Last week I got bitten. As if that weren’t nasty enough, over the short duration of last weekend, I managed to get confused, stung, and mauled. Unfortunately none of this was courtesy of the palm-sized mosquitoes, although the ones around here seem particularly aggressive and travel in packs of four or five.
Now, before anyone starts to worry that I decided to raid the cages at the Detroit Zoo, I’ll explain. What attacked me weren’t animals, but the PBA lane patterns. I came to Detroit ready to pounce on the Cheetah, find the Chameleon, and spear-gun the Shark (I know we haven’t bowled on “Shark” yet, but the 44-foot Motor City Open pattern resembled Jaws in my mind). But what about Viper? I went to see G.I. Joe last night, and let’s just say that the Joes had a much better method of dealing with the snakes than I did.
During the Motor City Open, what really cost me the chance at having a good tournament was making a few bad decisions on the squad in which I had to bowl on the fresh pattern. I was on B squad, so I actually got to compete first on the “burn,” and then, as the squads were reversed that night for round two, I competed on the fresh. As a lefty, bowling on the burn on Tour is typically more like survival and less like offense. In any multi-squad, multi-qualifying block tournament, the fresh is generally a left-hander’s best opportunity to make a move up in the field. Such was not the case for me at Taylor Lanes. I finished round two respectably, but not enough to counteract the two bad games which plagued me out of the gate. Round three was another step in the right direction. However, I was already too far back from the matchplay or cash cut for it to matter. I simply had to forget about the tournament and move on.
With no matchplay berths for either me or my roommates, some free time was in order. I briefly mentioned in last week’s Angle that I was headed out to see the Tigers take on the Orioles Thursday afternoon. Nothing beats cheap seats, a hot dog, and a day game. It reminded me a lot of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but without the Ferrari or the shady parking attendant (I’m pretty confident the guy who sold us the curbside parking across from the stadium wasn’t itching to take my Highlander for a spin). After the carnage ended, it was off to Costco so we could stock the house for the coming weeks.
You may ask, “What could possibly be interesting about Costco?” It’s not just the satisfying feeling you get by sampling seemingly endless free food, or purchasing everyday items in unimaginable quantities. Sometimes the fun simply comes in taking someone there who has never been, and then seeing their jaw hit the floor as they gawk at the epitome of excess. As Mike (Haugen) and I loaded the cart with necessities, Paul (Moor) and Stuart (Williams) wandered the aisles. A few moments and one excited yelp later, Stuart proclaimed, “Drew, you have to come have a look at this…it’s a 7 pound cake!” Seven pounds of pure chocolate and large enough that you didn’t know whether to try and eat it or tackle it. Yikes. Here’s how the rest of the conversation went:
Andrew: “Yes Stu, I know. I have a Costco near my house and I’ve seen it before.”
Stuart: “But it’s a 7 pound cake!”
Andrew: “Like I said, I know. It’s normal. They always have it.”
Stuart: “But…it’s…7 pounds! Who the h**l needs a 7 pound cake??”
You’ve got me there. I was stumped. Someone must need it, though I can’t imagine Costco needing to bake more than three per year to feed a small, starving country (FYI: picture of cake not included due to a lack of wide angle lens on my cameraphone). The massive jar of pickles and mattress-sized sacks of rice also produced shocking reactions, but the 7 pound cake…well, it took the cake!
Friday was filled with the first bowling action at Thunderbowl, and I took the lanes in the PBA Survivor Challenge and got my first look at the Cheetah. My “survival” lasted all of three games, and afterward I took to the practice lanes to try and work on some issues I was having with angles and my overall feel. Going into the Saturday morning TQR, I was uncomfortable from the first shot of practice. Not good. On the high-scoring Cheetah, there are two things you don’t ever want (aside from sub-par physical execution): poor ball reaction, and to be behind the cut by a hundred pins in game 4 of 7 as the scoring pace approaches a 240 average. I had both, and it was quite possibly the poorest performance I have ever experienced on this lane condition. More practice ensued on Viper and Chameleon, with an emphasis on trying to execute well and devise a strategy to grind out on the anticipated low-scoring Sunday to come.
Sunday came, and Sunday went. The scores were low in both TQRs, but mine were lower. Viper was a complete nightmare, and I somehow managed to sneak a 250-game in between the slew of games I’d like to forget I ever bowled. After some much needed encouragement (and screaming) during the lunch break, I returned mildly exhausted, albeit in a better frame of mind, for the Chameleon. Conventional wisdom dictates that the chameleon is an expert at camouflage, and for two out of seven games, it lived up to its reputation. It felt good to have a chance to make the cut in the final games, and even though I eventually slipped out of the running to make the 72-man field, I needed a solid last game to eke out a check. Despite striking out in the tenth in game seven (which was about as relieving as nailing down a birdie after multiple consecutive bogeys), I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that I missed by a few pins. Hmm, at least my intuition is intact. I missed by two measly pins. Although it’s easy to look back and find those two pins somewhere in the block, I was satisfied knowing that I did all I could, when it counted, to put myself in the best position to have a chance. I felt empty and helpless, but deep in my mind felt a twinge of happiness that I had come through at the end, in the clutch…regardless of the result.
With two weeks before the next TQR, I will be spending most of my time in Detroit exploring the city (and possibly venturing across the border into Canada), playing (translation: hacking) golf, and of course, practicing and watching bowling. I also hope to exhaust all of my box-office viewing options, because, seriously, when was the last time you could watch a first-run movie for five bucks? Hint: I probably wasn’t born yet. Additionally, Jason Thomas provided me with a camcorder that I hope to start filming some short clips as a video addition to Andrew’s Angle in the coming weeks. If you think it sounds dangerous that I’ve been armed with a camera, that’s because it is. Thanks for reading, and until next week, keep your eyes and ears tuned to PBA.com and Xtra Frame for all the latest action!