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| My Blog |
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10/8/2008
Ok so I decided to take the entire summer off from posting a blog... I thought it would be a welcomed change.
I bowled about 11 regional events over the summer. I was kind of all over the place with my performances, I missed 3 checks which I do not recall missing more than 1 check per year in a long, long time. I also won a tournament, finished 2nd twice, 3rd twice, and 4th twice.
I am pretty confident with my game as we get ready to enter another season on tour. More so than I have been in recent years. Physically I am as healthy as I have been in 4 or 5years. no major injuries and nagging problems leading into the season. Which have bothered me either at the beginning or the end of the last few years.
I once again will be a free agent and will have no official affiliation with any bowling manufacturer other than Vise/Exactacator. I will be on the H&R Block team for the sponsor program. I am currently working on some individual sponsors for the season, but nothing has come to fruition as of yet. If anyone out there has any ideas, let me know, I will pay you a finders fee if a deal is reached!!
Anyway, this will be it until the World Championship gets under way in less than 2 weeks...
Be well,
MD | |
3/15/2008
OK, so I guess those of you who do visit my site are looking for my recent blogs. Well our server had some issues and we lost all of my old blogs. Sorry about that...
Anyway.... we visited Norwich CT this past week. I have been up and down the second half of the season this year. My confidence is there, but I just simply have found myself behind the transitions way too often of late. I have made a conscience effort to now allow that to happen to me the rest of the season. To battle the transitions I have been seeing I drilled about 8 new balls over the last 3 weeks.
My first 7 qualifying games- 279, 245, 152, 182, 225, 235, 279 for + 196. As you cna see my struggles with transition were apparent again, luckily I had great carry for a couple of games in there that saved me.
The next block I felt comfortable to start because I had a nice cushion on 33rd place. That wouldn't last very long!!
Block 2- 203, 167, 194, 248, 214, 210, 238 for + 74 and overall +270. This was good for 28th place.
My round of 32 opponent was a familiar face, Chris Loschetter, I have bowled Chris 3x this year in the elimination style match play. For some reason I have Chris' number this year, probably of the way we break lanes down, makes the transition for him more difficult. I won the match 4 games to 2.
My round of 16 opponent was also another guy I have bowled multiple times this season, Eugene McCune. Eugene has been hot this season, and has bowled very well. Eugene had me dead to rights after firing a 300 to go up 3 games to 1. At that point I felt I had better bowl 750 plus and hope Eugene loses some focus. I had 806 in my final 3 games and Eugene indeed started to lose some focus and ball reaction. I came back to win 4 games to 3.
The round of 8 I was to face Rhino Page. In this match I had zero ball reaction on the left hand lane. I literally could not throw a strike on that lane for 3 games. Rhino had some carry issues to make the games close. In the middle of game 2, I slipped on the approach on the left hand lane, then my next frame on the right hand lane I stuck pretty badly. These two things, along with having trouble with the approaches in 4 of the last 5 events, left me with some excruciating pain every time I slid. Pain would shoot down from my hip to the back of my knee. I tried to keep bowling, but it just got progressively worse for me. SO I retired in the middle of game 4 against Rhino. He would go on to win the event for his first PBA Tour title. Congrats to him on that accomplishment.
Now, for some rants... The approaches of late have been a joke. It seems that centers simply do not know how, or do not care what condition their floors/approaches are in any more.
The Brunswick Authority 22 machines needs to go, along with the Brunswick oil and cleaners. They are just too inconsistent. Maybe those machines aren't made to travel every week, or maybe the technology is more league/wall lane condition drive, I don't know. What I do know is that the Brunswick machine cannot apply oil in reverse, this feature that the Kegel machines have done for years, is primary and paramount in laying down competitive and fair patterns. The Brunswick machine either walls the lanes up, or makes them horrible, NOTHING in between. This is why the left side has had it so good over the last 3 years. Since the Authority 22 has been used on the PBA tour, the left hand bias has been a huge problem.
A much needed week off, then on to Long Island..
Be well, | |
3/11/2008
OK, so I guess those of you who do visit my site are looking for my recent blogs. Well our server had some issues and we lost all of my old blogs. Sorry about that...
Anyway.... we visited Norwich CT this past week. I have been up and down the second half of the season this year. My confidence is there, but I just simply have found myself behind the transitions way too often of late. I have made a conscience effort to now allow that to happen to me the rest of the season. To battle the transitions I have been seeing I drilled about 8 new balls over the last 3 weeks.
