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Author Topic: Scratch bowlers - bowling  (Read 3470 times)

another300

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Scratch bowlers - bowling
« on: May 06, 2009, 04:53:06 AM »
Several people have asked the manager of the center/secretary of our Monday winter league why they don't put down a tougher shot for our scratch league.  His response was, " no way, Brunswick likes all these honor scores being shot". The 5 person cap for this league is 1025.  The league average ended up being 1065.  So, next year they will need to raise it or 80% of the teams will need to break apart and find lower average bowlers so they can be under the cap.
Another thing is these whinny scratch bowlers.  One guy bowled for 3 weeks and couldn't average the 220 he was accustomed to so he quit and went to an easier house.

I guess my gripe is; this is suppose to be a SCRATCH league which means these bowlers are suppose to be good or should be aspiring to become better on tough conditions. Why do they whine if conditions are tougher?  It would be beneficial to them when they went out and bowled tournaments.  Especially the USBC Nationals. You know, if they want to feel good about averaging 230-240 then bowl it in a mixed handicapped league.  BUT if you want to bowl scratch, you better know conditions will be tougher.
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Steven

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2009, 01:01:01 PM »
quote:
One guy bowled for 3 weeks and couldn't average the 220 he was accustomed to so he quit and went to an easier house.  


One guy does not necessarily represent the thoughts of the majority. I bowl scratch only, and my experience is that the majority of scratch bowlers would welcome tougher conditions.

Not all, but most.

Part of the problem is also that many scratch leagues follow a mixed handicap league before them. Houses make big money on the food and alcohol the mixed leagues bring in, so scratch leagues are generally later. There is no time for re-oiling, so you get whet was left there.

Do you want to hear real screaming? Put down a tougher shot for the mixed handicap leagues.
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pin-chaser

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2009, 01:14:59 PM »
Babies want there cake and eat it too.
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abrown

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2009, 01:20:01 PM »
alot not all higher average bowlers want to score big if they can't they'll go wehre they can. if they can't score in this house or on that shot they'll go find one that they can
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Mike Austin

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2009, 01:35:19 PM »
Well, that 1025 is for the good of your league.  Yeah, so some of the teams have to break up, so?  Then go get some other bowlers from other houses, your league grows and becomes more competitive, that's a good thing.  Raising the cap a little would be okay, say 1030 or 1035, but not 1065.  Are these guys competitors or just want to bowl and drink beer?

Your lucky you have scratch leagues, they are going away.  No scratch leagues in Oklahoma City.  They only 3-4 in all of Houston.

"True" scratch bowlers don't care what condition is out, and if the lanes are tough every week, they welcome it.  Wall babies are not "true" scratch bowlers, you have to just blow them off.

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tst4eko

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #5 on: May 06, 2009, 01:46:38 PM »
quote:
Your lucky you have scratch leagues, they are going away.  No scratch leagues in Oklahoma City.


Just about the same here in Tulsa. There's one scratch league I know of, but it's a draft league, so every few weeks you have to draw for new teams, which I think is ridiculous.

The one and only true scratch league I bowled in was the old Sheridan Lanes Scratch Trio league in 1998-99. There were 20-three member teams. We paid $20/week, plus a one time $60 sponsor fee per team. IMHO, it was the best damn league around before it folded not long after.

My team ended up in 3rd place that year and got some sweet coin. I miss those days.
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9orbetter

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2009, 02:01:26 PM »
Would welcome a scratch league in NYC for 36 weeks, but it won't happen. Put out tougher conditions and most will quit...my .02....9
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another300

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #7 on: May 06, 2009, 02:36:03 PM »
quote:
One guy does not necessarily represent the thoughts of the majority. I bowl scratch only, and my experience is that the majority of scratch bowlers would welcome tougher conditions.

 


True, but this is the mentality a big portion of the scratch bowlers have. This guy just happened to not only b1tch but actually left.

 
quote:
Part of the problem is also that many scratch leagues follow a mixed handicap league before them. Houses make big money on the food and alcohol the mixed leagues bring in, so scratch leagues are generally later. There is no time for re-oiling, so you get whet was left there.

 


Not true in this case, they oil the lanes at 5:30. League starts at 6:15.

 
quote:
alot not all higher average bowlers want to score big if they can't they'll go wehre they can. if they can't score in this house or on that shot they'll go find one that they can  


I believe this is what the manager/secretarty is afraid of.  I think I will go to the meeting and suggest a tougher condition.  If I'm not mistaken, it was suggested 3-4 years ago because the cap kept going up and up.  The MAJORITY of the members at the meeting shot it down.  Several teams said they would go elsewhere if the house did that.

 
quote:
Well, that 1025 is for the good of your league. Yeah, so some of the teams have to break up, so? Then go get some other bowlers from other houses, your league grows and becomes more competitive, that's a good thing. Raising the cap a little would be okay, say 1030 or 1035, but not 1065. Are these guys competitors or just want to bowl and drink beer?


