5-7-08

    My USBC Open Championship Report

    Jane and I left Milwaukee Friday morning May 2.  We landed in Albuquerque around 10 a.m. and waited for my Doubles partner Bob Davidson to land about a half hour later.  Craig Auerbach was to fly in about 2 hours later. Mike Gaither and Kevin Mitchell who was along for the ride drove in from Tulsa about the same time. Jerry Casebolt who is employed by USBC has been in Albuquerque since the tournament started.

    Craig, Bob and I decided to bowl the Bowlers Journal Tournament that afternoon.  Bob and I bowled doubles and Craig bowled singles.  Craig bowled well, he shot about 870 or so.  Bob bowled terrible and the left side look wasn't good from what I saw.......  I bowled around 900 for 4 games.  Hit the clean pot too......  Mike joined us for the second set.  Mike and I bowled doubles.  Bob and Craig bowled together.  Mike and I shot about 200 over between us, I shot about 920 and all the right handers were playing deep.  Craig and Mike bowled well too.... The pattern played alot like the old Shark pattern on the PBA tour years ago except you knew there was a lot more oil.   It sure would be nice to see a 33ft  17ml pattern like Vegas every once in a while.....

     The next day about noon Craig, Bob and I bowled the Roto grip challenge.  We were paired up next to our Team Companions.  Mike Rose shoots 299, he leaves a solid 7 on his last shot.  I shoot 444 playing straight up 10.  Rose was playing around 8 swinging it to 5 and back. Craig and Bob bowled again.  After they finished bowling we ate some lunch and then headed back to the room to change for Team event later that night.

      Unfortunately the Open Championships tournament will never be like it was years ago.  Now you can load the pattern up at your local bowling center and bowl on it many times to get a basic idea on how the pattern starts out and how it might transition. To me this is like cheating but oh well I don't make the rules.... Years ago the only thing you could do was watch the Team event the night before and watch them bowl on it....and make a guess on what to do.  So for over a month I bowled at Classic Greenfield as Gary Daroszewski would run a little tournament series on Monday Nights.  I need to give a lot of credit to Ralph Hibbard for telling me that Gary was putting the pattern out for people to practice on before they went to Nationals.  When bowling on the pattern I noticed that even though the pattern played different at the start everyweek but I never played outside of the 12 board.  I talked to some people that already bowled the Open Championship tournament and their comments were that they seemed easier in Albuquerque then they were on Monday Nights.  Obviously I believed that because David Beres bowled real well shooting 2094.  He didn't think that they were a whole lot different between the two centers. It is always beneficial to get some input from bowlers who scored well...that's for sure.

      I think the greatest thing about my game is  reading lanes correctly and playing them correctly.  I see so many people who are good or even great bowlers who aren't very good at this some of the time. Last year we had a game plan, we all throw outside of 10 and try to open the lane up as quick as we can.  This year bowling and practicing on the pattern for a month I really didn't like that idea as much..... which is very unusual.....  For one the lane ratio was flatter. Two there was more oil.  And three I read lanes better than almost anybody and I know my team mates games really well.  I mentioned to all the right handers on the team that we should break them down around 10-11-12 instead of the 7-8-9 area like we did last year.  Maybe Del Warren, Mike Jasnau, Jerry Casebolt and various lanemen might not agree with my analyses.  But looking at how we bowled I think I was right on.......especially how our team bowls.  Let me point out that Del wrote an article on how to play the lanes.  Did he write the article about himself  he was one of the greatest bowlers outside of 5 you know. But inside of it, well that is a different story.  Most bowling coaches are like lanemen you know.  Lanemen usually design patterns based about how they bowl.  Maybe Del was doing the same thing when writing his article.  There was no way you could play out, and no reason to when there is too much puddle on the lane to begin with.......

1st Game Team event

    I hinted to all the righhanders that we should be in around 12 to 15 to start depending on how much you hooked it.  Everyone started there......  The 3 lefties were playing different angles but Ken Muscato definitely had the best reaction.  The lefties had a lane 47 tighter.  Lane 48 was the tight lane for the rightys.  It stayed that way throughout.  Both teams were looking at shooting 1100 or more the first game but our team fell apart.   No excuses even though the lanes were transitioning a lot.  It was no different then bowling on the pattern at Classic Greenfield.  I knew it was going to happen but it killed our chance of winning.....at least I thought it did.  3 open frames in the 10th and people not taking count was tough to swallow. We shoot 1048.  Drillsheet.com shoots 1119.