My first 7 qualifying games- 279, 245, 152, 182, 225, 235, 279 for + 196. As you cna see my struggles with transition were apparent again, luckily I had great carry for a couple of games in there that saved me.
The next block I felt comfortable to start because I had a nice cushion on 33rd place. That wouldn't last very long!!
Block 2- 203, 167, 194, 248, 214, 210, 238 for + 74 and overall +270. This was good for 28th place.
My round of 32 opponent was a familiar face, Chris Loschetter, I have bowled Chris 3x this year in the elimination style match play. For some reason I have Chris' number this year, probably of the way we break lanes down, makes the transition for him more difficult. I won the match 4 games to 2.
My round of 16 opponent was also another guy I have bowled multiple times this season, Eugene McCune. Eugene has been hot this season, and has bowled very well. Eugene had me dead to rights after firing a 300 to go up 3 games to 1. At that point I felt I had better bowl 750 plus and hope Eugene loses some focus. I had 806 in my final 3 games and Eugene indeed started to lose some focus and ball reaction. I came back to win 4 games to 3.
The round of 8 I was to face Rhino Page. In this match I had zero ball reaction on the left hand lane. I literally could not throw a strike on that lane for 3 games. Rhino had some carry issues to make the games close. In the middle of game 2, I slipped on the approach on the left hand lane, then my next frame on the right hand lane I stuck pretty badly. These two things, along with having trouble with the approaches in 4 of the last 5 events, left me with some excruciating pain every time I slid. Pain would shoot down from my hip to the back of my knee. I tried to keep bowling, but it just got progressively worse for me. SO I retired in the middle of game 4 against Rhino. He would go on to win the event for his first PBA Tour title. Congrats to him on that accomplishment.
Now, for some rants... The approaches of late have been a joke. It seems that centers simply do not know how, or do not care what condition their floors/approaches are in any more.
The Brunswick Authority 22 machines needs to go, along with the Brunswick oil and cleaners. They are just too inconsistent. Maybe those machines aren't made to travel every week, or maybe the technology is more league/wall lane condition drive, I don't know. What I do know is that the Brunswick machine cannot apply oil in reverse, this feature that the Kegel machines have done for years, is primary and paramount in laying down competitive and fair patterns. The Brunswick machine either walls the lanes up, or makes them horrible, NOTHING in between. This is why the left side has had it so good over the last 3 years. Since the Authority 22 has been used on the PBA tour, the left hand bias has been a huge problem.
A much needed week off, then on to Long Island..
Be well,
MD | |
9/2/2007
My best friend Chris Oakes and I decided to take the long trek to Pacifica from So Cal together for the holiday weekend. This is a great event that I always attend, its a memorial tournament named for the great Don Johnson. It is also a charity event that benefits the American Diabetes Association, and in particular a few children who are in need of supplies and care for their disease. Another great friend of mine, Tony Reyes, is the host and chairperson for the event. He does a wonderful job and deserves much applause for his efforts each year.
We arrived Friday afternoon right about time as practice session was being concluded. Chris and I decided to go to Bay Meadows racetrack for the rest of the afternoon and play some horses, a vice we share! After we threw some $ down the drain at Bay Meadows, we decided head back over the bowling center and see what was going on. We stayed at the center for the Friday evening pro-am and visited with some friends we had not seen in a while. We called it a night about 12am and headed to the hotel.
I had A squad on Saturday. There was 5 on a pair for A squad so this was going to be a torturous block. The lanes took a very long time to transition into something that was consistent and playable for me. the first 4 games I was +50 and in grind mode, then the final 4 games the lanes opened up for just about everyone. I ended up +268 for my 8 games on Saturday. This was good for 2nd on A squad. Chris and I decided to head back to By Meadows and see if we could get some of our $ back from Friday. No luck, but it wasn't a blood bath like the day before. I returned to the center for the late pro-am, and other festivities that all were to benefit the diabetes association and the children who needed the supplies for their insulin pumps. It was a great success on all fronts.
On Sunday for the semi-finals I found myself in 2nd place still. B squad had struggled to keep the same pace that A squad had set. The semi's is a 5 game round with all the cashers returning. I had about a 100 pin lead over 17th, so I was confident I would make the cut to the top 6 for elimination match play. When you are in a position with a nice cushion like that, you can be more relaxed than usual. I had taken the lead after game 2, everything was moving along fine. In the 3rd frame of game 3, my heel on my bowling shoe fell off as I was entering my slide. I went flying out onto the lane and about knocked myself out. To my surprise I wasn't in too much pain. I replaced that heel with another, and continued my game. I regained my composure enough in games 4 and 5 to regain the #1 qualifier position for match play.
