Just a few rambling thoughts. Working midnites this week, needed something to do.

Lets assume we wake up tomorrow morning and find that ABC has mandated that all leagues must use one of the PBA patterns in all sanctioned leagues.

My first impression would be, great, we are now restoring integrity to the game of bowling.

House #1 complies, averages drop like a rock.  Lot of complaining by the league bowlers but the bowling alley has the backing of the ABC and the bowlers go along with it.  Don’t really have any choice.  

House #2 also complies but after their bowlers start complaining and threaten to leave, they go back to their regular house block.  ABC flexes their muscle, disallows an honor score that is shot since the house is not in compliance.

Jump forward to September.  During the league meeting Joe Bowler makes a motion that the league not be sanctioned since ABC will not recognize the honor scores anyhow.  Since 99% of the league will not qualify for an ABC award. why should they sanction.  Might as well save the money.  As a result, none of the leagues in this house sanction their leagues.

In the meantime, the bowlers at House #1 decide they can hold a higher average by bowling at the other house.  What’s the owner to do, comply with ABC and lose his bowlers or fall in line and keep his bowlers happy.

During bowling’s heyday (60-90s) the main reason everyone sanctioned was to have that book average so they could bowl tournaments on the weekends.  With the death of tournament bowling, the need for sanctioning has really vanished.

I would bet that if you took a vote on whether to sanction or not, the majority of the leagues would not sanction.  After all, what is really in it for the typical bowler.

A good example is the senior leagues in my area.  None are sanctioned.  The senior leagues here cost $5 a week to bowl, no prize fund, no sanctioned fees.  I can bowl 3 leagues a week for only $15 compared to my sanctioned league at $15 a nite.  Which is the better value

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~~~SrK - Have balls, will travel

Old bowlers never die, we just don't score as often

You forget a lot of the other things the ABC does.

One is the bonding of the league officers. Most of the sanctioned leagues have prize funds and if you have the Sawbones situation were someone absconds with the funds then you have some way of recouping your money.

The certify the lanes. The make sure the lanes are level, the gutters are deep enough, the side boards are far enough away from the lane, etc.

Srkegler mentioned his senior league being 5 dollars. The ABC has nothing to do with your weekly fees. Your league sets the prize fund, secretary fees, etc. Because of the time of day most senior leagues bowl they get cut rate on the lineage. His senior league could be sanctioned for only the cost of the sanction card.

Now the reality is what Sawbones said tryingtocomeback stated. They couldn’t take it away all at once. But even still. Houses have cheated in the past and they would cheat again in the future.

Even today houses with the overly generous rules for lane dressing, some house will not put out the 3 unit minimum. They would raise the flat gutter after inspection. They’ll move the sideboards in. Anything the think they could to increase scoring.

Is there really a need to be sanctioned? Probably not in the short term. But eventually chaos would rein.

Amen Stormlefty.  That's what I've been trying to say.  It sounds all good and nice to think that we can slowly change the shot to bring integrity back to the game.  But is it realistic?  Not at all.  I think offering the option of a tougher shot ist he way to go.  I think there is another alternative to getting integrity back to the game--center run leagues.  With that concept comes a lot of information and ideas.  My thoughts are to "rate" leagues, so to speak.  Instead of just having a men's league with averages as low as 130 or 140 and as high as 230 or 240, let's create a little structure here.  A "S1" league would be a scratch league.  No handicap, mandatory jackpots, no average limit, and higher prize funds.  An "S2" league would be scratch also, but might have an average cap.  An "S3" league would be lower average cap, and so on.

Then, we could offer "C" leagues, which would be competetive leagues.  Not scratch, but still some pretty good bowlers in them.  An "R" league would be a recreational league.  No real jackpots (especially not mandatory), maybe a myster game or 50/50 or other fun stuff.  A "G" league would be a glow-bowl league.  I think you get the idea here.  People who want to bowl for lots of money would join the appropriate leagues, and those who don't, would join the fun leagues.  I live in the Flint area in Michigan, and I see mens leagues all over the place where there is absolutely no structure.  Each league has the elite bowlers, then the middle bowlers, then the bowlers who might have just started.  Classic leagues are gone!

I think a complete restructuring plan would make sense.  It could be done all at once, but that would be tough.  You would probably have to implement it over time.

With that said, is integrity our main issue?  Perhaps we need to "sell" the sport in a different way.  I've said this a hundred times in here and I'll say it again.  The community feel of bowling is leaving.  People change jobs like they change their socks, so the 4 or 5 people that you hung out with last year (co-workers), you might not hang out with anymore, simply because you changed jobs.  So I think this is the very reason that people should join leagues.  To keep the friends in their lives.  Those 4 other people that you bowled with last year and had a good time with, well now you still can!  Stay in the league and you can see each other once a week and still have fun together, even though you might not work together.

The bowling world needs an attitude change, starting with the bowlers.  The bowlers are largely conditioned to treat people the way they do, and to act the way they act.  If you're bowling against somebody, and they throw a horrid strike, how do you react?  Do you laugh it off, crack a joke about it, or do you grow more and more pissed about it as it continues?  Your reaction makes a difference!

I think the #1 problem is the mindset that everybody is in.  It was created, and it can be changed just as easily as it was created.  The re-structuring of our leagues will also help out.  Changing the shots, changing the pins, changing the gutters...that can all wait for later.  Like Stormlefty and Srkegler said, it just isn't going to happen.

Thanks for reading.
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Brian
MichiganBowling.com
http://www.MichiganBowling.com

Famous Last Words of a Pot Bowler--"Ok, but this is my last game!"