I personally like santioned leagues. To me there is no choice. If I can't join a sanctioned leauge I won't waste my time or money just to do the same thing with buddies on a weeked.
We ended up bowling these guys that like to get as drunk as possible and just aimlessly throw the ball down the lane. I never met these guys before but I knew I wasn't looking forward to this night of league bowling when one of them asked me "your not one of those '300' bowlers are ya?"
At first I wanted to say yes, I average 300. This guy throughout the night I could tell and hear he had animosity towards bowlers that are there to bowl well and believe he is offended if someone was to dare break his 135 game. During the first game noticing his high performance resin ball he loved to throw it hard and straight at the middle arrow attempting to hit the head pin straight on trying to part the pins like Moses parted the sea. After seeing my game he either wanted a bowling lesson right there and then (during league lol) or just wanted to know how I did my release. I just told him "I just do it" and was too focused nor cared to give tips to a someone that probably wouldn't remember the next day anyways. He proceeds to make a release motion in the error attempting to mimic my release. I refrained from laughing. Then he tries my release and it's going all over the place. That same night he could have cared less at the high average bowler that bowled a 299 game a few pairs over. Also, they won 2/3 games with there bogus +500 pins handicap but heard this guy mutter when I struck in the 10th frame after he didn't. Unreal. Then he strikes in the 10th without any emotion even though it was probaly 1 of only 3 the whole night, leaves a 5 pin and process to miss the 5 pin on the fill ball and is in rage he missed it. I'm thinking this guy is either drunk or stupid if he thinks making a 5 pin is going to make any difference to his 435 series lol.
I just bowled my own game and at the end shook one guys hand and the other guy I was talking to is still bitter and drunk. He says he never wanted to join this league and wanted to be on the other one and was talked in to it. The other one is a small, non sanctioned league mostly full of people who like to drink and have fun but not care about scoring. After explaining the benifits of a sanctioned league he said he could care less in so many words and walked off.
Then I was thinking: I'd rather have 10 teams with all types of averages and skill levels with mostly people that actually care about bowling and scoring yet still enjoying it then having 20 something teams filled with some bowlers that like to get drunk, loud, care less about the game and get jealous of bowlers that actually care about the game!