Daliman
12-11-2004, 01:05 PM
I used to be a HARDCORE sandbagger. I had a 149 average for 3 years in league, yet was anywhere from a 175-200 bowler the whole time. I won about 18k in 4 years of bagging,(which i needed badly at the time), but I just got sick of feeling like an ass[/b}hole.
Two funny stories about this,(depending on your perspective, i suppose);
First, myself and 2 friends went to bowl in a big tournament in the detroit area called the Hamtramck. 20k for first place, and 1k for all the top 50 finishers. It was a 4 game tourney, and had been going on for like 4 months, and had like 11000 entries or so. My friends and I show up, all with a minimum of 20 pins of sand in out bags each,(at the time i was averaging 209 in a non-sanctioned summer league, but a walled shot tho). We drove all night to get there, had breakfast, then bowled one practice game each.
Well, myself and another friend ended up shooting enough to each get into the top 50, so 1k guaranteed each. While we are leaving, my friend mentions he had found a checkbook in the bathroom, but no one had said anything in the lanes to management about missing it. Inside it he found $200, so he said lunch was on him(yes, we suck; I know).
Well, when we got in the car to leave, he started looking through the checkbook, and saw a flash of green; there were more bills inside it! $1000 more, to be exact. So he ditched the checkbook, and we went to Red Lobster and all got a whole lobster. Racked up about a $220 bill, (woulda been more, but we laid off the drinks since we were bowling again later.) After that, it's about 4pm, and we go to the Driving range to hit a few balls. Now, other than the fact that it was 97 degrees out that day, and we were all tired, both physically and mentally, I had only golfed 3 times in my life before that, so you can imagine the havoc my baseball swing played with my already tired body in this heat. But we each hit a huge bucket's worth, and went back to the lanes to wait to bowl again.
The final round of the tournament was to start at 7pm, but there were some problems and it didn't get started until around 8:30. At this point, I'd had about 1 hour of sleep in the previous 38, and was starting to get the shakes a bit, brought on not only by the lack of sleep, but also the fact that I shake a bit anyways(just the hands), I weighed about 130 at the time, and I throw a 16 lb ball at a higher velocity than 80% of all bowlers, plus, of course, the golf.
So anyways, I'm not sure that I can bowl, but f it, It's only $55, and I'm already up $1000. Of course, only my best score counts, so unless I pop into the top ten or cash higher with our boxed 4-man doubles, it's a waste. Course, there WAS the brackets too, so i bowled again.
Now, top score going in was about 1055, meaning with my 149( /images/graemlins/laugh.gif ) average, i would need to shoot about 832 scratch for 4 games to surpass it. Well, first game, I shoot 237, shakes and all. Of course, i lose in 5 of my 12 brackets because my friend shoots 255 and I happen to be vs him in 5 of them, but oh well. Second game, I shoot 198, with still nary an open frame, and I had gotten tapped pretty badly in the 9th and tenth preventing a 220 or so game. I was CRUSHING the pocket, and was dead-on on my spares. If I could shoot 400 for the last two, I was in like Flynn for 20k. So then the third game, I am rolling along with an 88 in the 4th frame and a strike up in the fith, when the lane breaks down. It takes them 15 minutes of screwing around before they finally decide they have to move us. Now, moving a bowler to a different lane in the middle of a game, to the uninitiated, is semi-disastrous, as the oil pattern is often FAR different, and you have zero chance to adjust with a practice shot or two. As if this wasn;t bad enough, the lack of sleep and overtiredness of 8+ games of bowling and golf started to really hit me hard, combined with my arm going cold from the break. I ended up throwing splits on my next 2 frames on the new, MUCH oilier lanes, and ended up with a 178. I could still get there with a 220 game, but I was too tired and spent to throw a solid ball anymore. I ended up shooting a 167, which still gave me a higher total than before, and all FOUR of us qualified in the top 50 that time, one of my friends coming in 16th. When we left there, after 13,000 different doubles teams had bowled,(PS, 4 bowlers boxed=6 teams, everyone paired with each other), and we had 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th place, LOL!
Needless to say, we got a few dirty looks as we left. The $2800 I made soothed my paid though.
As a funny postscript to this, I know TOMS of baggers thatbowl this event every year. We went the following year, knowing full well we would likely be rerated, which was fine. Even with a rerate, we were still low.
When we got there, at the sign up desk, we were sked if we had ever been rerated, and I said yes, here. The person at the counter looked at a small piece of paper taped to the counter, which had 7 names on it.
4 were my friends and I.
