I am curious about how some people think.  I have seen more and more people complaining about how they have been beaten by slop.  The last time I checked the rules, ten pins knocked over was a strike.  I fail to find where it says that if your ball didn't hit the pins in the classical strike mode, meaning a full pocket hit with ten in the pit and no pins taken out by other pins off the kickbacks, that you must forfeit some of your score.  

Unless someone has changed the fundamentals of bowling, in competition such as  leagues, tournaments, pot games or whatever, a good bowler is always trying to find the area where there are as many boards as possible to miss and still carry the highest percentage of strikes.  No one in there right mind goes looking for the most difficult shot on the lane to play just to say they played it because they are that good.  So if someone has more boards to play than you do how can that be slop?  And don't tell me about luck, because I've been bowling long enough to realize that what comes around, goes around.  Sure you can get beaten by luck, but you can beat others by luck just as easily.

Also when it comes to lane conditions you hear a lot of complaining of "It's too wet!" "It's too dry!"  Not only that but you can hear both at the same time from different people on the same lanes!  Now, I am as guilty as the next person of complaining about dry lanes and I'm trying very hard to not do it anymore, but I realize that when I get my head handed to me in league on dry lanes it was my fault for not figuring out how to adjust.  A good bowler finds a way to win, period!

So, is all this complaining because the lanes are too easy sometimes and people assume they should be able to score like that when ever and where ever they bowl?  All I know is that the complaining is starting to drain the fun out of bowling.

I agree in that it appears the complaining level has gone up lately.

Sawbones – We have had this discussion before about human nature.

They have beaten this particular type of bowler 20 times in a row. But one game (or even a night) they grab lightning in bottle and everything they throw works and they kill you with a big game or set. Bowlers remember that one week not the other 20 where they killed the same type of bowler.

The other point is that bowlers think the other guy gets all the breaks. Some breaks are not as obvious as others. I’ve seen bowlers pull/push  the ball 4 or 5 boards and the ball still gets to the  pocket and strikes (boy if it doesn’t half of them will try and kick over the ball return and tell you how unlucky they are). I’ve seen them throw at washouts and miss 2 boards wide and bounce the head pin off the kickback and take out the ten. But the only ball they remember is the cross over the other guy threw.