Ariel had her Friday Scholarship bowling league today. It’s two man teams and she and her partner, Sean, bowl together fairly regularly. She threw an uninspired first game and lost by four sticks.
Then the second game, in her first frame, she rolled a ball that got what we would call a sloppy strike–the ball went opposite pocket and the pins just kind of tumbled into each other with a bit of lucky carrying them. But, hey, they all look the same on the score board.
But her opponent, a tall teenage boy, smugly said, “THAT was a šhìŧŧÿ ball.”
She turned to face him, eyes wide for a moment, and then they narrowed and her expression darkened. “That was NOT a šhìŧŧÿ ball,” she said, then turned to me and said loudly, “Okay, NOW I’m pìššëd øff.”
She proceeded to tap dance on his face for the next nine frames and beat him by thirty pins.
Before the thirdgame, the two guys on the other team tried to switch their order. In other words, Ariel’s opponent wanted to shoot against Sean instead of Ariel. They went to the screen and started reversing the order of their names.
Instantly I called out, “What do you think you’re doing?” They said, “We’re changing our line-up order.” “You can’t do that.” “Yes, we can.” “No,” I said firmly, “you can’t. League rules. Once play has begun, you can’t change the order of your line-up.” ‘Yes, we can.” “NO, you CAN’T. Want me to get the league director? ‘Cause I will.” The kid trying to make the change looked at his father. His father shrugged. Kid backed down, which was smart ’cause I was right.
Ariel then whomped him for another ten frames. The last two frames he was so rattled that he missed two five-pins. Any bowler will tell you, a single five pin is the easiest spare in bowling. She ended up beating him by forty pins this time.
Don’t be dissing Ariel’s strike ball. It won’t go well for you.
PAD
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I’m not really getting the concept of a šhìŧŧÿ strike. If it knocks all the pins down it really doesn’t matter if the ball did a figure 8 on the way down. Hëll, it’s more impressive. I mean, a hole in one is always great but if you get it from a sliced ball that bounces off two trees and strikes a low flying duck, now THAT is impressive.
Bill: I think it’s a question of “deserving it.” If you do get your suggested hole-in-one, then it’s un-repeatable. It doesn’t reflect your golfing skill, unless your golfing skill is blind luck. (A hole-in-one always involves some luck, of course, but if you have a good swing and accurate aim and no hooks or slices, you’re more likely to get them than if you rely on luck.)
Not to diminish Ariel’s bowling, of course, because no one’s perfect and she clearly is a good bowler, but the principle is similar. A sloppy strike means you got lucky, but says nothing about how good or bad a bowler you are. A good strike says you know how to bowl strikes.
Bill: I think it’s a question of “deserving it.” If you do get your suggested hole-in-one, then it’s un-repeatable. It doesn’t reflect your golfing skill, unless your golfing skill is blind luck. (A hole-in-one always involves some luck, of course, but if you have a good swing and accurate aim and no hooks or slices, you’re more likely to get them than if you rely on luck.)
Not to diminish Ariel’s bowling, of course, because no one’s perfect and she clearly is a good bowler, but the principle is similar. A sloppy strike means you got lucky, but says nothing about how good or bad a bowler you are. A good strike says you know how to bowl strikes.
Bill: I think it’s a question of “deserving it.” If you do get your suggested hole-in-one, then it’s un-repeatable. It doesn’t reflect your golfing skill, unless your golfing skill is blind luck. (A hole-in-one always involves some luck, of course, but if you have a good swing and accurate aim and no hooks or slices, you’re more likely to get them than if you rely on luck.)
Not to diminish Ariel’s bowling, of course, because no one’s perfect and she clearly is a good bowler, but the principle is similar. A sloppy strike means you got lucky, but says nothing about how good or bad a bowler you are. A good strike says you know how to bowl strikes.
All strikes are good, by definition. Some are good by skill. Some are good by luck. Some are good and sloppy, some are good and ugly. But they’re all good. One of the league teams I bowl on, our name is “Any Strike Will Do.”
I’ve had strikes where I’ve missed the pocket completely, left what looked to be an entire row of pins (the 1-3-6-10 typically) and then a pin bouncing in the right channel taps the 10, the 10 falls into the 6, and, like dominos, the entire line goes down.
By the same token, I’ve had evenings where I put shot after shot into the pocket and I keep leaving single pins. I change my mark, change my line, go heavy, go light, makes no difference: single pin leaves.
Theoretically the opposite pocket strikes should balance out with the You-was-robbed perfect leaves.
PAD
I’ll take a strike any way I can get it, personally. Then again, I bowl maybe once every other year so I’m far from the expert.
