Last night was our second competitive match of bowling, and overall we did pretty well. We took 2 of our 3 games, and everyone bowled fairly well. I came out feeling really fresh thanks to my arm healing up and dodgeball being cancelled Tuesday (thank you, bad weather gods!). My practice shots were really strong, so I figured I was going to have a good night.
While I actually did end up with my highest series of the season (537), I definitely bowled my worst league game in a long time when I rolled a 129 in game two. With me hitting my foot on an easy spare in the ninth, I summed up the type of game where nothing was going right. For us to lose by 8 pins was just funny. Had I made any of the 5 easy spares that I left out there, we would’ve swept the series for the second straight week…and I probably would’ve had a chance at league high series, as well as a chance to improve my odds of catching the league high average. Oh well. At least that game kept our team average a little more realistic for our next match.
My other two games were solid – 201 and 207 – but I need to stop having that one bad game that characterizes my short bowling history. Luckily, we have another 5 weeks for me to put down a strong 3-game series. With Meadows continuing to improve, and Megan and Sam’s consistency, we should have a good chance to finish with a good record. We’ll see…
This week was our first week of competitive bowling matches. I showed up with my arm feeling nearly as bad as when I had severely dislocated it in college – only this time I didn’t have Vicodin to kill the pain and make me want to vomit. It was rough. I guess not using a throwing motion for years, then whipping dodgeballs as hard as I can for an hour isn’t recommended. Fortunately, I chose a great night to be a cripple as everyone else on the team bowled really well and helped carry us to 3 straight victories.
Despite the pain, I managed to start game 1 with 5 strikes in a row, but it went down hill after that. I had a tight line, and there was no way I could keep it up. I bowled my first 200+ of the season, but it felt more like a 130. I didn’t bowl too well the rest of the night as my arm continued to hurt more and more, and the conditions made the need for control more necessary. Thank god the rest of the team showed up in the best way imaginable. Samantha ended up bowling the highest female scratch game of the season (167), Megan bowled her highest of the season (140), and Meadows’ 558 scratch series is currently the league high.
Our team currently holds the highest scratch game (663), highest scratch series (1849), highest handicap game (663), and highest handicap series (1840). While our team average of 575 isn’t impressive in most leagues, it somehow tops our Thursday night league. Hopefully we continue to roll, but at some point our high average is going to kill us.
Thanks to Wesler for hooking me up with the above photo (L to R – Mundis, Wesler, Me, Davis, Evans, Joe Bad!).
More things from this get-together that I’m thankful for:
Thanks to H-Kan (Steph) for the usual good service.
Thanks for the memories, asshole Steelers fans at Primanti’s! For a moment, I feared death by bland cole slaw and processed meats simply because I had a Ravens coat on.
Thanks to Tony Romo and the Cowboys for playing like arse against the Ravens and providing us inspiration for our own little rendition of Take Me Home (Country Roads) by John Denver.
Thanks to Hoover, Sheila, Bud, Byrne, Beau, Hill, Matt and Angela Wells, Wesler, Alan, Melissa, Evans, and Mundis for traveling into the ‘burgh for the Scotty D reunion.
Thanks to Davis’ doctors for not botching his surgery and allowing him to recover, lose tons of weight, and become a pimp who’s still sick on the kit despite not playing in over a year.
Thanks to Meadows for the cigars and liquor, post-Primanti’s incident.
Thanks to Dimar for the extra room.
And a special thanks to the shittiness of Johnstown for bringing all of us together in misery and forging a great group of friends…and inspiring some good tunes.
One thing is for certain: It’s a damn shame that that entire group in the photo will rarely be together again (barring a West Coast reunion – where we can add Mr. Reed to the mix), but it was a great couple of days, and it reminded me of how awesome Pittsburgh used to be.
I love PSL. Not only is it a great way to meet new people in Pittsburgh, but it gives you the opportunity to get revenge for any losses on the playground you may have experienced during your youth. When I moved here I had no idea that I’d end up on a kickball team. Now that I’m on a dodgeball team, I think I’ve finally come full circle – back to the playground lots of my youth. Although…I seem to recall dodgeball being a bit easier 20 years ago. Of course, back then there weren’t “official” dodgeballs, and big dudes with gloves heaving rockets at your face.
Anyway, PSL dodgeball started 3 weeks ago, but with the bye week in the middle, we’ve only played two matches – losing both of them badly.
In week one, our team was the victim of having only 7 people show up, only 2 of which were guys (Meadows and I). Since you’re allowed to field 4 men of your 6 active players per game, that put us at a pretty huge disadvantage. Factor in that we were playing a team full of big dudes sporting receiver gloves, and that some of us were playing dodgeball for the first time with a whole bevy of new rules to get used to, and there was basically no way we were going to win…and we didn’t. We got spanked 0-11 (Note: Each match consists of 11 games). The other team would immediately throw every ball at me, and then systematically pick our team apart one person at a time. It was frustrating to say the least.
Last night was our second match, and while we played much better, with a more balanced roster, we still got beat 8-3. I’m finally starting to get a better feel for the court boundaries and the rules. I’m sure by the end of the season our team will be winning a lot more, but right now the learning curve for a lot of our team is killing us. On top of that, my arm feels like I just pitched 15 innings of nothing but fastballs. That should really help me during bowling tomorrow…ugh.
I guess we should’ve taken lessons from Patches O’Hoolihan:
I’m sorry that I live in Pittsburgh, and that my blog seems to be turning into a “how much I hate this town during football season” blog. I just realized that 5 of my last 9 posts revolved around something Steelers, and only one of them was a positive post. I actually like this town, and even respect the Steelers, but the longer I endure this town’s less-than-subtle obsession with their team, the more insanity I see and experience. It’s just so blog-worthy, I guess.