I thought it was pretty funny that only 7 people EVER had been rerated there, even though a guy I knew who was at LEAST 40 pins deep WON the event 2 years before, yet still wan't rerated. Funny thing, I was rerated to 171; I shoot 229,226,198 the first 3 games, blowing a 9 pin spare in the tenth the third game(cought oil, bah), I needed to shoot about 195 to get in the top 50 again THIS year, but I opened the first 3 frames, missing 2 single pin spares because of an odd oil pattern on our lane, and summarily begin chucking the ball as hard as I can and shooting a 136. The next day, when I come back to bowl again, I have now been rerated to 191, even though my average there was barely higher. I ask why, they say because I threw away the last game, which makes no sense, as I wanted to cash, and only "threw it away" after I had already screwed it up. Oddly enough, in their infinite wisdom, they said that if i HAD shot 200 orso and gotten into the top 50, i;d not have been rerated again.... /images/graemlins/confused.gif.
So of the 8 people who had EVER been rerated there in 7 years, I am two of them, my friends are 3 more...
As it turns out, one of my friends shot 300, and then qualified for $100 for the third year in a row after his scores were DQ'd the previous year on a technicality,(although rightfully so, but it WAS ticky tack).
Wow, was that a long story.
Anyways, this one is shorter.
A small buyin tourney near my house had about 500 total entrants over the weekend, I was bowling on the last squad with my trusty 150 average, and had been crushing as of late, shooting 700 in 3 of my last 5 series on league, with a 289 in there for good measure and a 14 in a row run. Never one for "camouflage", other than my already unorthodox chicken-wing delivery borne of learn to bowl with a 16 lb ball when i weighed 95, I summarily shoot 228, 237, 227, and have the first 4 strikes in the final game when i hear over the loudspeaker;
"AARON O'ROURKE, PLEASE COME TO THE TOURNAMENT OFFICE. AND BRING YOUR EQUIPMENT."
Turns out they went into a panic when they saw a guy who shoulf have 600 scratch for 4 games have that at 2 and a half, and started calling around about me. They said I had failed to claim previous winnings on my entry sheet, but alas, the entry sheet did not ask for previous winnings. They then stammered a bit, and went into a huddle. Since first place was only $300 or so, and I had already had a good year and didn;t want to get one of the guys in trouble running it that I knew(but didnt know I was Lawrence of Arabia), I told then if they give me my entry fee back, I'd go quietly. They jumped at the offer, and even gave me a ten free game pass. I guess it would have looked bad if a guy averaging 150 came in and not only won the tournament by over 100 pins, but would have come in 2nd or 3rd in a scratch division in which 4 PBA pros were entered, including Bill Spigner.
As it turned out, My 34 frame score with handicap was only 8 pins lower than the top score posted for the full 4 games, good enough for 3rd place had it counted from where I stopped, lol.
Two funny stories about this,(depending on your perspective, i suppose);
First, myself and 2 friends went to bowl in a big tournament in the detroit area called the Hamtramck. 20k for first place, and 1k for all the top 50 finishers. It was a 4 game tourney, and had been going on for like 4 months, and had like 11000 entries or so. My friends and I show up, all with a minimum of 20 pins of sand in out bags each,(at the time i was averaging 209 in a non-sanctioned summer league, but a walled shot tho). We drove all night to get there, had breakfast, then bowled one practice game each.
Well, myself and another friend ended up shooting enough to each get into the top 50, so 1k guaranteed each. While we are leaving, my friend mentions he had found a checkbook in the bathroom, but no one had said anything in the lanes to management about missing it. Inside it he found $200, so he said lunch was on him(yes, we suck; I know).
Well, when we got in the car to leave, he started looking through the checkbook, and saw a flash of green; there were more bills inside it! $1000 more, to be exact. So he ditched the checkbook, and we went to Red Lobster and all got a whole lobster. Racked up about a $220 bill, (woulda been more, but we laid off the drinks since we were bowling again later.) After that, it's about 4pm, and we go to the Driving range to hit a few balls. Now, other than the fact that it was 97 degrees out that day, and we were all tired, both physically and mentally, I had only golfed 3 times in my life before that, so you can imagine the havoc my baseball swing played with my already tired body in this heat. But we each hit a huge bucket's worth, and went back to the lanes to wait to bowl again.
The final round of the tournament was to start at 7pm, but there were some problems and it didn't get started until around 8:30. At this point, I'd had about 1 hour of sleep in the previous 38, and was starting to get the shakes a bit, brought on not only by the lack of sleep, but also the fact that I shake a bit anyways(just the hands), I weighed about 130 at the time, and I throw a 16 lb ball at a higher velocity than 80% of all bowlers, plus, of course, the golf.
So anyways, I'm not sure that I can bowl, but f it, It's only $55, and I'm already up $1000. Of course, only my best score counts, so unless I pop into the top ten or cash higher with our boxed 4-man doubles, it's a waste. Course, there WAS the brackets too, so i bowled again.
