Teammates are great but I'm letting them down

[Hammer]

Man. Had league tonight but it was my turn to sit out (2 man team with 3 bowlers). I ended the fall league at 173. Still sucks but after a 15 year layoff I guess I can't expect much. So far in this summer league I'm averaging 154. Up until this week I have been using my 173 average so really hurting us. Went down tonight to watch. My teammates (father and son) are at 201 and 199. Tonight they averaged 223 and 218 and won all 4 games (10 points). My best game in the 12 I have bowled has been a 180. There are 40 teams in our league and we were about 35th or so before tonight and there were only 2 in our league (out of about 100) with a lower average than me. Really hurting them but I'll keep my head up and figure it out. The good thing is next week we go off my 154 average instead of the 173.

Just always remember that there is no I in the word team. I have had times where I couldn't match up to the lanes and sucked that night. I never put that on my shoulders because there are four of us on our team. Sometimes I suck and sometimes one of them suck on a league night. Sometimes someone will pick me up on a bad night and sometimes I pick up my teammates on a bad night. Stuff just happens to all of us. I have always been the anchor man on our team. I have done some clutch bowling in the last few frames to pull out a win for us when my teammates were struggling. I never get nervous in the last frame. I just try to do the best I can on every shot and accept whatever I get good or bad. Don't put the burden on yourself ever. We all have a disappointing night at times, you just accept it and keep going.

[boatman37]

Well tonight started out pretty good. Started with a 201 (current average is 167). Second game dropped to 176. Third and fourth got worse (159 and 148). Last game I had 0 spares (6 opens). Really struggled with my spares all night. We went 5-5 tonight so not bad considering how I bowled.

A couple weeks ago a kid shot a 300 then did it again tonight. Another kid bowling next to us tonight shot a 300 also. The first kid said this is his 4th 300. He started bowling 6 years ago and his average is 230. He started out as a 1 handed bowler and had a 195 average his first year then hurt his shoulder so switched to 2 hand. He told us last week that he bowled some sort of Pro-Am and won the amateur side and Pete Weber won the pro side then Shayne beat Pete.
The other kid that shot a 300 tonight was a fill in and this was his first time in this league.

[Phonetek]

Well tonight started out pretty good. Started with a 201 (current average is 167). Second game dropped to 176. Third and fourth got worse (159 and 148). Last game I had 0 spares (6 opens). Really struggled with my spares all night. We went 5-5 tonight so not bad considering how I bowled.

A couple weeks ago a kid shot a 300 then did it again tonight. Another kid bowling next to us tonight shot a 300 also. The first kid said this is his 4th 300. He started bowling 6 years ago and his average is 230. He started out as a 1 handed bowler and had a 195 average his first year then hurt his shoulder so switched to 2 hand. He told us last week that he bowled some sort of Pro-Am and won the amateur side and Pete Weber won the pro side then Shayne beat Pete.
The other kid that shot a 300 tonight was a fill in and this was his first time in this league.

There seems to be quite a large number of 300's in your house. That either speaks for the caliber of bowlers you have there or the shot they are laying down. Where I work there hasn't been one in over a decade which I find amusing. That completely is a result in the skills of our clientele that comes to our center not because the lanes are that hard. They literally have us announce over the PA when someone gets a turkey in our leagues. I guess that is an accomplishment after you've chugged down 8 beers. I wish we had the caliber of bowlers that could shoot a 300 or 800+. I haven't even seen anyone shoot 600+ yet!

[boatman37]

There seems to be quite a large number of 300's in your house. That either speaks for the caliber of bowlers you have there or the shot they are laying down. Where I work there hasn't been one in over a decade which I find amusing. That completely is a result in the skills of our clientele that comes to our center not because the lanes are that hard. They literally have us announce over the PA when someone gets a turkey in our leagues. I guess that is an accomplishment after you've chugged down 8 beers. I wish we had the caliber of bowlers that could shoot a 300 or 800+. I haven't even seen anyone shoot 600+ yet!

wow. yeah, in all my years of bowling i had only seen 1 300. since january i have now seen 5 or so. also, when i left 25 years ago i had a 193 average and was in the top 5 in our league. in our winter league we had about 8 over 220 and about 35 or so over 200. my teammate who i bowled with since the 80's was about 190 when i left 15 years ago. now he is about 200 so gained about 10 pins. i attributed it to threr balls since he said his average started going up after he got his new ball. he had used the same ball for about 20 years and has had this one about 4 years. he has never cleaned it or even wiped it off...lol

[boatman37]

Definite improvement tonight. Got a new Brunswick Kingpin tonight. Ball worked good. Still missing easy spares but had a 195.75 average tonight with 5 splits. The new ball has a smoother arc right to the pocket. My BWG is more skid/flip. Looking forward to the rest of this season with this ball. Really like it. Alot like my old Brunswick Cobalt Rhino I used in the 90's.

New league average 171.65

[Phonetek]

Definite improvement tonight. Got a new Brunswick Kingpin tonight. Ball worked good. Still missing easy spares but had a 195.75 average tonight with 5 splits. The new ball has a smoother arc right to the pocket. My BWG is more skid/flip. Looking forward to the rest of this season with this ball. Really like it. Alot like my old Brunswick Cobalt Rhino I used in the 90's.

New league average 171.65

Cool the new ball is working. I have to say I haven't seen too many people list their average with the numbers including the right of a decimal before. LOL Just kidding man. A 20ish pin increase is nice to see. Pick up those easy spares and 195 could be your normal average.

[GrumpyCatFace]

I had the honor to watch a guy bowl 2 consecutive 300 games a few months ago. 25 straight strikes!

[Eddy]

There seems to be quite a large number of 300's in your house. That either speaks for the caliber of bowlers you have there or the shot they are laying down. Where I work there hasn't been one in over a decade which I find amusing. That completely is a result in the skills of our clientele that comes to our center not because the lanes are that hard. They literally have us announce over the PA when someone gets a turkey in our leagues. I guess that is an accomplishment after you've chugged down 8 beers. I wish we had the caliber of bowlers that could shoot a 300 or 800+. I haven't even seen anyone shoot 600+ yet!

WOW!!!

I guess some of us are spoiled... High 700's and low 800 are not uncommon at AMF Woodstock Georgia. But I wouldn't call it an easy shot. This area of georgia has some really good bowlers.

[boatman37]

I'm not experienced enough in the oiling patterns to know what is an easy shot or not. As far as I know I have only ever bowled on normal house shots but never got into that. I just found my line and bowled...lol.

I will say that the other night we had several high games (290, 269, my 233, and a bunch of others) but one of our highest average bowlers (PSO) only averaged about 190's so. Not sure what that means.

[Phonetek]

WOW!!!

I guess some of us are spoiled... High 700's and low 800 are not uncommon at AMF Woodstock Georgia. But I wouldn't call it an easy shot. This area of georgia has some really good bowlers.

Apparently LOL Like I said, there is no good reason why we shouldn't have a one or more 300's a month where I work. In my opinion the shot couldn't get any easier, it's a complete ditch in comparison to anywhere I've ever bowled. It's a stroker / tweener house. If you can hit the 7 board + or - 5 boards either way you are NOT missing the headpin. Why it's been 10 years I cannot figure out.

Like I've said many times, over 95% of the league bowlers don't own their own ball. Very few of them are reactive balls. One regular still throws a hard rubber ball which the ball return hates, it always get stuck by the pulley's by the approach. Fewer have their own shoes. Of the ones who have their own stuff either throw a helicopter or are thumbless. Everyone else just throws it straight and hard. That's just the clientele we have.