Sandbagger got what he had coming!!!

[Aslan]

So we're playing a team yesterday night…full of sandbaggers.

It's a team of a couple low level bowlers, a solid 3rd bowler, and two high rev cranker/thumbless guys.

Going into the last frame of Game 3…we had 1016 total. Their anchor was coming off a strike.

He threw his first ball and knocked over 8 pins. I think he left the 1-2. I looked up at the score and saw that they had 1010. I figured, as the bowler did, that the scoring system gave him the 8 pins…but didn't give him the 8 more for that frame. So I figured they were already at 1018…and SO DID HE.

Well, next ball…he throws it way right and pretends to care…but it was pretty apparent that he missed on purpose to preserve his handicap. Well, it turns out the scoring system gave him 16 pins for that 8-count. Had he converted the spare they'd have had 1014 and all he would have had to do is knock down 3 pins on the last ball to take the point and sweep us. But he didn't…because he thought they already won.

I NEVER sandbag. Maybe early in the season I don't CARE as much IF I have a bad game or series…but I'd never INTENTIONALLY throw a bad shot much less a bad game. And it was nice to see a rare example of the bowling Gods kinda stinging a sandbagger.

[Hampe]

Serves him right....there's a special place in hell reserved for sand-baggers and other cheaters.


Lol, I actually had the exact opposite thing happen to me last week. I whiffed a 10 pin in the 10th and was all pissed off since I thought I cost us the win, but I didn't realize the spare I had in the 9th hadn't been calculated yet so we still won.

[got_a_300]

I hate to come up against a team of sandbaggers you know
they can do a lot better than what they let on. I have never
sandbagged a day in my bowling life even though some think
that I do now days since my return back to bowling.

They all remember how I used to do back then but I'm no
where as good as I was before my back injury and my old
knees going bad on me. They only want to remember how
it used to be not what it is today so I get called a sandbagger
every once in a while now.

I did have a good few games the last night of the season last
night I had a 211, 240, 209 so I did hear a few saying how
come he didn't bowl like that all season long "he must have
been sandbagging all season" not true at all.

I had both of my eyes operated on one last month and the other
one last Thursday so last night I could see my mark clearly the
first time since I cane back to bowling in 2011 maybe I can do a
little better this summer on leagues then and shut them up.

[Aslan]

I take that league more seriously because the conditions are ideal to my game and it serves as a sort of "crystal ball" looking into the future to see what potential I actually have. If I can bowl well on those conditions...then with work, I think I can eventually reach that point on tougher conditions. Like when I bowled that 300 on one lane in practice. Totally not legitimate. No arguement. But...once you DO it...you know you at least CAN do it. You CAN string 12 strikes together. Now you gotta do it on alternating lanes in a sanctioned environment.

Others go the opposite route and try to join a serious sport shot league or something...because if they bowl well on those patterns...then they know they are legit. To me, thats step 2. You want to master the THS before playing in a PBA regional event. If you can't average > 200 on a house shot...who cares what you can average on a sport shot...because it'll be way too little to care about.

So, to the point, it's pretty obvious that I'm not sandbagging. I'm visibly upset and ticked off when I miss...and when I DO open...it's usually close or a corner pin, or a split. I mean, yeah, I rolled a 137 Wednesday in Game 1...but I also had 4 splits and a 1-2-10 washout. Plus I came back in Game 3 and won the men's sidepot with a 224 game...so why throw a game early and then bowl over my average in Game 3? My average going into that series was 183 and that series I averaged...183.

I've never understood sandbagging. I guess it's a money thing. Most league I'm in will sweep in Vegas and people can win $1000-$2000 if they are on fire...and thats a LOT of money. And to some it's enough to motivate them to essentially waste $25/week and 3 hours to come in and not care. I don't get that. You spend $500...then another $350-$1050 on food/drinks...and another $400-$800 to go and stay in Vegas...on the chance that if you lower your average to the 170s...you might get $1000-$2000 in Vegas? So what? When you do the math...the person likely is still -$350. You'd be lucky to leave Vegas with more than $250 of that prize money.

