Will Tigers Pony up for Skubal

[tiger2022]

1 hour ago, Stormin said:

Looks can be deceiving

Nah.  Those guys would be amazing softball players.  They just happen to be able to hit a baseball better than almost anyone else in the world too.

[casimir]

2 hours ago, Screwball said:

That sucks. I don't know how it works today, or even 20 years ago, but when you threw a 300 the city association officers would be called and they would verify the lanes. By verify I mean, check them to see if they were legal as far as the oil pattern goes. If they give the game their blessing the info would be sent to the ABC (American Bowling Congress) and they would issue a prize to the bowler who shot the 300.

That's how it worked years ago. I'm not sure the ABC is even still the sanctioning body today. Since you guys weren't in the league at the time of the score, he probably got credit for the record, but no prize from the ABC. Only guessing, been out of it for a long time.

Back in the 70s and 80s when 300's weren't shot as often as they are now, you would get a prize of your choice. Many took a ring. It was gold with a diamond set in a ruby. It had your name and date inside the band. They were worth a decent amount of money at one time. I know a guy who had one appraised at over $700 bucks. This would have been back in the early 80s. Since then, and because it is so much easier today, they only give out much lesser prizes. Maybe just a patch.

Funny, I just read a while ago: A 10 year old kid shot 244-248-276 for the huge 768 series today in the USBC Youth Scratch Tournament. That's nuts! Nothing against the kid, he's probably really really good. But it seems awfully easy.

 

I think the lane conditions were a factor.  He rolled it during “open bowl” conditions and outside of the construct of the normal league night and lane conditions.  That was the story he was given.  This specific occurrence had to be, gosh, over 30 years ago.

I’m pretty sure he has at least one ring for his endeavors.  Name on the wall at the place of this league.  The place eventually burned down, so, so much for that notoriety.

[Screwball]

4 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

this. With the lane maintenance being all mechanized, controllable, reproducible, high scores are more common. Plus customized drillings etc. I have a younger cousin married to pretty athletic guy who loves to bowl and golf and he's rolled multiple 300s. When we where growing up everybody's parents were in leagues and we never heard of anyone bowling a perfect game.

When I started bowling they used a spray can that you bought in a hardware store to spray for bugs and stuff. Used a particular type of oil. The guy (us workers) would walk out to around the arrows, start spraying and walk backwards. It would float down to the lanes. Depending on how it was done... No consistency. That made the game really really tough.

Then the machines came along. They would go down the lane, knock over the pins if some happened to be still sitting there, in a clean cycle. Then it would come back to the front as it put down the oil. Much more consistent. You could control distance and width of the pattern. 

When bowling in our town got another 24 alley house they they competed with each other by letting them throw higher scores. Bowl here - average 150 - bowl there - average 180. Where you going to go?

Kind of like baseball and juicing up the baseball. 🙂

[Screwball]

2 hours ago, casimir said:

I think the lane conditions were a factor.  He rolled it during “open bowl” conditions and outside of the construct of the normal league night and lane conditions.  That was the story he was given.  This specific occurrence had to be, gosh, over 30 years ago.

I’m pretty sure he has at least one ring for his endeavors.  Name on the wall at the place of this league.  The place eventually burned down, so, so much for that notoriety.

I think you are from the Toledo area, do you remember Imperial Lanes? I'm not sure they are even there anymore.

[Screwball]

4 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

this. With the lane maintenance being all mechanized, controllable, reproducible, high scores are more common. Plus customized drillings etc. I have a younger cousin married to pretty athletic guy who loves to bowl and golf and he's rolled multiple 300s. When we where growing up everybody's parents were in leagues and we never heard of anyone bowling a perfect game.

They had customized fitting and drilling way back when. That was a thing where a guy could become well known as a driller and people would come from all over to have him customize, fit and drill their balls. That didn't sound right. There was a guy in Toledo, Ohio who was famous. He did work on the pro's balls. Giggle, but true.

The people I worked for learned how to drill balls from this guy. We became well known because this guy died, and some of his clients came to us. It became known as "Smut's Pro Shop." You can't make that **** up.

Edited 19 hours ago by Screwball

[IdahoBert]

If anything is more indicative of the fact that nothing is going on it’s that in a baseball thread we’re talking about bowling. And I’m not against it and I actually find it fascinating. But it pretty much means that crickets are chirping around here. 

[casimir]

49 minutes ago, Screwball said:

I think you are from the Toledo area, do you remember Imperial Lanes? I'm not sure they are even there anymore.

I was trying to remember if Imperial was at Central & Reynolds.  Long gone.  When they closed, the annual PBA stop moved to Southwyck.  Southwyck is still open, but somewhere along the line Toledo lost its bid as an annual stop for the PBA.  Maybe they don’t do weekly stops like they used to, I have no idea.

[casimir]

5 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

If anything is more indicative of the fact that nothing is going on it’s that in a baseball thread we’re talking about bowling. And I’m not against it and I actually find it fascinating. But it pretty much means that crickets are chirping around here. 

Pitchers and catchers report soon.  We’re almost there.

[Stormin]

5 hours ago, tiger2022 said:

Nah.  Those guys would be amazing softball players.  They just happen to be able to hit a baseball better than almost anyone else in the world too.

