Good to be Home

It's New Year's Eve, as well as my wife's birthday, so I'd best keep this short. We're back from Orlando, where I guess the crowds are massive this evening. We went to Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando on Thursday, with all five kids, and it was ridiculous.

There were up to 3 hours of delays on some attractions (Harry Potter and The Hulk), and the Harry Potter World was a sea of people. Absolutely a madhouse. For a while, I was thinking, "Never again." But by the evening hours, lines were a little shorter, and if that was indeed been of the busiest days ever at the park (it made national news, and they were turning people away), then the best thing to do is go at a better time of year next time.

Happy New Year.

League scores 2011-12 so far

Just posting scores to date for the season. I doubt it will last, but I've got a good string of 200+ games going. In fact, 199 is my low, which I did twice in the first week. Both games involved a big split in the 10th. Nine total in both games would have been good enough for 200s. Ah well...

199, 211, 199 = 609
222, 226, 202 = 650
212, 269, 229 = 710
204, 217, 234 = 655
201, 236, 242 = 679

A Different Bowling Model

I tried a new bowling style in league last night, and while I didn't have my best night, it was certainly promising. I ended the first game with a solid ten pin in the ninth, after a strike in the eighth, and then left a 2-8-10 in the tenth for a disappointing 201 game. I followed that with a 236 and 242 for a 679 set, which brought my average up to 220. Not quite to last year's final average, but I've only bowled 15 games to date because of my back injury.

The change I made was to start with the ball hanging lower, and my body slouched a little, head-down. I'm not sure exactly how it looks, but I imagine it's something like Del Ballard, Jr., with a tad less slide.

Previously, I had been trying a more classic style, like a Brian Voss, only with a 5-step delivery, and without the model-good looks. My local bowling pro got me to lower my ball position at set-up to about midpoint. Previously I started it higher, like Mike Aulby would often do.

The change helped me with direction, but didn't help as much as I wanted with ball speed. With the previous two styles, the only way I could generate acceptable ball speed (in my mind, anyway, to keep up with how the power game has become more commonplace), was to either bring my back swing way back high, or to muscle it on the downswing. The former was difficult for me to control my accuracy with, and the latter seemed to give me difficulty keeping consistent with my release.

Here's what the "Ballard" change seems to have done for me:

1) Keeps my head low the whole time. I tend to otherwise be too upright, causing me to loft it too much at times, unless I bring my head and body lower during the approach, which gives me consistency problems.
2) Gives me the ball speed I need because I walk more quickly to the line now. Standing more upright made walking faster more awkward.
3) Allows me to not think too much about my backswing. I've never been comfortable with a big backswing. I can let it be as short as comes naturally now, and still get over 16 mph on my ball because of my faster (yet more in control) approach.
4) I don't know if this has anything to do with the new style, but the ball was coming off my thumb better than any previous league night this season, even though the hole was fitting just as snugly as ever.

As much as it seems like a lot of changes, all I really do differently is drop down to the "Ballard position" at set-up, and everything else comes together. This style isn't actually new to me. I used it for a few years in the late '90s/early '00s. I had what I think was an old 14 pound blue resin Hammer drilled for someone else (only a semi-fingertip span for me), so while I had some success with that style, I also had a lot of struggles. I didn't buy my first new and custom-fit reactive ball until about three years ago when I got back into bowling after a lengthy layoff. I went back to my older style then for whatever reason.

I'll update regularly how it goes. I also hope to post some before/after videos. I was encouraged at how well I threw it, despite just a decent score for the night. I probably would rather look like Voss when I bowl (I even used to sport the wavy brown hair when I grew it out more), or maybe take the ball back like Michael Fagan. But pretty is as pretty does, and I'm getting too old to look good, anyway.

Why I Bowl (Because I HAVE To)

There's a bowling forum(www.mrbowling300.net) I frequent, and one of the discussions was opened with the question, "What is it that you like about bowling?" It's an interesting way to phrase the question, and I would expect a plethora of answers from a community of avid bowlers.

Here was my response:

I can think of so many things, but my enjoyment of the game must be hard-wired. I remember being a toddler and my neighborhood daycare mom bowled in one of those women's leagues where the center would have a nursery on site. She walked us kids past the lanes to the nursery.

It was the coolest sight I'd ever seen, and I really only remember her doing it once or twice, but I was so drawn to it. The pins looked not like they were set up in triangles, but just straight lines across, for my young depth perception from that distance must not have been developed yet. Seeing the grownups knock them down and watch them scatter about was amazing!