Problem is, the cap keeps going up and up.  Hard to get new bowlers. The league is shrinking.  Used to have 34 teams. This last season it was down to 30 but only 29 teams were filled...had a BYE team. About 80% of the bowlers are there to bowl.  For some it's just a night out.  They have brakets but I don't get in them because if you don't shoot 279 or better, you don't advance.
It's nothing but a strike fest.
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Kinalyx

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #8 on: May 06, 2009, 06:21:42 PM »
quote:
Well, that 1025 is for the good of your league.  Yeah, so some of the teams have to break up, so?  Then go get some other bowlers from other houses, your league grows and becomes more competitive, that's a good thing.  Raising the cap a little would be okay, say 1030 or 1035, but not 1065.  Are these guys competitors or just want to bowl and drink beer?

Your lucky you have scratch leagues, they are going away.  No scratch leagues in Oklahoma City.  They only 3-4 in all of Houston.

"True" scratch bowlers don't care what condition is out, and if the lanes are tough every week, they welcome it.  Wall babies are not "true" scratch bowlers, you have to just blow them off.

umm home made cake...
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Best Mike Austin post EVER.  Im all for a scratch league with a tough pattern.  My typical issue with "tough" lanes isnt that theyre tough, its that im in a crappy handicap league where the bad/tough condition gives higher average bowlers a problem, where as that 140 average guy on the other team is bowling exactly the same as always.

Put me head to head with scratch bowlers on tough patterns, ill welcome it, ill even welcome the butt kickin im going to get from half of the guys im up against.  In the end, ill be a better bowler.

Shawn
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Pinbuster

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #9 on: May 06, 2009, 10:03:25 PM »
Cap leagues are another form of handicap, they are not really scratch.

Few bowlers want true scratch competition.
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completebowler

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #10 on: May 07, 2009, 08:26:00 AM »
quote:
quote:
Well, that 1025 is for the good of your league.  Yeah, so some of the teams have to break up, so?  Then go get some other bowlers from other houses, your league grows and becomes more competitive, that's a good thing.  Raising the cap a little would be okay, say 1030 or 1035, but not 1065.  Are these guys competitors or just want to bowl and drink beer?

Your lucky you have scratch leagues, they are going away.  No scratch leagues in Oklahoma City.  They only 3-4 in all of Houston.

"True" scratch bowlers don't care what condition is out, and if the lanes are tough every week, they welcome it.  Wall babies are not "true" scratch bowlers, you have to just blow them off.

umm home made cake...
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Best Mike Austin post EVER.  Im all for a scratch league with a tough pattern.  My typical issue with "tough" lanes isnt that theyre tough, its that im in a crappy handicap league where the bad/tough condition gives higher average bowlers a problem, where as that 140 average guy on the other team is bowling exactly the same as always.

Put me head to head with scratch bowlers on tough patterns, ill welcome it, ill even welcome the butt kickin im going to get from half of the guys im up against.  In the end, ill be a better bowler.

Shawn
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Exactly...these walled up patterns are killing me lately. I am a stroker and no handed 180 bowlers sit outside all day and cause the wall to become even more wet/dry and can still hold pocket and the guys with the big hand can get inside and wheel it and still turn the corner on inside misses.

I am working on a bimore spin in my release to combat this but it is unnatural.
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another300

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #11 on: May 07, 2009, 05:56:07 PM »
quote:
A guy will stick around and drink his azz off talking about how he just shot 700 with his buddies but will immediately leave the bowling center after shooting 550 with his tail between his legs. I see this every night!

 


BUT, if all the bowlers there bowling know that the conditions are tough.  They will not leave with their tail between their legs because chances are, that 550 was probably somewhere in the middle of what the league shot.
I used to welcome the competion of scratch bowling.  Now it's just a strike fest.  I enjoyed having to "work" for my score and knowing that they all had to work for theirs made it that much better.
How do you change the mentality of these bowlers???
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Mike Austin

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Re: Scratch bowlers - bowling
« Reply #12 on: May 07, 2009, 10:17:26 PM »
My last season in Houston, we had a league that was not PBAX or a registered Sport league, although I'm sure it was Sport Compliant.  They ran the lanes for one end of the house for the Junior Gold and then our league.  It was some skewed version of the Junior Gold pattern.  Very tough.  Nobody averaged 200.  I was only an extra member, so I had roughly 50 games, but at 194, about 3rd high.  190 across would sweep brackets.  They had a 30 clean pot started at the beginning of the year that didn't get hit until the next to last week for about $2500.00.

Nobody complained, it was awesome.  Couldn't grow the league because of the Junior Gold thing and another mixed league.  I shot 770 one night and thought I had just crushed the world!!  I was so proud of that series.  Radical Inferno up 3-4 smooth, had just enough on the lip.

Not a scratch league either.  The loaded teams did better, but there was handicap.  There were some pretty good Houston area bowlers in the league too.  Fun!!  550 prolly made me money.  Side bets galore, people that didn't bet would bet on that crap.  Doubles, Singles, brackets, crazy!!
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