Bowling: Youth Wasted on this Youngster

On February 8, 1988, I bowled my first and only 300 game. Five days later, I bowled a 290. My name was mentioned in the late Bob Schabert's bowling column in the St. Paul Pioneer Press two weeks in a row for these feats. In the span of about two weeks, I had bowled four 700+ series. This was back when this type of scoring actually still meant something, and all before my 22nd birthday.

No, I'm not bragging. I wish I were, because then I could say how much I have accomplished since then. In a sport (or game if you prefer) that saw scoring inflation in the '90s akin to what Major League Baseball saw in home runs, and unlike baseball has not reeled it back (although I doubt steroid testing is anywhere on bowling's horizon), the question to ask a good bowler is not whether they have bowled a 300, but how many have they bowled.

I'm still awaiting my second.

I'm at peace with it, because only last year did I decide to really take advantage of the equipment revolution that began in 1992 with the first commercial reactive resin cover stock balls. I was only a casual bowler between '92 and '08.

The reason I was only casually involved was because I burned myself out. I had some talent, desire, and a world of potential. But what I failed to do to make it to the next level(s) was in the mental part of the game: both in learning the technical parts, and dealing with the emotional intelligence part.

With that, I present my season stats from the 1987-88 Evangelical Lutheran bowling league at the now-defunct Minnehaha Lanes. (I'm not Lutheran, in case you are wondering.) This was not the same league in which I bowled my 300 game, which is good, because in that league, I also bowled a 102, and I'd rather you not see it (although I did just tell you). Yes, my high and low games for the year were 198 pins apart! That's gotta be some kind of record.

You will see the same type of inconsistency, however, in the stats from this league, which show that while I had nights where I could put it together, I couldn't quite hang with the big boys. I tried to compete in the local CBA and other scratch tournaments the following year, but failed miserably, and was too emotionally unintelligent to handle it. I quit for a couple years, made a return to league bowling again in the early '90s, and was pretty much done after that. You could say I peaked at 21, and was washed up at 22.

One thing is for sure with regard to my recent attempt at a "comeback": I'm going to have fun doing it, results be damned. One way I will make sure of it is to coach my four-year-old son as he joins his first bowling league next year.

Bowling with my kids always puts me in the right frame of mind...except when the two-year-old runs in front of the people two lanes over.