Sunday, September 30, 2007, 08:17 PM EST [General]
Hi again. This week we lost to injury one of the DX team members from the Saturday League. And with the league coming to a close with only 4 sessions left and with just a 5 point lead; things are getting real tight. Kind of like the Boston Red Sox but hopefully not a New York Mets ending where they lost the division title at the end. Whether we survive or not...we'll have to see what happens, and just like baseball; ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN.
The Thursday league is one where as a team we have fallen to the "bottom of the well". We lost our chemistry and for the last 3 sessions we have a record of W1-L11. Now we are in 3rd place, hanging by a thread. Personally I bowled a 578 (210, 184, 184) still maintaining a 197 avg.; but when a team looses their chemistry...everything goes downhill. This Thursday is do or keep dying day.
The Friday league is a dream league for me. Everything going so right, especially last Friday. My games were: 260, 239, 265 & 190. 764 in the 1st 3 games was a record high for me. Eventhough I ended with a 190; the 954 in 4 games was a record high for me. Right now I have the high game, high series and for now the high average of the league which is 211. Can I hold on? We'll see... As far as the team goes; W5-L0 keeps us in 1st place with a 5 point lead of the 2nd place team.
Monday, September 24, 2007, 08:41 PM EST [General]
My bowling has been regular. With a wrist injury this week: thursday (546 series) team W0-L4 2nd place, friday (off) team W5-L0 1st place, and saturday (591 series) team W4-L0 1st place. The 546 series came off after trying to use a wrist support (should've practiced with it first before league play) with the 1st game being a 144. I just coudn't control the ball, the following series after taking friday off, I went back to "my old ways" and got a better result.
My special shout out of the week goes to my buddies: Michael "Mika" Hurtado (my Saturday league team partner) and Luis Rodriguez for their 2nd place finish at a YABA doubles tournament on Sunday (9/23) at Carolina Bowling Center. Also "congrats" to Kristian "Bigotin" Babilonia and Karen Sanabria for their 3rd place finish. An added "congrats" to Kristian for his 279 game (11 strikes in a row) during his YABA league.
Finally I took some time to write. I want to take a moment to congratulate all my friends of Bowlspace who have done great accomplishments and apologize for not saying so sooner as I was kind of out on the site; BUT NOW I'M BACK.
I have 2 friends here at Mayaguez who I want to congratulate for their 300 games: Gabriel "BEBO" Sanchez (for 2 of them) and my Saturday League partner Michael "MIKA" Hurtado. MIKA did it just after fixing his Total Inferno ball last Saturday. Great job!
Now as far as my bowling has been... I have had a rollercoaster performance. For some reason Friday's has become a super day of bowling for me. Here I am averaging 208 while on Tuesday's I just started off on a 187. As a matter of fact, last Friday I bowled a 278 game; then Saturday comes and the highest I managed was a 201 game. So definately I got to work something out to improve.
Now, thursdays for me is the best day for bowling for me. Why? BEER. First, the team name: Las Sobras (which means the leftovers, since we were a team made up of bowlers that had no team for Thursdays). Second, on this day we make all sorts of jokes and pranks. Third and most important: THE BEER FRAMES! Just to shout out: BEER FRAME is the most fun thing to do while bowling and then to see the beer coming our way; and drink, and drink more till we drop. One can say, gosh you guys must be in last place with so much drinking but...we are 2nd for now. Even I threw 3 gutter balls in a single game (the 3erd and last game about 2 weeks ago since I was so drunk) and we still managed to win the game.
Our 1st record was 5 six-pack beers from beer frames and last Thursday it went up to 9. We hope to keep up the track record and be the most DRUNK TEAM IN PR. The main point, it's all about having fun. I have no plans of becoming pro and I don't have the talent for it so why make bowling a boring sport. Here are some photos of the team and and the drinking proof.
If ya didn't believe it before....now you can believe it.
Finally, after finishing 2nd place on the Friday Doubles League for 3 seasons in a row; now my team became champions. My partners changed this season, and not because I wanted to change (my original partners decided not to play this season). It seems that the change worked for the better.
The finals were a step-ladder and only the top 3 teams of the league competed. The team that finished 3rd would go against the team that finished 2nd; the winner would then go against the team that finished 1st. Now, the advantage of finishing 1st is that this team would have to be beat twice in order fot this team to lose the championship.
The first game was: The defending champions, "Migue Y El Mas...Otra Vez" (George Mercado and Miguel "Migue" Soto) finished the league 2nd and had to go against the team that finished 3rd, Medalla 2 (Ricardo "Ricky" Ruiz and Isaac Santiago). Interesting enough, Medalla 2 had an issue with a member who had a debt with the league and when required to pay got upset, paid and decided not to play. In my opinion that is just acting like a child; dues are a responsability that all league members know that it has to be paid. If you don't pay, obviously the league treasurer will go to you and require payment. Then to make matters worse, he abandons the team during the league finals (I would never even consider playing with a guy like that, especially after this). Nevertheless, Ricardo played with a blind score (188) against the other team (since Isaac did pay up).
It seems to be a secure win for team "Migue Y El Mas...Otra Vez" but miraculously Ricky struck 7 in a row to win (225 game). We were all surprised, and I personally congratulate him for doing what seemed to be impossible to do. What was even more amazing is that his first ball (a Storm XXX Factor), had the thumb slug popping out and was doing poorly the first 3 frames. So he takes out this ball and uses his only other ball (a Storm Hit) and boom 7 in a row; using a ball he didn't even consider using.
Now it was him against us. My team, "Drinking Team" (Me, Wifredo "Willy" Vega and Jose "Joe" Chaparro") after seeing the Ricky's performance decided to go with the higher average members which was me and Joe. Ricky started strong but started leaving single pins, and missed them (he wished he had available the other ball; at least for his spares). Joe had trouble striking but made most of his spares and I had carry trouble but got lined up after the 5th frame (230 game). In the end, we won the game and finally got the elusive championship. As a "Drinking Team" member I normally would drink but seeing as serious Ricky was about his game made me keep my drinking in check.
Next season starts Aug. 3; we'll see if we become repeat champions.
