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Since my last report I finally started a treatment program with my chiropractor, Dr. John Folkerts of Sherman Chiropractic. He is treating my left hip, my right shoulder, my lower back, my right hand/wrist and my right foot. X-Rays showed extensive tendonitis in all of those places and he is using a somewhat new laser therapy procedure. For the time being I’m going 3 days a week for a while, then he will cut me back some. Things were really starting to improve until Monday May 8th I was involved in a fairly serious car accident. I was in a funeral procession for a close friend of mine, when I was hit by a lady in a van. She blew through the intersection hitting me at about 45 mph, picking my GMC Yukon up off the ground and spinning me into 2 people on a motorcycle. Luckily there were no serious injuries, but the lady had no insurance. This mess has only just begun I’m afraid. Anyway, it knocked my back out of line a little bit more. Just one more thing to treat !!! Friday, May 12thWe had a late practice session today so I didn’t head out until noon to drive up to Chicago. I would have like to have gone to the Cubs-Padres game today but the 40 degrees and rain sort of kept me away. The main reason that I wanted to practice today was just to see if my back would hold up. It’s been a pretty painful last several days and I haven’t touched a ball since my Round of 16 loss in Madison. I also wanted to test out my new Etonic shoes. I may be signing with them soon and I just got some shoes to try out. We’re bowling on PBA Regional Pattern #5 ( 44’ ) this week on Pro-Anvilane and I’m curious as to how the new Agents will look. I drilled another one yesterday and I put a light burgundy scotch brite pad on it to help on the long pattern. As it turned out that was the only ball I threw during practice. I spent time tuning my shoes, changing soles to see what was going to work. The longer I practiced the more my back started to loosen up, which was very good news. After practice I headed to dinner with Steve Jaros, Greg Zicha and Mindy Manci ( Mindy is my best friend’s niece, one of my assistants for the regional and an unofficial assistant to Rich Weber ). We went to this place called Phillies Sports Bar and Grille for a pizza and to chill out for a while before our pro-am. The pro-am started at 9:30 and it was a very good turnout for a late pro-am. I was glad to see good participation, because Carl Swan ( the manager at Willowbrook ) was hoping for a good turnout to keep their long run of hosting a tournament going.Saturday, May 13thI went to the bowl to watch the last couple games of A Squad qualifying and had lunch with Steve in the coffee shop. The scores on A squad were pretty high with the estimated cut being around +130 to +140 or so. The leader off of A squad was Chris Wade at +262, so that was the number I was gunning for. My cross for today was Hall of Famer Bill Spigner and another bowler that I didn’t know. Unfortunately the other guy didn’t show, so it was Bill and I by ourselves. What happened next is pretty tough to explain. It was just one of those days that doesn’t happen very often, but when it does you need to take advantage of it. The long pattern is by far my favorite pattern and I seem to score well on it. I’ve had success at Willowbrook, winning here a few years ago, so I felt good from the start. I only grabbed 2 Agents and my spare ball and went to my starting pair. I started off game 1 with the front 7, 4-7-9, sheet for 265. Second game was front 3, 4-7, solid 9, sheet for 267. That put me at +132 after 2 games ( which was around the estimated cut ). Game 3 saw me go strike, solid 9, sheet for 280 to get me to +212 after 3 games. In game 4 I went triple, double, strike, 4 bagger, then threw the last 2 for 300 !!! ( just a little humor ). That was one of those pairs that was blended perfectly for what I was doing. I was going though around 25 at the arrows and around 10 at my break point. It seemed like I had unlimited hold and recovery. Now I was +312 after 4 and in the lead with 4 games to go. In game 5 I had a few ring 10s and a couple more solid 9s for 227. After 5 games I sat at +339, only 15 pins off of my highest 8 game block ever. Up to this point I hadn’t missed the pocket yet, but the next pair ( Game 6 ) was hooking a BUNCH more. My first shot went through the face for a 6 pin, and my second shot again went though the face for a greek church ( which I promptly missed all of them ! ). So I’m at 20 through 2 frames, when I decided to go to my other