This week’s report comes to you from Fountain Valley, CA, just outside of Los Angeles. This tournament is also named after arguably the greatest bowler to ever lace up a pair of shoes, Dick Weber. I had the great fortune of being very close with Dick, and I remain close with Pete, Rich and John Weber. Dick was the most unique person that I’ve ever been around. Dick was the best human being that I’ve known, and I miss him dearly. He would literally give you the shirt off his back or the last dollar in his wallet if you needed it. I had a great relationship with Dick that started my rookie year in the Midwest Region. I’ve got a great many stories that I could share with you about Dick, but my favorite was the time he decided to “shoe-up” at the last minute in the Scott AFB regional in 2000 ( ??? ). He ended up qualifying for match-play on Sunday, and instead of him initialing everybody’s score sheet after every game we had him autograph it. I was fortunate enough to win my game against Dick and I still have the score sheet to this day. I always enjoyed every second that I got to spend with him. It’s a tremendous honor to bowl in the tournament named after the sport’s greatest ambassador, and this would be the one tournament that I would love to win more than any other.

Another great thing about this week is the fact that we are in Southern California. I’ve always had success at this bowling center and to make things even better, eleven of us have rented a beach house for the week. The house that we will occupy is just down from the Newport Beach Pier. The “crew” that we have staying with us is: Brian Himmler, Brian Kretzer, Jason Couch, Jason Hurd, Tony Reyes, Michael Fagan, Bill O’Neill, Sean Rash, Chris Johnson, Chris Schlemer and myself ( also, Tony Reyes’ girlfriend Becky and Mike Fagan’s girlfriend Amanda were with us ). This report should be interesting on and off the lanes !!! This is sort of the PBA version of MTV’s “Real World”.

Sunday January 14th, 2007

I woke up this cold morning knowing that by the time I went to bed I would be in a much, much warmer state ( that was a good thing !!! ). I worked on e-mails and messages all morning, watched the show, and headed to the bowl to hang out for a bit. I picked up all of Sean’s stuff since he was riding with Rick Benoit to L.A tomorrow. After I had everything loaded, I hit the road.  Luckily the NFL Playoff games were on the radio, so that made the trip south a little more enjoyable. I really had no rooting interest in either game, but I wanted to see New Orleans win due to the hurricane disaster and I’m a big Ladanian Tomlinson fan, so I was rooting for San Diego. Both games were pretty entertaining, which helped keep me awake ! I got to L.A around 10:00 PM, and got a room at the LaQuinta close to the bowl. We don’t get the Beach House until noon on Monday so I got a room for the night here since I plan on practicing tomorrow.

Monday January 15th, 2007

The other reason that I stayed at this LaQuinta was the fact that it shares a parking lot with a Hooters. Of course I grabbed some lunch there before I took off, then headed out to wash my truck and get a haircut. When I got to the bowl, the PBA crew was still unloading the trucks and the bowl was full of open play. With this being MLK day, schools were closed and the place was full of kids. Unfortunately this meant that we weren’t going to get to practice like normal. I’ve got two opinions on this subject; one being the fact that its always nice to see a full bowling center, especially with kids; and the other being the fact that this is our job and we really need to be given the opportunity to work at what we do.  When the LPGA comes to the Rail Golf Course, where I live in Springfield, the entire course is shut down for the two days before the tournament until everything is done on Sunday. My opinion is that should be the case here, but usually isn’t the case. Like I said, that is just my opinion ( take it for what its worth because there will be more of them later in the report ). Since I couldn’t practice, I headed towards the house to unload all of my stuff. I met CJ down there and we were pleasantly surprised when we walked in to find a large living room with a huge kitchen, a pool table, big TV, a patio that is right on the beach, and three first floor bedrooms. When we went upstairs we found another huge living room, another big kitchen and four bedrooms ( plus a separate living room/kitchen in the back ). This was by far better than the two houses that we stayed in last year. The house was split with BK, Chief, Couch, Hurd and Reyes on the first floor and CJ, Schlem, Fagan, O’Neill, Rash and myself on the second floor. Now before I go any farther I have to set a funny story up for you. Last year, our house was Reyes, Robert Smith, Schlem and myself. When we got there, there was a king room ( which we gave to Tony & Becky ), a fouton in the living room ( which we gave to Rob ) and a small room with bunk beds. Yes a said bunk beds !!! That meant Schlem and I had to share bunk beds for the week. For those of you that don’t know, I’m about 6’0 – 200 lbs and Schlem is about 6’4 – 275 lbs. Let me tell you, that wasn’t a pretty sight and everybody got a kick out of it. Now, back to present times, when we opened up the last bedroom door we found……you guessed it……bunk beds again ! This time I wasn’t going to subject Schlem to that, so Sean and I took that room and I made his skinny butt sleep up top [Editor’s note:  A guy with three titles gets the top bunk???].  After everybody got to the house, we headed out to the grocery store to pick up food, supplies and “refreshments” for the week.  Just so that everybody knows upfront, the focus on the week was bowling first, party later. Once we got back to the house, BK made his awesome spaghetti for all of us. Hats off to the chef that night because BK’s spaghetti sauce is pretty incredible. After that we all just hung out on the patio around the fire pit for the rest of the night. The weather was pretty nice, but the breeze off of the ocean made it just cold enough to need a fire.

