NO SHOES ON THE CARPET!

 

 

Last night was position week for league, meaning it was our last chance to finish strong.  And finish strong we did.  We swept the fourth place team with our mad bowling skillz.  And the Untouchables took five of seven from the second place team, who we trailed by two points going into the week.  Do the math, we ended up finishing in second place for our division!  Not bad for a team that featured a first year bowler (Andrew), two bowlers with moderate experience (Bob and Jen), and a bowler coming off a seven year break (me).  After a four week stretch of losing (8 and 20), the last four weeks have been nothing short of great (25 and 3).

However, last night was a night of disappointment for me.  Another night of near perfection.  After shooting a pitiful 159 in the first game, I was able to relax myself and just “throw the fucking ball”.  One strike.  Two.  Three.  Four.  Six strikes.  Go check the score of the cards game.  Shit, their lossing.  Talk to Bob about something meaningless.  Get your mind off of it.  Seventh strike.  That was luck, hit that one head on.  Eighth strike.  Good shot.  Don’t think about.  Nine strikes straight.  No pressure.  Shit, I’m sweating like a fat man in the summer heat.  Wait a minute, I am a fat man in the summer heat.  Well, that makes since then. 

Tenth frame, here we go, finish strong.  Shit I dropped it.  Watch it take off.  Well, it may hit Brooklyn.  It did.  Shit they all fell.  Ten strikes.  No wait, one wobbled but didnt go.  Oh Fuck.  so close.  so close again.  Picked up the spare and struck to finish.  279.  Again.

X X X X X X X X X 9/ X  ——–> 279

One day, I will have that elusive perfect game.  One day.

However, I have forgotten the score sheet at home so the team update will have to wait.  We have one week left but its sweepstakes week, a chance to get some cash back.

It’s been a rough season for the Eager Beavers.  A season filled with many losses, injuries, absences, and pregnancies.  One thing has been lacking all season.  Winning.  Before last night, the Beavers had the worst record in the league.  But the one thing I can say for this team, we are getting better.  Last week, we went up against one of the top 3 teams and they should have dispensed us without any trouble.  We played hard though and refused to go without a fight.  We ended up losing all three games but they were good losses.  Good because we scored at least 15 points each game and kept it close.  Last night, we continued to play well and won 2 of 3 games.  It’s been so long since we’ve won a game, it feels so good.  Record on the season, 4 and 20 with one week to go.  Oh well, there is always next season.  Its just for fun and beer drinkin’ anyways.

There were ups, there were downs, but Rushmore prevailed taking 4 of 7 points from another first place team.  The first game started off pretty shitty and by the 5th frame, it was apparent that this was just not going to be my week.  The team had worked itself into a hole that seemed impossible to climb out off.  I stood at the line in the 6th frame having no clue where to throw my ball.  It was then that I pictured my high school bowling coach, Bob, and heard his everlasting words.

“Brandon, there are just four words you need to remember when the shit is hitting the fan.  Throw.  The.  Fucking.  Ball.”

So i threw that ball and let it do its work.  Strike.  It took me six frames to get my first strike but it was on the board.  Turns out, I would end up hitting the next six and rolling a 214.  Bob and Andrew also turned it on as the team managed to crawl out of that hole we were buried in and we ended up winning by 60 sticks.

The second game was a nail biter.  I managed to forget how to throw a strike and we were in the hole early again.  Again, the sixth frame came around and like the game before, I began to turn things around.  The game would come down to the tenth frame, to the fourth bowlers on each team. Me and Tina.  Tina was on fire, rolled a 237 her first game.  If tina struck out, it was over.  But, Tina wasn’t clutch this game.  Strike eight spare for Tina.  The game was in our reach.  Two strikes and its over.

“Shit, I tugged it”

So much for that.  Now I needed to hit my spare and get a nine count to tie the game.  I ended up getting the spare.  Now the pressure is on.  Back to my coaches voice, “If you want to be the anchor of this team, you have to learn to be clutch.”  Deep breath.  Relax your arm.  Smooth stride.  Easy release.  Hit your mark.  Pocket shot.  Strike.  Game over.  We won by one.  Clutch.

The third game wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the first two, so I will save you the play by play.  The other team took it up a notch and beat us soundly by 62 pins.  And for those of you who weren’t paying attention, let me recap it for you.  We won the 1st game by 60, won the 2nd game by 1, lost the 3rd game by 62.  If you do the math, you’ll see that we lost the series total by 1 pin.  2741 to 2740.  One lousy pin.  But thats ok, we still beat a first place team and now sit in 2nd in our division.  Next week is position week, last chance to take first.  After that is money week.

• Jen         106  127  133
• Andrew   177  158  153
• Bob        204  188  174
• Brandon  214  188  201

Damn you comment spammers!!  Damn you!  You have taken all of the fun out of leaving comments on my site.  Damn you metabolife!  Damn you Bridal-Shoe!  Burn in hell!! (if there is a hell of course)  I’ve had to turn on the moderator for all future commenting.  Don’t worry though, it won’t effect all of the approved commentors that have already left comments.  Any comments that come in with an unrecognized email, I have to manually approve.  I hate manually doing things!  I need automation!  Damn you!  Damn you!

Ok, sorry about that.  Back to work.