2nd Game Team event

     Everyone was lost on our team for the exception of Jerry who bowled a pretty good game throughout.  Maybe it was for the fact IMHO that he didn't play the lanes deep enough to begin with because he curves it so much.  But Jerry held us up for the most part for game 2.  Craig, Bob and Mike were totally lost.  Bob had no clue with lane 47 it was much tighter for him than 48.  And lane 48 was changing as well.  He had terrible ball reaction to say the least but as good as he is, I knew he would come around sooner or later.  Mike was dead lost, his speed wasn't consistent from shot to shot and he missed an easy spare. He started with 3 opens.  Craig was attacking the lanes just about identically to myself.  He threw a Attitude Shift with lots of surface the first game playing around 15.  But his ball reaction went bye-bye.  He missed back to back easy spares and made a terrible ball change.  Seeing all of this and noticing that my ball quit hooking down the lane I knew I needed to throw a weaker ball, as I started out with a Cell.  But watching everyone else making changes with no success for the first half of game 2, I couldn't afford to take that chance right now.  I'm pretty stubborn when it comes to changing balls because I think I'm good enough to combat changes in lane conditions by changing my release or with speed variation or eye and target changes to make anything work.  I left Bob alone except I kept reminding him to be careful with lane 47.  I mentioned to Mike that he wasn't throwing the ball firm enough.......Kevin Mitchell hounded Mike to change to a  Storm Shift and with those 2 things he came around.  I told Craig that I thought that he made a terrible ball change and convinced him to change to a Gravity Shift and move right.  He is our straightest player on our team....why is he standing 5 left of me.  We were looking at 920 at best. Craig throws a 3 bagger late for 192.  Bob throws a 3 bagger late for 202.  Mike thows a 4 bagger to shoot 196.  Jerry shoots 222.  And I had a clean 191.  I finally made a ball change in the 10th probably 8 frames too late.  We shoot 1003 and 2051 after 2.  Drillsheet.com our companion team fell apart a little too with the change in lanes as they shot 1011 and 2130 after 2.

3rd Game Team event 

    All I can say is that we never gave up.  And through 5 frames we all started to think that we still had a chance.  After 7 frames as a team we had only one ball under a 9 count.  Mike started out with a 7 spare.  The 7th frame hurt us a little.  Jerry, Mike and I all leave 10 pins after a strike. But even after that we still could of shot 1300 the last game.  Jerry and I had no pin carry the third game.  I left 4 10's and Jerry had a couple bad breaks as well.  Bob could of shot 300 the last game but left two taps.  Craig was the man shooting 300 the last game all I can say is nice ball change........Lol !!!! I hope he gives me a little credit.  Our team punches out in the 10th except for a couple of 9 counts on the fill shot.  We end up shooting 1236 and 3284 overall 14 pins short.  Drillsheet.com shot 1089 to get to 3219.  At least we lost to a team that throws mostly Storm........ and I would vote for a guy named Rhino for president even though he's lefthanded......maybe they can comp me another ball down the road since we didn't go around them for the lead......  Lol....... We were happy that we got to 2nd......but we were sick afterwards knowing we had the worst 5 frames in our Teams exsistence.  Oh well there is always next year.............

Part II Doubles and Singles

    I waited a few days to talk about doubles and singles until our final member of the team Jerry finished last night.  Right before we were to go to the squad room, Jane and I were talking some of the players off Drillsheet.com about various things.  They mentioned that they thought that our starting pair 21-22 was going to hook a lot.  23-24 were going to play similar to Team when we finished.  We all were a little concerned with why our entries between the 2 Teams got so screwed up.  First of all, Drillsheet.com paid their entry in full before us.  We paid in full a couple weeks later.  Two months later we find out that we have a spot for our date, but Drillsheet.com does not.  Someone screwed up, but when we asked about it...we were never given an explaination why.  We also wanted our Doubles and Singles split up between the two teams but that didn't happen either.  Because of Drillsheets.com lost entry I guess....(They said....Well Jane if you were still working for them all of this wouldn't have got so screwed up.....Lol... ) Oh well hopefully next year it will get straightened out....and if it doesn't then maybe we need to split the companion teams up...... And here is why......  For one we can't have guys like Ken Muscato shoot 2051 and lose $1300.00 in brackets.  We don't need to beat each other up for 9 games....3 games is enough.  Our squad is probably the strongest squad at Nationals period the last 2 years.  Bracket take in has been unbelievable from what I hear on our team squad.  Secondly, I don't know if our Team can win an eagle.....We put this Team together to do that very thing......  Team event is really our only chance....even though we will be in the top 10 in Team all-events the past 2 years.  But our team misses way too many spares......and I never seem to strike enough.....  Personally it really doesn't matter if I win one because the integrity of the game  isn't what it used to be.  Which is the honest to god truth.......