Agent. Agent #2 had a similar layout, just a fresher, shinier surface. It must have been the right ball change because I struck out for 260. I kept the momentum going in Game 7 with 279 ( with another solid 9 – shocker !!! ) to get to +478 after 7 games. I finished up fairly strong with 235 to end the day with 2113 ( +513 ), which might be a new 8 game scoring record. I went to Hooters for dinner with Zicha, his brother and a couple of his friends. After dinner and a few beers I headed back to the bowl. Schlem had come to town to hang out with some friends so I met him for a few beers before I turned in for the night.Sunday, May 14thEverybody was teasing me before we started that I could have skipped the first 2 games because I had such a big lead. As it turned out, I sort of did skip the first 2. It seemed like the approaches were tackier and there was a little more hang downlane, but it also could have been me. Bowling at 9 am was a little rough on my back. Since I started at 2 yesterday I had plenty of time to get loose. Today was a little different. I started on 1-2 and bowled terrible for 186. The cut score was going up at a pretty good clip, so I knew it was just me that was struggling. Game 2 was even worse with a 183. I left two 2-8-10s in each of the first two games and nothing felt good in my physical game. I just needed a pair with a little more hook downlane to get my swing freed up. That’s exactly what I got in game 3. Front 8, ring 10, sheet did the trick to the tune of 279 and got me headed back in the right direction. Game 4 saw another 279 and pretty much assured me of the number 1 seed for match play. I finished strong with 255 to end up with +693 for my 13 games. I used Agent #1 for the entire semi-final round again and I drew Christopher Glaz from the Chicago area for my Round of 16 match up. Of course I was lucky enough to draw 1 & 2 for our match ( sarcasm there ), but I was bowling someone that I didn’t know and doesn’t have much match play experience.In Game 1 I had the same problems that I had this morning on 1 & 2, hang downlane. Luckily Chris never struck and I managed a 202-162 win. Game 2 was much better for me with a ring 10 and a solid 9 for a 269-192 victory. Game 3 got a little dicey for me though. I left a 5-10 ( yes, I said a 5-10 ) on Lane 1 and then over adjusted for a “4-through the middle” split on lane 2. Since I had 15 after 2 frames, things weren’t looking very good for this game. I went spare, strike, spare for the next 3 frames while Chris was going front 5 at me. I figured that the game was lost and I needed to get lined up for game 4. Then Chris let me back in the game with a super washout. I figured if he didn’t double again I would have a chance to come back and win. He quickly dispelled that by doubling in the next 2 frames. Oh well, I was striking again and I liked my chances in Game 4. Then in the 9th he left a 2-4-8-10 to give me life. Now if we I strike out in the 9th and 10th, I would force him to strike out in the 10th to win by a pin. I ended up striking out for 225 to force him to strike out for 226. I don’t remember what he left but he didn’t strike in the 10th and I won the game 225-216 and the match 3-0 The Round of 8 saw me face Walt Schaub. Walt is a straighter player, but he’s really improved on the long pattern. Walt beat Mike Nape in the Round of 16 playing pretty straight so I knew I would be by myself in the part of the lane I was playing. Our match was pretty close but I won Game 1 243-238 and Game 2 258-194. Walt hit the pocket a lot, but couldn’t get the right angles to strike. The Round of 4 was against Bob Hochrein, who had just beaten Jeff Richgels and Steve Jaros. We were playing the same part of the lane and I knew that might be a problem for me. It didn’t really matter because I picked a terrible time to go brain dead ! My timing stunk for the semi-final match and Bob beat me 222-172 and went on to win his first title. I felt very good physically all weekend ( up until that last game that is ), especially with my back problems. The Agent is the real deal. This might be the best ball we’ve had since the original X-Factor. I just can’t say enough about the newest effort from Storm. The boys in Utah have outdone themselves this time. Congrats to Bob Hochrein for his first title and thanks to Carl Swan and his staff at Willowbrook Lanes for another great tournament. Next report will be from……I really don’t know. I think I’m going to take a few weeks off and try and heal up. These injuries have taken a toll on me and I want to get things right physically |