The first round of eliminations I face Andrew Cain. Andrew is a former Team USA bowler and a tough competitor. He is also left handed, which in this particular case came to my advantage because Andrew had a poor ball reaction for this match. I won the match 3 games to 1. In the round of 8 my opponent was another lefty, young player named Anthony Thompson. I defeated Anthony 2 games to 0, and moved on to the round of 4. There I was to face Missy Bellinder. Our match was very close until the tenth frame in which i needed a strike to shut her out, or a spare to force her to strike on her first ball, well I threw the ball into the gutter. I was playing right on the edge and had thrown quite a few in during the day, but I was still disappointed in that shot in that situation. On my fill ball I only got a 7 count which made Missy only need 9 on two balls to beat me, Which she did. She went on to win the event, and proved once again that she is one of the best bowlers in the region.
Until next time... be well!
Mike | |
7/29/2007
I decided to enter my first regional in a couple months at Kingman. With the new addition to the family I had not been practicing or competing as much as I regularly do, so I was a bit concerned when showing up to the event. I decided to drive over on Friday evening missing practice session.
I remember from last years event that this center has a very high friction synthetic lane surface, meaning whatever pattern was used would be on the hooking side. The pattern for this event was VIPER, Viper is a 37' foot pattern that is not heavy in volume. How to play it is very much determined by the lane surface that it is applied to. Sometimes you can play the gutter, other times you can wheel it. In my experience, this pattern dictates that the break point be between 3 and 7, regardless of the angle through the heads. Knowing that the surface was high friction, i knew that I would be using weaker balls with mostly shiny surfaces. On Saturday I was on A squad, I started playing the lanes swinging 10 board with a Storm Jolt Pearl drilled with the pin 6" from my PAP and the CG 5.5" from PAP, no extra hole was needed. My first 3 games were in the 215-220's, but I felt I had left some pis out there because I wasn't very sharp. I was + 55 after 3. In games 4 and 5 I had back to back 268's making me +191 after 6 and I was feeling very good about my performance to this point. Then in the final 3 games I lost my reaction, started making poor shots, missed a couple spares, and just basically mentally let myself get stuck. I went -19 my final 3 games, and I was not a happy camper at that point.
I felt that my chances of making the cash cut were about 50-50 since the better squad was B. I stayed at the center to watch B squad and noticed that the players did not have the same amount of hook off the edge as our squad did. I knew then immediately that I was going to make the cut, I just didn't know by how much. the cash cut score was +151, 2 players had tied and rolled off. I was in 21st, only 18 pins from 16th. I was very confident coming in Sunday morning for the 5 game semi finals that I was going to perform better than I did Saturday.
Sunday I started with a Black Ice since I found the lanes to be tighter on the gutter, like the B squad players had seen. I had a great reaction and bowled +208 for my 5 games to qualify in 4th place. My Match play opponent was Vince Wood. When the 10 minutes of practice started, I could not get the Black Ice to roll anything near what it had in the morning session. I changed balls a few times, but was not comfortable with what the balls were doing. I had a lot more hang on the gutter and when you see hang you first adjustment is to move right, which i did. This adjustment took away my hold area and it basically was a poor decision and cost me the match. Vince opened in the 10th frame of game one, or he would have swept me. Vince is a very talented bowler who suffered a wrist injury that slowed him down a couple years ago. He makes a lot of cuts in the regional events and continues to improve.
Overall I wasn't thrilled with my inconsistent performance, but it was my first event in a while so i guess I shouldn't be too mad. I will be bowling the regional in Stockton this upcoming weekend, hopefully I can stay a bit more consistent. | |
7/4/2007
Owen was born on July 4th, 2007. He is our first child, he weighed in at 7 pounds 13 ounces and was 20 inches long. His birthday is pretty funny because my B-Day is New Years Eve, and my Dad's is Christmas Day. I guess the holiday trend is in the blood.
Carrie and I consider ourselves very lucky that he is healthy and finally here. Since bringing him home, being a parent is a pretty overwhelming experience. Not in a bad way, its just a total change of lifestyle, everything revolves around the baby. Your sleep, your meals, your schedule is determined by the little guy. He sleeps about 3 hours at a time, eats like a horse and loves his baby swing! All of those things that I used to fear about being a parent do not even enter my mind now.... I just want to do the best job I can and be the best parent I can be. |
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