Thats why I think leagues should count the previous year's sweeps average into the folowing season's starting average....like I did in the VBT. Mike and VDub didn't like it...but if you have a 179 average...you go to sweeps and win $1400 with a 227 average...then next season you start with a (227+179)/2 = 203. That means the sandbaggers would have to try extra hard to bring that number down in time to clean up at sweeps. Not to mention, it won't sting as bad if you bowl badly during sweeps...because the positive is you get a cushion going into the next season.

Does anyone know if thats USBC legal to establish an average that way? I was thinking of proposing it but wanted to make sure it was even legal first. Plus, I'd only propose it if there was something blatant going on. Last year they changed the average rule where your book average was used the following season if you came from another house because they were having problems with people coming into leagues, establishing low averages...then winning thousands in sweeps...then in fact they have book averages at other houses that are significantly higher. I think the straw that broke the camel's back was a 200+ average guy that came in and established a 160s average and then too $2000 in sweeps. Back then the rule was you used last season's average but if you didn't bowl at that center the previous season...you established.

[mc_runner]

Words

I don't think you can do that (and we don't have sweeps leagues, mostly, around here, which is a whole other topic) but the way my competitive league did it is that for a new bowler only, if they don't have a book average from the previous year they will be looking back up to 10 years for a starting average. Which, then holds for the first 3 weeks until the new, league average is established.
Does it eliminate sandbagging? Not entirely... you could have someone throw the first 3 weeks and then do well later in the season. But a lot of the league doesn't bowl much in the summer so they start lower for the first few weeks naturally until they can get back into the swing of things.

To your last questions, personally I'm against taking any one series and using it as a 50% determiner of average. Say I catch fire and bowl a 680 or something (which has happened a few times in the last few weeks). That's a 227 average, but my true average is a 193. I'd be pretty ticked if I found I was getting "handicapped" at a 210 average. It's like I"m getting penalized for bowling well once. As someone who does NOT sandbag it would sure make me feel like I was getting accused of it.

[jab5325]

I was accused of sandbagging recently, actually, at the tournament my team won.

My season-ending average was 174. But since the first week of March, I was nearly 190 because I got a new ball, worked on my game and started bowling much better. Thus, I still have a pretty hefty handicap.

At the tournament, I had a hefty handicap, and averaged 198.75 across 4 games. My team shot 1100+ in the last game and we ended up winning comfortably. When it came time to dole out prize money, a few guys on other teams made snide comments about me being a sandbagger. They were jovial about it for the most part, but there was one guy from the second place team who appeared to be a bit more of a sore loser than the others.

For me, I'm anything but a sandbagger. I started bowling this season after 7-8 years off with 10+ year old shoes and an 8-year-old oil-soaked ball. I was so low that despite throwing some big games/series after I got my new equipment, all I got up to was 174.

[Aslan]

True sandbaggers usually don't mind when people call them sandbaggers.

Non-sandbaggers usually take offense to it.

As strange as it sounds to some of us, sandbaggers don't think what they do is wrong. They follow the old mantra that a fool and his money are easily parted so if you're too stupid to keep them from taking advantage of you...then thats your fault and you deserve to lose. They are the same people that see a lane closing on the freeway and drive as fast as they can up the shoulder and then jam themselves in at the front of the line. They claim thats just good, aggressive, driving and taking advantage of the stupid drivers that just wait in line like sheep. While those waiting in line see it the same way they see waiting in any line (grocery store, bank, DMV, amusement park, etc..)...it's a line...you take your turns and eventually everyone makes it to the front. You don't see people running to the open window at the bank and claiming the people waiting in line are just too stupid to cut in line...but whatever, I digress.

Mudpuppy Cliff Notes: jab is a mecha-sandbagger