Tuesday January 16th, 2007

I was on A squad this week ( unique format ), so our practice session was from 8:00 am to 10:00 am. The pattern that we were using this week was also unique, being the “Retro Strips” pattern used in the old days. The pattern is designed with strips of oil and dry boards across the lane. The pattern was modified this year, since the left side played so much better than the right last year and the PBA didn’t want the same issues again. During practice, I thought they played very similar to last year with the righties in around 15-20 on the fresh. You had virtually no mistake room right, because if you got over the strip around 15, you hit the 6 pin in the face ( maybe ! ). On the fresh, I used a couple of Special Agents and then just shelled down to Agents, T-Roads and Thunderstrucks from there. By the time I was finished I was fairly happy with my look, but I also understood that it was only Tuesday. After practice we headed back down to the house, and then Fagan, Amanda, Bill, Tony and myself walked down to the pier to have some lunch at Charlie’s Chilli. Our house last year was right around the corner from this place and we ate there several times. This place has unbelievable chilli and it was nice to get out and go for a long walk down the beach. Later on that night I went to the Blues-Ducks hockey game up in Anaheim with Schelm and Mark Sabatin ( our laneman ). The owner of the bowling center gave us the tickets and we had a great time. The Pond is a great place to watch a hockey game and the game itself was “okay”. The Blues won 6-2 ( which certainly made Schlem happy – big Blues fan ), but the game was sort of sloppy and slow paced.

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 -- A Squad Qualifying Round 1

