The Night That Was

My priority is drinking, so I don't like to talk much about bowling. But it's been a little difficult to avoid the topic lately.

I have had good streaks before, but none like the one I had last night. It was incredible. To quote the summary put out by UABA when I was named Money game winner of the night: 3 Games, 629 pins 21 strikes, with two games of 9 strikes and a new career high of 249 followed by a 264.I wish I could explain why a bowler catches fire at the lanes. You just do. You see the pins better. It's hard to put into words because, obviously, your eyesight doesn't suddenly get better. Maybe something shifts in your brain that allows you -- for some limited time -- to be hyper-focused. I don't know. All I know is that my eyes seem to pick the target up right before it left my hand.

And here's Part II of being on a good streak: When your turn reaches you, you know exactly what to do with it. I always have a plan for every ball, which depends on how much I’ve had to drink, what the game situation is, etc. So that's the same whether you're on a good streak or a bad one. But when you're going good, you execute your plan almost every time. You get the ball you're looking for. You throw it just the way you want. And of course, success breeds confidence. So when you're going good, you relax. You don't press. You don't go trying to throw it through the back of the wall when all you need is to put it in the right spot. You go up to the lane truly believing that no pin can stay on its feet. I know, too, that part of any really great streak has some element of luck. I got a lot of Brooklyn’s. They weren't setting the pins down with one missing and the Bowling Gods weren't striking me down either. I had the opportunities to come through and they keep falling. It helped that Lunch Money bought me a Capt & Coke. I love that drink. It's the drink of my childhood. Some people have asked if I had any superstitions about how to keep the streak going -- like not changing my socks or taking advice from a particular coach and since I heavily believe in superstitions, I worried when my drink ran out, I tried to toe tap a little bit more, I kept checking out the same girls, I touched the blower fan in the same place and I touched myself in the same place. So, I turned into an OCD freak. We're up against the Mets tonight and looking to have another exciting win like yesterdays. I'm still feeling invincible at my desk, although a touch hung-over. I still feel that no pin can stand straight up. Even when they do stand up, I know I'm throwing well and that pin was a lucky son of a gun.That's it for now. I enjoy answering your questions, so don't hesitate to write me. I'll answer them in a future entry. As always, thanks for reading and for supporting my teammates and me. We love seeing you out at the bowling lane.



Okay so all of this was stolen from Bengie Molina’s Blog Behind the Mask on http://www.sfgiants.com/ I just changed a few words to protect the innocent J