MR. MSG

Our bowling team started out as MR. GM. There is no MR. GM, it just happens to be each of our initials strung together. But when S came is as a substitute, we've been calling ourselves MR. MSG.

We're about half way through league. G got into a major accident which thankfully he survived, but not his wheels, so while he uses an older slower chair model, he's playing every other week, with S filling in the other weeks.

We managed to hang on to our 5th place finish again this week. The top 10 teams out of the 19 still left head to a larger bowling tournament called, Jubilee at the end of the season. This week we played with a team called, Hopeful, who had averages right around ours, so very little handicap gap.

The first two games we managed to step up and won handily. The third game was a virtual tie as a couple of us waned and some of their players managed to find the middle of the lane. Their anchor, Al, watched S play in the first game and challenged him in the third game. In the first game S scored 172 while Al scored 173. Al is a sweet man who just likes a good game and likes the competition to push each other to do better. And it worked, for us, S got 191 for the final third game, only leaving 2 one frames open.

Now, I've known S since he was like 17. And he's usually this kind of quiet guy, who talks a decent amount, but not a whole lot, and likes to keep an emotionally even keel for the most part. And sometimes, you're not exactly sure what he's thinking or feeling because he's so even. But MAN, when he was bowling, he was screaming and pounding his fist, and after this one strike that he finally got after numerous spares, he had this look that could melt you to the ground. R thought he was going to rip his arm out with the hi-five he gave him! You just never think about bowling as a passionate sport.

In the end, it's a fun time. Hanging out with the different people and teams, cheering for collective strikes and spares. Plus we have all these other games we play. We play poker by getting a card every time we mark (strikes or spares) and talk about getting ice cream if we hit 150 about 20-25 points above our current averages. And every time we hit a split, we pay a quarter to a bank (which at the end of the season we'll buy pizza with). We don't even have a prize for the poker game, it's just a fun reward to get, a way to see how many times we've marked. So you stand on the lane thinking I need a mark because so-and-so has a pair already.

We've got 7 weeks to go. Keep on rollin'.