I’m glad she had a good evening, though. Sounds like it was fun – in that tilt-your-head-back-and-cackle-evilly way 🙂
Ariel SMASH stupid pins! : -)
I closed my eyes, uttered a small prayer
To give me that strike rare I know I’m due
Up in the stands, my friends were weeping
Because the bets they were keeping
Any strike will do
I wore my shirt with fancy writing
Loud colors shining, green and light blue
And down the lane, the ball was banking
In the gutter is was making
Any strike will do
A stroke of luck, a tap of white
The ball it seemed still had some bite
Ten pins fell down together
I about lost my mind
I then returned the shoes I rented
The other team lamented in sadness they stew
My friends and I, we collected the money
They all thought it was funny
Any strike will do
A stroke of luck, a tap of white
The ball it seemed still had some bite
Ten pins fell down together
I about lost my mind
I then returned the shoes I rented
The other team lamented in sadness they stew
My friends and I, we collected the money
They all thought it was funny
Any strike will do
Ok, maybe it wasn’t the funniest thing I could come up with but on short notice it will do in a pinch.
I’m an occassional bowler (ie, no spin, just now owning my first ball, etc) who gets 125-150.
But even knowing how I’m not so great, I was still pretty miffed when I was out bowling recently with my wife and some friends, and I had 5 splits in my first 13 frames. 🙂
“More splits than a Carvels” is what I usually say on nights like that.
PAD
You’ve got a great daughter, Peter. You must be incredibly proud.
Good on you Ariel and Dad. 🙂
Ah, the pleasures of sticking it to the other team…
…when they pull a stunt that is illegal in ABC rules and you catch ’em.
…when you have an average of just over 200, but throw the ugliest strike the bowling alley has seen in years.
…when you do have a night full of baby splits, and see the huge frown … nay…. the sign of pure anger on your opponent’s face, as you convert each split and beat your foe by One Single Pin.
These are some of the things worth bowling for.
So… did Ariel turn green? (Or did her opponent?)
RLR
Ariel: you GO, girl!
Peter: Good show not backing down. Some folks apparently feel that all they have to do is look intimidating and other people will cave in like a house of cards. Bravo!
I just finished watching a DVD season collection of “Married With Children,” and so when I read the bowling post, I couldn’t help but think of the episode of “MWC” wherein the Bundys are bowling a game against another family. 🙂 — Matt Hawes
http://www.comicsunlimited.biz
First, I envy good bowlers. Like pool, it’s one of those games, that as a physics teacher, I always feel I SHOULD be good at … but my brother routinely kicks my butt at pool, and virtually everyone I know can do so at bowling. Maybe bowling more than once every few years would help, though. 🙂
Second … great job, Ariel!
Third … was the other kid’s last name McGee, by any chance? And if not, could we pretend? Some jokes just write themselves, after all…
TWL
What is a (insert colorfol metaphor here) strike? In the end, a strike is a strike is a strike. This wasn’t the Olympics, so no style points are awarded. Doesn’t matter what it looks like as all the pins fell down like toy soldiers.
i can’t be the only one that was just waiting for pad to add that he pulled a nine millimeter from his pants walter to smokie style?
Personally, I don’t think it matters if the strike is good one or not. Good bowlers get sloppy strikes occasionally. It happens. That’s no excuse for the way the kid acted. There are basic rules of sportsmanship & courtesy a person should observe. An opponent bowling a bad looking strike is not license to behave like a total asshat. His attitude was practically begging for the righteous smackdown Ariel delivered. She did him a favor by taking him down a peg or two (or three, or four). Perhaps next time he’ll be more polite, or at at least think before he speaks.
I’m glad to hear his dad didn’t help him to weasel out of playing against Ariel. I’m guessing the kid’s comment stemmed from the fact that he thought he was better than she was, so he could say whatever he wanted and any objection was just because she was a sore loser. This is an attitude a lot kids have at that age. They usually grow out of it, unless their parents encourage.
Whoops. The end of that sentence should be “unless their parents encourage it.” Someday I hope to master this crazy invention called the Internet.
Luck is a residue of skill. Occasionally, even the best bowler pulls a shot to the left and makes the strike. Often, it’s because of the rotations imparted onto the bowl. It hits wrong, but the rev rate is high enough or the spin angle is low enough that the pins still mix it up. It’s a beautiful thing.
I had a bad week last week — I missed a single 7 pin in the 9th and followed that up by blowing a 10 pin in the tenth. But I’ve NEVER missed two 5-pins in a row like that. 😉
“Asshat”? I like it, but have never heard it before. Where are you from, Anne?
And what’s Ariel’s average? I bowl maybe once or twice a year, and was ecstatic the one time I rolled a 237, but average about 120.
I’m from Kentucky, originally. However, the term asshat is something I picked up online. It’s just one of those free floating Internet terms like “snarky” that occasionally sneak their way into my conversation. I’m pretty sure both words originated at Televsionwithoutpity.com, or at least that’s where I first heard them. (I’d look up the origins of the word but I’ve already given over a sizable chunk of my brain to useless data about the Internet and it’s starting to crowd out information that I actually need.)
There’s occasionally information we need???
Dang.