Today saw yet another 6:00 wake up call, since we bowled our first round at 8:00 AM. With this unique format we’re bowling three 5-game rounds, with two of them today. During our warm-up time, I noticed that we had a lot less back ends than we had yesterday. I hit my Special Agent with 1000 grit again to freshen up the surface, and decided to start with it. The right-handers had to play the lanes left of the track with very little head-belly. If you got the ball going right, it never hooked and if you got it in it was through the face. They certainly were tougher than the practice session. I started around 33 with my feet and around 18-19 at the arrows. My main focus was to keep my elbow in tight and generate as much end over end roll as I could, keeping the ball from changing directions to drastically. By the way, my cross this week was Brian Voss, Lonnie Waliczek and Jim Tomek Jr.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 25-26 + 13 20 50 80 108 127 136 155 174 193 213
Game 1 ( 213 ) – 10-pins in the 1st, 8th, 9th and 10th, 2-pin in the 8th and a 3-10 in the 6th. I got of to a solid start with a ring 10, then a 4-bagger but a careless shot in the 6th stopped the momentum. That was going to be the key for this week, to keep the bad shots to a minimum and hope you don’t pay maximum price for your mistakes. After the bad shot in the 6th, I never fully recovered and wasted a good start.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 31-32 - 26 9 26 35 52 61 81 101 121 141 161
Game 2 ( 161 ) – 2-8-10’s in the 1st, 3rd and 5th, super washout in the 2nd, 2-8 in the 4th, 2-4-8 in the 6th, solid 7 in the 8th and a ring 10 in the 10th. This game was a total disaster and exactly what I didn’t need. When we got to this pair, we noticed that we were following a cross with only 3 on it and one of them was a lefty and one of them was a straighter player. This pair was a full arrow tighter than the first pair and I couldn’t move fast enough. I moved after each of the first 6 shots with each of them being light. When I finally switch to a Domination and totally changed game plans, I was standing on 25 and crossing 16 at the arrows, throwing it a good 2 mph firmer than the first game. Once I did move right, I couldn’t double. I could’ve bailed the game out, but instead I was now –26 after 2 games.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 39-40 + 32 20 40 70 99 119 139 169 199 229 258
Game 3 ( 258 ) – 3-pins in the 2nd and 6th frames. Other than the 2 bad shots resulting in 3 pins, this game was pretty flawless. I played this pair a little closer to the first pair, but stayed with the Domination. Every shot was high flush, except for the two errant shots. Luckily those shots left me with easy spares. Like I said earlier, that was a huge key this week. This was also a prime example of what the right-handers were going through each game. Good thing we’re close to Disneyland, because I’m already on a roller coaster ride !
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9-10 + 67 20 50 79 99 119 148 168 188 216 235
Game 4 ( 235 ) – 4-pins in the 1st and 5th, solid 7 in the 8th and blower 7-10 in the 10th. This was probably my best bowled game of the block. I stayed with the Domination, moving a little left off of the last pair ( although they were very close ). This game got me back up to +67 after 4 games.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 17-18 + 39 6 15 35 55 75 95 114 133 153 172
Game 5 ( 172 ) – Super-washout in the 1st, 2-10 in the 2nd, 2-4-5 in the 3rd, super-washout again in the 5th, 10-pins in the 7th, 8th and 9th, washout in the 10th. Another game just like Game 2, since we were following the same cross as that game. I jumped back right, but again it wasn’t quite fast enough. Again, just like Game 2 I couldn’t put any strikes together and lost ground once again. I finished the round at + 39, which was good for 56th place after B Squad finished their first five games. Since they were only cutting to the Top 24 this week, I had a lot of work to do. After we were done, B Squad hit the lanes for their first 5 games without the lanes being re-oiled. Then after a break and a re-oil, B Squad bowled another 5 games on the fresh. Meanwhile, Couch, Hurd and myself headed back down to the house and went to this awesome Mexican restaurant down by the pier ( wish I could remember the name ). We had some lunch, then I went back up to the house to take a short nap. When we got back to the bowl, it was our turn to bowl on the “burn”. A Squad is usually at a disadvantage in formats like these, because B Squad comes in and watches where we finish our early round, then they tend to start there for their fresh round ( which forces us farther left than expected ).

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 -- A Squad Qualifying Round 2