Now, top score going in was about 1055, meaning with my 149( /images/graemlins/laugh.gif ) average, i would need to shoot about 832 scratch for 4 games to surpass it. Well, first game, I shoot 237, shakes and all. Of course, i lose in 5 of my 12 brackets because my friend shoots 255 and I happen to be vs him in 5 of them, but oh well. Second game, I shoot 198, with still nary an open frame, and I had gotten tapped pretty badly in the 9th and tenth preventing a 220 or so game. I was CRUSHING the pocket, and was dead-on on my spares. If I could shoot 400 for the last two, I was in like Flynn for 20k. So then the third game, I am rolling along with an 88 in the 4th frame and a strike up in the fith, when the lane breaks down. It takes them 15 minutes of screwing around before they finally decide they have to move us. Now, moving a bowler to a different lane in the middle of a game, to the uninitiated, is semi-disastrous, as the oil pattern is often FAR different, and you have zero chance to adjust with a practice shot or two. As if this wasn;t bad enough, the lack of sleep and overtiredness of 8+ games of bowling and golf started to really hit me hard, combined with my arm going cold from the break. I ended up throwing splits on my next 2 frames on the new, MUCH oilier lanes, and ended up with a 178. I could still get there with a 220 game, but I was too tired and spent to throw a solid ball anymore. I ended up shooting a 167, which still gave me a higher total than before, and all FOUR of us qualified in the top 50 that time, one of my friends coming in 16th. When we left there, after 13,000 different doubles teams had bowled,(PS, 4 bowlers boxed=6 teams, everyone paired with each other), and we had 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th place, LOL!
Needless to say, we got a few dirty looks as we left. The $2800 I made soothed my paid though.
As a funny postscript to this, I know TOMS of baggers thatbowl this event every year. We went the following year, knowing full well we would likely be rerated, which was fine. Even with a rerate, we were still low.
When we got there, at the sign up desk, we were sked if we had ever been rerated, and I said yes, here. The person at the counter looked at a small piece of paper taped to the counter, which had 7 names on it.
4 were my friends and I.
I thought it was pretty funny that only 7 people EVER had been rerated there, even though a guy I knew who was at LEAST 40 pins deep WON the event 2 years before, yet still wan't rerated. Funny thing, I was rerated to 171; I shoot 229,226,198 the first 3 games, blowing a 9 pin spare in the tenth the third game(cought oil, bah), I needed to shoot about 195 to get in the top 50 again THIS year, but I opened the first 3 frames, missing 2 single pin spares because of an odd oil pattern on our lane, and summarily begin chucking the ball as hard as I can and shooting a 136. The next day, when I come back to bowl again, I have now been rerated to 191, even though my average there was barely higher. I ask why, they say because I threw away the last game, which makes no sense, as I wanted to cash, and only "threw it away" after I had already screwed it up. Oddly enough, in their infinite wisdom, they said that if i HAD shot 200 orso and gotten into the top 50, i;d not have been rerated again.... /images/graemlins/confused.gif.
So of the 8 people who had EVER been rerated there in 7 years, I am two of them, my friends are 3 more...
As it turns out, one of my friends shot 300, and then qualified for $100 for the third year in a row after his scores were DQ'd the previous year on a technicality,(although rightfully so, but it WAS ticky tack).
Wow, was that a long story.
Anyways, this one is shorter.
A small buyin tourney near my house had about 500 total entrants over the weekend, I was bowling on the last squad with my trusty 150 average, and had been crushing as of late, shooting 700 in 3 of my last 5 series on league, with a 289 in there for good measure and a 14 in a row run. Never one for "camouflage", other than my already unorthodox chicken-wing delivery borne of learn to bowl with a 16 lb ball when i weighed 95, I summarily shoot 228, 237, 227, and have the first 4 strikes in the final game when i hear over the loudspeaker;
"AARON O'ROURKE, PLEASE COME TO THE TOURNAMENT OFFICE. AND BRING YOUR EQUIPMENT."
Turns out they went into a panic when they saw a guy who shoulf have 600 scratch for 4 games have that at 2 and a half, and started calling around about me. They said I had failed to claim previous winnings on my entry sheet, but alas, the entry sheet did not ask for previous winnings. They then stammered a bit, and went into a huddle. Since first place was only $300 or so, and I had already had a good year and didn;t want to get one of the guys in trouble running it that I knew(but didnt know I was Lawrence of Arabia), I told then if they give me my entry fee back, I'd go quietly. They jumped at the offer, and even gave me a ten free game pass. I guess it would have looked bad if a guy averaging 150 came in and not only won the tournament by over 100 pins, but would have come in 2nd or 3rd in a scratch division in which 4 PBA pros were entered, including Bill Spigner.
As it turned out, My 34 frame score with handicap was only 8 pins lower than the top score posted for the full 4 games, good enough for 3rd place had it counted from where I stopped, lol.