Jose Ramirez is a great athlete even though he may not look the part.   He is the toolsiest 5 tool player in baseball.  Plays great defense, Strong Arm, hits for average,   and last year - at age 32 - hit 30 hrs  and stole 44 bases.  Of course he is a switch hitter whose LHP/RHP career OPS splits  are .856/.857 and career slugging percentage splits are .507/.502.  I am sure he could also play softball because he does everything well.

Edited 18 hours ago by Stormin

[CaliforniaDreaming]

6 hours ago, Stormin said:

Jose Ramirez is a great athlete even though he may not look the part.   He is the toolsiest 5 tool player in baseball.  Plays great defense, Strong Arm, hits for average,   and last year - at age 32 - hit 30 hrs  and stole 44 bases.  Of course he is a switch hitter whose LHP/RHP career OPS splits  are .856/.857 and career slugging percentage splits are .507/.502.  I am sure he could also play softball because he does everything well.

But can he bowl?

[oblong]

Wed is the hearing.

 

[Edman85]

6 minutes ago, oblong said:

Wed is the hearing.

 

Interesting that leaked. It is not supposed to, to help the arbitrators go in blind.

[Tenacious D]

1 hour ago, Edman85 said:

Interesting that leaked. It is not supposed to, to help the arbitrators go in blind.

That was my understanding, too.  Removes any potential bias.

[NorthWoods]

17 hours ago, Screwball said:

I think you are from the Toledo area, do you remember Imperial Lanes? I'm not sure they are even there anymore.

We went to Toledo a couple of times and bowled the Shammy Burt 40 frame game, I have recollection of what the name of the lanes was.   Our other yearly event in Ohio was the 3rd week of March 50-60 guys from my hometown would go down and bowl the Hoinke Classic at Western Lanes in Cincinnati.  You could win some serious $$ there since the tourney ran for a year at a time.   And going back to your averages post, we loved having our rough averages from the old house we bowled at when it came time for tournament handicapping.

[NorthWoods]

17 hours ago, Screwball said:

They had customized fitting and drilling way back when. That was a thing where a guy could become well known as a driller and people would come from all over to have him customize, fit and drill their balls. That didn't sound right. There was a guy in Toledo, Ohio who was famous. He did work on the pro's balls. Giggle, but true.

The people I worked for learned how to drill balls from this guy. We became well known because this guy died, and some of his clients came to us. It became known as "Smut's Pro Shop." You can't make that **** up.

Getting the right fit is/was critical.   I used to drive over an hour to GLC in Flint to buy and have my balls drilled.  I don't think they're even around anymore.

[chasfh]

On 2/1/2026 at 9:40 AM, Screwball said:

Pete Weber is Dicks son. Pete was known as the bad boy of bowling.

High games. I know a guy who shot a 290. 300 is a perfect game - 12 strikes in a row - the only way to get a 290 is 11 in a row and a gutter ball. The ultimate choke job. Image being remembered for that. 🙂

That's what you get for living on the edge (of the lane).

[chasfh]

23 hours ago, Screwball said:

Funny, I just read a while ago: A 10 year old kid shot 244-248-276 for the huge 768 series today in the USBC Youth Scratch Tournament. That's nuts! Nothing against the kid, he's probably really really good. But it seems awfully easy.

 

Bowling is definitely one sport in which I can agree that analytics leading to lane and ball optimization should be strangled in the crib.

Flip side: higher scores = more bowlers = more revenue.

[chasfh]

17 hours ago, Stormin said:

Jose Ramirez is a great athlete even though he may not look the part.   He is the toolsiest 5 tool player in baseball.  Plays great defense, Strong Arm, hits for average,   and last year - at age 32 - hit 30 hrs  and stole 44 bases.  Of course he is a switch hitter whose LHP/RHP career OPS splits  are .856/.857 and career slugging percentage splits are .507/.502.  I am sure he could also play softball because he does everything well.

He may be short of 60 WAR right now, but I think if Jose Ramirez were to walk off the field Moonlight Graham-style today, he'd be in the Hall of Fame within a couple or three years. And if his career continues and then concludes on its current trajectory, he'll be a slam-dunk first-ballot inner-circle Hall of Famer.

[Arlington]

18 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

If anything is more indicative of the fact that nothing is going on it’s that in a baseball thread we’re talking about bowling. And I’m not against it and I actually find it fascinating. But it pretty much means that crickets are chirping around here. 

I've been wanting to post about how dang boring this off season has been, but have restrained myself from stating the obvious.  I usually love the off season. 

[Arlington]

28 minutes ago, chasfh said:

He may be short of 60 WAR right now, but I think if Jose Ramirez were to walk off the field Moonlight Graham-style today, he'd be in the Hall of Fame within a couple or three years. And if his career continues and then concludes on its current trajectory, he'll be a slam-dunk first-ballot inner-circle Hall of Famer.

Not if he played in Detroit.  Just wanted to do the inverse [insert Tiger player] played in New York.

[casimir]

12 hours ago, CaliforniaDreaming said:

But can he bowl?

Who is going to bet against him?