from poor execution and some unfortunate decisions. Oh, and did I mention that I missed a few spares? Not enough to have made much difference in my final standing, but far more than normal, and enough to make my brilliant green Go RVing spare ball exhausted from spiraling past the very pins it was built to hit.
With my week over, I had time to reflect, relax, and start getting prepared to hit the road to Omaha. Bowling itself is not the only challenge of life on tour. Figuring out what to do with all the downtime after competition ends is an equally formidable opponent. That will be a topic for another edition of Andrew’s Angle…I hope you keep reading, and please write me at Andrew@andrewcainbowling.com if you have any comments, suggestions, or simply want to Rick Roll me! In the meantime, watch us live on Xtra Frame from Omaha and PRACTICE YOUR SPARES! (You didn’t think I would totally avoid that little tidbit of wisdom, did you?)
Now that I have digressed enough for one morning, let’s get back to the PBA World Championship. I must first congratulate Norm Duke on winning his third major championship in-a-row. There were many compelling storylines that would have made great media fodder; a win by Steve Jaros would have made him eligible for the PBA Hall of Fame, Sean Rash could have continued his perfect PBA record on TV, and Chris Barnes could have completed the Triple Crown. However, the plot that unfolded was the one which truly defined the true PBA experience. Remember back to my first Andrew’s Angle, when I said this would be a season of firsts? If you watched Sunday’s show, you saw the first player to ever win THREE Majors in-a-row. This tournament and its ending set the right tone for our Golden Anniversary, and certainly cemented Norm Duke’s place in what another fifty years will tell us was a great moment in history. By the way, if you didn’t catch the show, either wait for a replay on ESPN Classic or do what I did (no, I’m not a bad person for missing the show…I just happened to be driving to the next stop in Omaha) and read Jason’s TV Recap.
How did my bowling turn out this week? Let me give you this brief summary: if you viewed the standings between Tuesday and Thursday, it was evident my tournament was not going well. If you didn’t pull up PBA.com until Friday, it may have appeared that I didn’t even enter the tournament at all! To translate, that is my way of admitting that I missed the cut. And I missed badly.
Last week was certainly not my best performance. On a sliding scale, it was somewhere in between being a good “poor performance” and a decent “mediocre performance”; mostly forgettable, but with some positive outcome. My assessment from last week’s practice session was spot-on (a positive), but I just couldn’t put the whole package together. Out of 18 games of qualifying, I had three wonderfully placed games of 157, 163, and 149, all on different days. Having finished at -47, that made for 15 other frustrating games where I only managed to bowl +84.
However, on Thursday, I drilled a Maxxx Zone that had considerably less flare potential than the ball I used on the first two days. For those who are wondering why I chose to not drill this ball after such a dismal first day start, please keep in mind that we bowled at different times of the day. I bowled Even on day one without my 157 game, which was contested on a fresh pattern at night. My reaction and score got better as the lanes became more “burned-in” (oil being pushed down the lane, essentially drying up the heads). Day two found me bowling “B” squad, which was not a fresh pattern, but leftover “burn” from “A” squad; hence my decision to stick to my initial ball choice. The result was decent ball reaction but rapidly diminishing carry at the pins.
Let’s take a brief break to stifle the yawns in the audience. None? Then I am doing my job! My goal with this blog is not to give you blow-by-blow analysis of how I bowled, but mainly an overview with insight into some of the interesting discoveries I come across as I progress through each week on tour. This week I had a good game plan, but suffered from poor execution and some unfortunate decisions. Oh, and did I mention that I missed a few spares? Not enough to have made much difference in my final standing, but far more than normal, and enough to make my brilliant green Go RVing spare ball exhausted from spiraling past the very pins it was built to hit.
With my week over, I had time to reflect, relax, and start getting prepared to hit the road to Omaha. Bowling itself is not the only challenge of life on tour. Figuring out what to do with all the downtime after competition ends is an equally formidable opponent. That will be a topic for another edition of Andrew’s Angle…I hope you keep reading, and please write me at Andrew@andrewcainbowling.com if you have any comments, suggestions, or simply want to Rick Roll me! In the meantime, watch us live on Xtra Frame from Omaha and PRACTICE YOUR SPARES! (You didn’t think I would totally avoid that little tidbit of wisdom, did you?)