When we started our practice I knew I was in trouble. We were already left of 25 and moving left after just about every shot. I started with a T-Road Pearl, standing pretty much as far left as I could get and playing around 26-27.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 27-28 + 19 27 46 55 75 95 115 135 154 163 180
Game 1 ( 180 ) – 6-7-10 in the 3rd, 3-6 in the 5th, 3-pin in the 7th, bucket ( which I missed ) in the 9th, 3-6-10 in the 10th. I got off to a good start with a double, but the right lane kept hooking earlier and earlier. I was already walking around the ball return and lofting the ball, but it seemed like the ball was hooking in the air !
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 33-34 + 23 8 28 48 67 76 106 136 165 185 204
Game 2 ( 204 ) – 2-4-10 in the 1st, 2-pin in the 3rd, 2-8 in the 5th and two 4-pins in the 10th. This time, the right lane never hooked downlane. The ball just pushed through the spot and never picked up. I adjusted my ball speed down a little for the 4-bagger to bail out the game.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 41-42 + 58 20 36 56 86 116 146 175 195 215 235
Game 3 ( 235 ) – 10-pins in the 2nd, 9th and 11th, 3-6-9-10 in the 3rd. Other than the shot I overhit in the 3rd, this was my best bowled game of the night. This pair seemed to have a little more push on it and it was a little easier to get the ball down the lane. The back ends were a little crisper, which allowed my strike percentage to go up.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11-12 + 71 20 50 79 99 118 136 156 176 194 213
Game 4 ( 213 ) – 3-10s in the 1st and 10th, 10-pins in the 5th and 6th and 9th, and a 3-6-7 in the 7th. This might have been my luckiest game. All of my bad shots resulted in splits, which I converted. This pair hooked so much more, we were all forced left of 30 and lofting the ball over the gutter cap. I know Voss, Tomek and Waliczek all started with Brooklyns and Lonnie picked up a few more of them enroute to 288 this game.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 19-20 + 87 20 37 57 77 97 127 156 176 196 216
Game 5 ( 216 ) – 4-pin in the 2nd, 3-6-10 in the 3rd, solid 7 in the 5th, 3-pin in the 9th and a 10-pin in the 11th. This game was all that I could ask for. The lanes were totally toast and there wasn’t much left at all. I tried to make the best shots possible and make spares. Luckily I drilled three straight shots for a triple and stayed clean for the rest of the game. During this game I witnessed one of the best games I’ve ever seen. Jim Tomek was lofting the gutter, pretty much hitting 32 on the fly. He strung the first 11 strikes, with 10 of them high flush, before an errant shot in the 12th left him with 299. Very impressive, considering what we had to work with. After that, I was totally drained mentally and physically. I went + 48 for the round and I was + 87 after 2 rounds, which put me in 58th place ( 97 pins out of the cut ). I stopped and picked up some dinner and went back to the house to eat out on the balcony. It was still nice out and the waves were crashing on the beach. It was very relaxing and I was looking forward to sleeping in !