Anyway, our bowling league actually started last Thursday, and it went pretty well. I bowled poorly considering how well I’ve been bowling at Arsenal, but it might actually work out since my average isn’t so high that it’s going to kill our team. In fact, Sam and Megan bowled averages consistent with their regular average, while Joe and I had off nights – and I swear we didn’t sandbag. I finished my night with a 158 average, which is probably 20-30 pins below what my typical average has been. It’s the 4th best average in our Thursday night league, but I’d prefer to push for kingpin of our league. I don’t think there’s any Davis-quality bowlers in it – even though last session’s Kingpin is in our league – so if I can figure out the lanes, I should be able to pull my average up quickly. I’d love to at least finish top 2…after all, it’s just PSL bowling. The main issue I’m going to have is that there’s a league right before ours, so the lanes are already broken down pretty significantly. The oil’s there, but it’s all spotty, or pushed to the back. I just don’t have the experience to read the lanes yet, and since my ball likes to react later, it’s hard to not have it slide out at the back. Since I know Davis has nothing better to do…he can expect more random bowling tip text questions on Thursdays around 9. Ha ha.
Our first real game is next week, and I look forward to improving.
This is why I refused to go to the game on Sunday:
Granted, I’m fully aware that these types of asshats exist in parking lots nationwide – from high school sports to the pros, but damn. There’s absolutely no way I’d take a punch to the face and not put that guy’s face onto a hot tailgating grill. I try to be Mr. Peace all the time, but that’s too much to deal with. I want to know what the lead-up to this was, as someone had enough foresight to grab a camera and hit record.
Hell, I snapped on a guy for simply cheering when McGahee looked like he died on the field. That’s classy, dude. I hope you’re never immobilized and put into an ambulance…I’d hate to chuckle like human life is just an asset, simply because a dude plays on a team that isn’t “my” team. I didn’t cheer when Ben was down a few weeks ago – and Ben’s a renowned douchebag.
Props to the Steelers fans for breaking it up, and to the Ravens fans who obviously have more class and composure than me. Or maybe they had just started drinking. The next game I go to Heinz Field, Mundis and the big black dude (Ravens fan!) who works at Soho are coming with me. Davis can come, too, but the rhino attack isn’t going to work as well now that he weighs less than a Primanti’s sandwich.
Please, karma, tell me that knob from the video walked into a wall at some point. Nothing too painful, but payback-ish.
What defines a true fan? Is it the number of magnetic ribbons and other magnetic bumper “stickers” that you affix to your automobile? Is it having your car custom painted two-tone in your favorite team’s colors? Is it having a vanity plate that states your love affair with a team that could care less about anything but your money? Would affixing team logo mud flaps scream “I’M A TRUE FAN”? Maybe adding a trailer hitch cover with your team’s logo will prove it. Maybe it’s giant team logo on both side doors. Wait…would a tire cover showing your team’s dominance do it? Can you be considered a fan if you only have a team license plate holder?
What if you have all of that stuff on your car? A week or so ago, we were driving behind this fanatic going through Bloomfield, and thankfully we had a camera to take a quick shot of the complete lunacy in front of us while we were at a red light.
I wonder if this person’s house looks like this?
(Actually, that room was professionally laid out by a creative set director, so it looks pretty nice.)
Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you that I’m a pretty rabid fan of the Ravens, as well as some other teams, but I find the above photo of that Hummer over-the-top. Some people just don’t grasp the idea of “less is more”. That Hummer looks like it went through the Strip District and people slapped every poorly designed magnetic bumper sticker on it the way people slapped “kick me” signs on those hapless kids in high school. There’s no way someone would actually drive around with 10 – count ‘em TEN – magnetic bumper stickers randomly stuck onto the back of their car by choice, right?
If you’re going to attempt to show that you’re the big fan in Steeler country, I’m pretty sure the two-tone paint job and license plate holder would’ve said it well enough – especially being a Virginia resident. I’ll even let the vanity plate slide, but the rest is just pathetic. I’ve seen some crazy fan cars over the years for other teams that are equally pathetic, too, but this is too good of an example to pass up the opportunity of pointing out.
The magnetic stickers are so poorly designed and made that I’d be embarrassed to even put one near my car – and this guy has 10 of them…at least that I can make out from this lo-res image (I swear it seemed like more in-person). Buying every crappy piece of discount-quality Steelers merchandise during your tourist vacation to the Strip District doesn’t make you a true fan. It makes you look like an idiot with poor judgment and screams of desperation to be accepted into a fan base that would’ve accepted you even if you wore a Kordell Stewart jersey from Goodwill. This is probably the same person who took that homemade Terrible Towel to the Steelers/Titans game a few week back that ended up getting stomped on by LenDale White after the Titans iced the game. Buy the quality stuff if you’re going to flaunt it. Buy the legit Terrible Towel – a whopping $7, you cheap monkey – if you’re going to swing a yellow towel at a game (the proceeds go to a great cause).
If you have to put stickers on your car, at least put nicely designed ones on there, and please don’t just apply them in a way that looks like you just vomited stickers into every spare spot you could find. It’s okay to see the actual paint on your car – especially on your high-priced, pretentious gas guzzler. I would think someone dropping that type of money on their car could afford some officially licensed stuff that’s professionally designed and manufactured instead of the cheap garbage slapped on there now.
Of course, what I think and what others think isn’t always the same…obviously.
