Splitzter-August 30, 2002

Greetings to one and all as the dawn breaks on a new season of America’s number one participation sport.  The balls came out of the closet this week as the 2002-2003 edition of the bowling season cranked up once again in Napoleon, Deshler, Hamler and Wauseon.  In the weeks to come, Ye Ole’ Splitzter will be regaling you with stories of triumph, sprinkled with a bit of humor.  The article gets emailed to the Signal on Tuesday nights so our weekly time frame will be from Wednesday’s activities up to and including Tuesday’s scoring feats.  So…. with that being said, what happened this week?

I’m going to shy away from the high scores a bit this week because the Splitzter just loves seeing the little victories.  For example:  A young lady took her first steps in league bowling Tuesday night.  It seems that a ladies team had a spot open on their team and one of the girls at their place of business was asked to join them.  Now this person had never bowled in league, actually only thrown a bowling ball a few times in her young life, and was quite scared to take the plunge.  The girls assured her that it didn’t matter as this was their “girls’ night out.”  She agreed to try.  As her first game progressed, frame by frame, she struggled along.  Nine frames. No spares. No strikes.  However, in the tenth frame of a tight game, she got her first spare with a decent count on her fill ball.  Her team won the game by a few pins and I watched not just her teammates, but also the opposing team, congratulate her on her accomplishment.  You would have thought she had just bowled a 300.  It was simply a great thing.  It reminded me of something we take for granted as keglers.  Bowling is fun.  Win, lose or draw the social environment in a bowling center is unique to anything else out there.

Story number two relates to Matt Buehrer making his debut in the Hernandez Insurance Mens Classic League Wednesday night.  After many years of bowling in various handicap leagues, Matt was asked to take the plunge and put his skills to the test with the “big boys” and bowl scratch.  I guess a good comparison would be hitting first on the first tee on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon with 16 sets of eyes watching.  My old buddy Matt did himself proud with games of 257-219-216 for a real nice 692 series.  Atta boy, dude.