Thursday, January 18th, 2007 -- A Squad Qualifying Round 3

I slept in for a change, since I didn’t have to bowl until 1:00 PM today. I had breakfast on the beach ( again ), then headed to the bowl to watch the end of B Squad’s final round. Once they were finished, the lanes were re-dressed and we took the floor. The pattern played different today than it did the first time on the fresh for us. There was a little more hook left and a little more hang right ( or more recovery and hold for the lefthanders ). I decided to go with my stronger Agent for this round, with the same game plan as Wednesday AM.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 29-30 + 124 20 50 80 110 139 159 178 198 218 237
Game 1 ( 237 ) – 4-7 in the 1st, ring 10s in the 8th and 9th and a 4-pin in the 10th. This was a great start for me, getting me headed in the right direction. The Agent was going through the pins very strongly and my reaction was pretty good. I was just hoping to keep the momentum going and catch some good pairs along the way.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 35-36 + 127 18 35 44 64 83 103 123 143 173 203
Game 2 ( 203 ) – 3-6-10 in the 1st, 2-8 in the 2nd, 2-8-10 in the 3rd, solid 8 in the 5th, solid 7 in the 6th and a ring 10 in the 8th. With the start of this game I was having flashbacks to the start of Game 2 in the first round. Same cross that we were following, same results. I made the move a little quicker this time, and stayed with the Agent. With a couple of breaks on good hits, this game could have been at least 230.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 43-44 + 184 30 58 78 98 128 158 187 207 227 257
Game 3 ( 257 ) – 4-7 in the 4th, ring 10 in the 9th. This was one of those games that just felt great overall. I made good shots in the two frames where I didn’t strike, but this pair allowed me to open the lane up a little more and gave me great results. Sometimes it’s not how well you bowl physically, its how much the pair gives you and this pair took really good care of me.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 13-14 + 196 20 38 46 75 95 114 133 153 183 212
Game 4 ( 212 ) – 6-pin in the 1st, 3-6-7-10 in the 3rd, 9-pin in the 6th, 4-pin in the 7th, ring 10 in the 8th. I was really hoping to catch a good pair here and close in on the Top 24 number, but the right lane was hooking more than the left and it was another case of me being too slow to get lined up. Even when I got close, my angles were too strong because I wasn’t keeping me elbow in enough and my hand was getting around it a little quick.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 21-22 + 209 19 35 44 63 83 113 142 162 182 212
Game 5 ( 212 ) – 6-pin in the 1st, solid 9 in the 2nd, big 4 in the 3rd, bucket in the 4th, blower 7 in the 5th and a ring 10 in the 9th. The left lane on this pair flat out hooked !!! All of us went high or Brooklyn on the left lane for the first few shots. Even when I got moved far enough left, my angles were too strong. I bailed out the game with a late triple, but this game pretty much cost me any chance of making the cut. Afterwards we checked, and this was the pair that somebody ( I wont mention names ) started on with 180 grit playing 25. When that happens, you are totally at the mercy of whoever was on the pair before you. I finished the day at + 122 and +209 for the week. That was good for 33rd place and only 50 pins out of 24th. I kept grinding every round, and it paid off since I picked up an extra $500.00 in prize money and a bunch of needed points. After I was done, I noticed that Bill Plaschke from the L.A Times ( and “Around the Horn” ) was there covering the event. I stopped to shake his hand, say hello and thank him for coming out to cover us. Then I loaded up all of my equipment that I wasn’t going to need for the Pro-Ams on the PBA trucks and I got out of there. I couldn’t get to the House quick enough !!! We changed clothes and CJ, BK and myself went down to Mutt Lynch’s for some sliders and a few 24 oz. Coronas ( didn’t even know that they made them ). We hung out there for a while, then headed back to the house to chill out on the patio and watch some UFC on TV. I’ve recently started watching UFC and I’m starting to really get into it. Chuck Liddell was on and he is a bad man. My buddy Matt from back home knows Matt Hughes, so hopefully I’ll get to meet him sometime. The biggest issue this week was the lane conditions for the righties and lefties. Like I said earlier, they adjusted the pattern this year because six lefties made the Top 24 last year. Well, they sure showed them this year because twelve made the Top 24. I’ve said in previous reports that I hate the fact that we have to deal with this issue, but it keeps getting worse. I don’t have a problem with the left side bowling well, but when it’s a blatant ball reaction difference it’s tough to swallow. The lefties were allowed to camp out between 10-15 all week long, and the right-handers were forced way left with no recovery. Now many of you may think that I’m bitching about this topic, but my job is at stake here and all I want is a fair shake. I realize that the left has been shut out in the past ( namely Long Island ), and I think that is wrong as well. It’s not their fault that they bowled well this week, its just the way the system is. Unfortunately, it ends up affecting a lot of livelihoods in the process. There has to be a way to solve this problem, and hopefully someday a solution will be found. Until then, I just have to deal with it and move on. I am, by the way, rooting for my buddy Jason Couch in this one. I could go on and on about this topic for hours, but it just isn’t worth it. For those people that were on hand watching this week, they saw first hand what was going on. For those at home that can only speculate, it was a tough week to go through.

Friday January 19th, 2007

This was a total free day and we took advantage of it. CJ and I headed down the street and got our laundry taken care of, had lunch at this little Italian Sub Shop and then headed back to the house to chill out for the rest of the day. Later that night, Tony Reyes fired up the grilles and made BBQ Ribs and marinated Tri-Tips for everybody. I’d never had Tri-Tip before and it was incredible. Tony did a fantastic job on the food and we certainly did our job by eating everything in site !!! Once again, we headed outside to sit around the fire pit and have a few cocktails. The entertainment tonight was to burn a bowling ball. I happened to have a cracked Agent in my truck so we set it ablaze. If you’ve never seen a bowling ball set on fire, it’s pretty cool. All of the oil comes out of it with the heat and puts off some neat flames. The weather was very nice and we ended up sitting outside till the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday January 20th, 2007