So I guess my answer to the question would be something about how the pins fly, and while ours is a game of repetition, we all know from experience how many different ways the pins can actually fly, topple, mix, etc. Don't tell us bowlers that there's no variety in this game; we know all too well the nuances.

I even liked the smell of the old bowling alleys as a child, stale smoke from the night before and all. Maybe because it's a unique smell that triggered a neurological association to something I really liked.

Anyway, I've "quit" bowling off and on over the years, but now that I'm mature enough (finally...at 45!) to handle the bad nights, I'm back for good. When I came back this last time, I remember saying, "You can take the boy out of bowling, but you can't take the bowling out of the boy."

I meant it. It's been in me probably since birth.

New Game Show

Of all the reality shows past and present, I think my favorite is Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Gordon Ramsay. Of all the modern-day prime time game shows (going back to Who Wants to be a Millionaire), my favorite was Minute to Win It. I have found a new one.

You Deserve It premiered on ABC tonight, and it was a cross between Deal or No Deal and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, with a little bit of Password in. Plus, it's every bit as fun to play along with as any game shows that let you feel smarter than the contestant, a la Wheel of Fortune.

Check it out if you get a chance. One word of advice, however: as with all prime time game shows past and present, the DVR is your friend.

Mid-life Crisis?

Whenever I'm in mid-life crisis mode, I listen to Bruce Springsteen's, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes." Not that I was ever a lady-killer, but the line, "And the girls in their summer clothes pass me by," sure hits home for this 45-year-old.

I don't know if I'll ever feel any older than 28 mentally, which I guess is good. But I always look older than I think I do whenever I see a photo. Still, I think I'm doing OK in that regard.

Terms of Endearment is on television right now. It was released in 1983, and ran while I was an usher at Har Mar Cinemas 11 in Roseville. It was interesting to see all of the teary-eyed patrons exiting the theatre and staring into the midday winter sun after a matinee showing. Out of curiosity, I went to IMDB to check the age of Jack Nicholson, who won an Oscar for his role in the film, a role, interestingly, which Burt Reynolds turned down. Oops.

Anyway, IMDB shows Nicholson was born April 22, 1937. That would make him 45 while filming the movie. Even though he looks much younger than today, he still looks a lot older than I feel, and older than I think I look when I check the mirror. No doubt I'm kidding myself, but hey, whatever works.

I read an interesting article today from this week's City Pages about the Acme Comedy Company's 20 years in the business. I found interesting one bit about how there was a time when much of the fresh new talent in local stand-up was guys having a mid-life crisis deciding they were going to chase a dream.

Yep, that sounds like me. Whether as a joke teller (I have a friend who would write them...even being a bit delusional, I know my limitations), getting back into radio announcing someday, or what have you, I know I'll be trying something fairly soon that I don't want to grow old not having tried.

Mid-life crisis? Perhaps, but I'd rather that than an end-of-life crisis.

Same Old Kayfabe

I can't believe it took me over a year to hear about this book, but I just picked up Minnesota's Golden Age of Wrestling at the Dakota County Library today after being told about it by a colleague at work. I was pretty excited, but skeptical as well. You see, the author is a local guy, George Schire, who goes way back with the AWA, to the years my high school friends and I were big fans. After the AWA folded, you could occasionally catch Verne or Greg telling stories about the business. But it was always in the context that the matches were legit. So I was skeptical that this would be anything but reminiscing about old matches (which would be good) as if they were real contests (which would be bad).

The book only occasionally breaks kayfabe ("kayfabe" is the "code" in pro wrestling that refers to acting as if the business is non-scripted or predetermined), and contains such rare shoot material (a "shoot" in pro wrestling is anything that is not a put-on, be it an interview, or a fight, or whatever else that may happen in the business) that the reader doesn't really know what to believe. Oh, I know not to believe that Stanley Blackburn actually stripped Verne Gagne of his title in 1981, but when you think you might be reading a shoot, you have to wonder, such as certain attendance figures it refers to regarding some of the shows.

That said, it's a must have for anyone who religiously watched All Star Wrestling at any time in Minnesota. The bios in the back of the book are fun to read, similar to Ross Bernstein's Grappling Glory: Celebrating a Century of Minnesota Wrestling & Rassling. It doesn't add a lot of insight into the business that you might expect from an "insider." It pretty much sticks to the facts of the wrestling, i.e., who won what belts against whom and in which city.

One of these days, when ol' Verne is gone probably, someone will offer up what working in the AWA was really all about in the glory days. That would be a helluva read. Until then, books like Schire's and Bernstein's will still do.