     During Doubles and Singles Craig started off a little slow but bowled really great the last 2 games in doubles and could of had more than his 679 total.  He started out in singles with a respectable 212.  But in my opinion he made a terrible ball change.  I expressed my opinion to go to the ball he shot 300 with but with no avail.  I was playing them exactly the same as the last game in team.  Craig said he didn't have it that way......(But how are you suppose to know if you don't even try it...)  Craig shoots 160 and 170 for 558.   Craig shoots a 1949 total....  It was really neat to see Craig shoot a 300 game.... at least he didn't  leave a 2-8-10 like I did on the last shot one year.  (Craig won the  Punta Cana Open in 2006)

      Gator........Mike starts off slowly also in doubles by saving a 186 first game which could of been worse than that.....then he gets in a zone by shooting 280 and 236 with a solid 8 in the 10th shooting 702.  When he moved to the singles pair he had some trouble, the pair was really wet dry....(Are you sure this was a sport pattern.....oh yeah too much oil on the lane again)  It kind of looked like a league shot after bowling a bunch of games on it.  Mike finally figured it out in game 3 to salvage a  635 and 1988 all-events total.  Mike bowled super and strikes a lot like usual. (Mike's highest PBA National tour finish is a 2nd)

      Bob, a 22 time PBA regional titlest and 3 more as a non-member had the worst ball re-action of the group. He still shot a respectable 1938 all-events total. If he could of helped me a little in doubles (586) we could of had a big set.  Usually he is the guy that always carries me...... Bob started out great in singles he had 500 after two but had a bad last game.  Last year Bob bowled great and had no carry...this year he really never felt comfortable with what he was doing and still shot over 1900.  Bob bowled the big tournament at the ISLETA CASINO in Albuquerque he was only 350 over after 5 games.......he coasted in game 6.  Looks like he will be making a trip back to Albuquerque in September. (In the Seattle area Bob is known as the bowling guru) 

       Jerry bowled his doubles and singles last night on May 8th.  Craig and I was watching on the internet.....  He shot 225 and 233 the first 2 games in doubles but finished with a 184.  He couldn't strike on the right lane the last game.  In singles he never really got anything going 209,201 and 193.  I'm sure Craig quit watching half way through.... I was hoping Jerry could shoot 201 the last game so we could get into the top 3 again in Team all-events back to back years.  But it wasn't meant to be........ Jerry shot 1861 for the nine games.  Is that why he made a line up change and moved himself to the anchor position. Lol  And now Bowlingfordumdums.com headquarters is in Colorado (Will I have to move and can I get a job on the farm).............Damn those Wisconsin teams.....(Jerry has a top ten all-events finish at Nationals)

       I bowled about as good as I could have.......   I know you have heard this before but my carry was horrible. I shot 290 one game.....my 248 last game could of been 300 with some breaks.  It was amazing how well I threw it for a change....but honestly I think the lanes were pretty easy and bowling on the pattern at Classic Greenfield for a month prior was like cheating..... I went stretches of 19 frames and 10 frames without getting even a double.  My 2058 score could of been more.......but everyone can say that every year.   We really didn't deserve to win an eagle our spare shooting was pathetic at times. I was fortunate to mark in 89 of 90 frames though.  Some of us were making poor ball choices and stupid mistakes.  I can't blame myself on either one but I can blame myself  for again being way to cautious on making a ball change.  If I made a change in Team we would be in the lead right now.......  Well there is always next year...... Hopefully we can learn more from our mistakes.......That is what Lou would say.......(My Dad)

1-28-08

Bowled State tournament last weekend, I haven't thrown a ball in some time because of a constant bad back issue.  Things went well no pain all weekend.  Back muscles seem to be getting stronger.... .  It was nice to not work a weekend for a change.  Jane and I have worked every Friday, Saturday Sunday the past 12 weekends.  It was also great for her to get a weekend day off of work too.  Going to Vegas next week for the Megabuck Tournaments.  Hopefully my body will hold up all week.....it sucks getting old.

      It also sucks that I'm still in Wisconsin, it's too cold........Idaho isn't much better, there is too much snow I hear.  I sure miss my friends back home, I made some bad decisions the last 2 years regarding employment......Jane and I are thinking about leaving everything here in Wisconsin and head to my neck of the woods back home.  Lots of things wrong in the bowling world, don't see any reasons why it would get better.  Seems like a waste of time and effort anymore.  People in the bowling world aren't like they used to be.  Nothing is anymore.

      I would like to send my condolences to the Mark Zorica family on their loss of their father Ivan.  Ivan was a great person with a funny sense of humor.  I will miss him......  It has been a rough couple of years with losing friends and family.  Dad, Roni, Ed, Bud and Ivan.  Life sure doesn't get easier with every passing day that's for sure.  I hope Pop (grandpa Larry) can hang in there...... I sure would like to see him again........  

10-08-07

    Jane and I are going to tie the knot this Saturday October 13, 2007.  This will be the greatest day of our life,  and all I can say is ......  it's about time.  We have been putting it off because of various situations that arose in our life the past couple of years.  I, myself picked the date (Thank god it isn't on Friday) because it has a very special meaning to our family. My grandfather Larry La Londe will be 91 years young this Saturday. (I still love the guy even though he is lefthanded).  Jane thought it would be a wonderful idea to celebrate our marriage in the family owned bowling center that we had owned for over 30 years. So we will exchange our vows, have dinner and a reception all at OK Lanes with our family and friends.  There isn't anything better than sharing your special day with the people that you care about the most in  life by doing a little dressing up, having some grub, having a little or alot of booze, playing some tunes and singing some Karaoke.  Everything will be great as long as Lenny don't sing..........