Today was Pro-Am day. I had Pro-Am’s at 1:00 and 5:00 and the place was packed for both squads ( all 3 if you count the 9:00 am squad ). I had fun on both squads and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. I had a lot of people that were very interactive and the autograph seekers were out in full force. That always makes it more enjoyable for us and seems to make things move along a little quicker. Another thing that I’ve been doing lately is to let a junior bowler finish off a 300 game if I get the opportunity. Luckily for me, I had the front 11 in four of my 6 games and the kids were 4-4 in finishing them off. There’s nothing like the look on their faces when they come back after that. Whatever it takes to make their experience a little more enjoyable. After that we went into the bar for a couple of drinks, then headed back to the House. I was out of “refreshments”, so Rash [Editor’s note:  the guy in the top bunk, for those who don’t remember] and I headed to the store to pick up a few things, then it was back to Mutt Lynchs for dinner. Fagan, Amanda, O’Neill, Hurd, Rash, CJ, myself and some of the Pro-Am bowlers that CJ bowled with had a nice dinner and hung out at Mutt’s for a while before we all retired back to the house for the night. The best part about the Beach House was that there was no drinking and driving. We were able to park our vehicles and just camp out on the Patio, watching TV or playing Reyes’ X-Box 360. This ends up like a working vacation every year and I, for one, hate leaving ! Living out of hotels gets very tiring, but I could deal with this every week.

Sunday January 21st, 2007

We all got up this morning and camped out in the living room to watch the show. Side bets were flying all around the room ( for entertainment purposes only of course ). Walter Ray bowled unbelievably well, proving why he is one of the greatest of all time. WRW made some great moves and adjustments and was one hit away from bowling for the title ( by the way, I predicted every game right……I need to buy some lotto tickets ) in a lefty dominated show. The Couch-PA match was entertaining with some friendly gamesmanship going back in forth. But in the end, Jay was just too much and won for the second consecutive year. We were hoping he would come back and spring for the week’s rent, but no such luck. After the show, we all headed to Hooters to watch the Bears-Saints and then the Pats-Colts. Most of my friends back home are huge Bears fans, but I just had to root for the Saints ( that offense is fun to watch, but so is the Bears “D” ). In the late game we were all rooting for the Colts. In my opinion, Peyton Manning is everything that is right with sports. He is the hardest worker there is, and you never here anything negative about him in the papers ( unlike several other players…..mainly the ones that wear Orange and Black with stripes !!! ). We were treated to one blowout and one outstanding game. The Bears-Saints game was a lot more lopsided than I thought it would be, but the Pats-Colts game was a lot more than expected. I was happy to see Tony Dungy ( former Steeler ) get a chance at a Super Bowl, especially after losing his son last year,  and I was also happy to see Peyton Manning finally get the chance to get the monkey off of his back. We ended up sitting at Hooters for about 7 hours, then headed back to the House to chill out for the rest of the night.

Well this pretty much concludes this week’s novel. It was a long, fun, tiring, relaxing week. You had the highs and lows on the lanes, but the fun, relaxing times on the beach. It was great to wake up every morning and have breakfast out on the beach, watching the dolphins jump out of the ocean. That whole area in Newport Beach is just perfect for us. I can’t wait to go back already.

I want to thank the great staff at Fountain Bowl for everything that they do for us. I also want to thank the volunteers, Pro-Am bowlers and fans that came out to support us all week. Most importantly, I want to thank Dick Weber for paving the way, so I can do what I love to do. He meant so much to me and I wish I could thank him in person one more time. Dick, if you’re reading this, I miss ya !!! Next week’s report will be coming to you from Sin City, Las Vegas. Until then as always, Bowl up a Storm !!!

[More Editor’s Notes:  Just so you all know, Jeff’s Journals are one of the most read pieces on this website.  Thousands of you click on these pages every week, and when we’re a little slow getting them posted, I feel bad because I can see in the numbers just how much you enjoy reading what goes on out there every week, first hand.  Actually, the real reason I feel bad is…I get to read them before you all do!

We’re adding an additional piece to the Journal this week.  Because of the Frames Program Jeff is using on his Palm Pilot (provided by Warily Software--www.warilysoftware.com) we now have stats for his rounds at our fingertips.  For those stat geeks out there (like me) this is interesting, and pretty cool.  It can also help point you in the direction where you need work the most.  Enjoy!  Dennis Hacker, Webmaster ]