First of all, here's a link to a column published a few days ago, and pay particular attention to the sixth paragraph (regarding a 707 series by Dolores Meyers) before considering the subsequent posts ...

http://www.examiner.com/article/craycraft-fires-300-game-803-set-at-englewood-where-he-now-averages-245?cid=db_articles

So after all that you have now reported Mighty Fish, do you now believe they are sandbagging? I don't know how you could say "whether or not they sandbagged the first night." You have to be smarter than just giving them the benefit of the doubt. It seems in my mind these are all low class sandbagging scum and doing it more for their own egos and to beat down their opponents, than anything that could be won in prize money in a summer league. These are the type of baggers I see in my winter league as ours is not a big money league. They are actually more frustrating because egotistical clowns like these are worse than the ones who are trying to just win cash.

Dear TDC57:

I always opt to be fair-minded, and I'm certainly not going to claim that someone is sandbagging without being virtually certain about my allegations.

Frankly, although the bowler(s) in question are from my general area, I have never met any of them, and on the basis of longtime coverage of Dolores Meyers' on-the-lanes career, I've never had any reason to suspect her of being a sandbagger, and until this recent situation, I've never heard any hint of anyone calling her a sandbagger.

However, I can certainly see how some could make a case for sandbagging, based on the early-season summer league scores shot by the bowlers in question, but I prefer to report the scores (in my bowling column) and let others decide if sandbagging is a likely (or obvious) conclusion.

And again, when I reported on Dolores Meyers' 707 series, I did note that she had started with a pair of sub-par (for her) series, but I didn't even notice the scores of her teammates at the time. When I scan a league standings sheet, I'm looking only for scores good enough to publish in a bowling column, and that's what I did in this case.

billdozer and EL3MCNEIL,

You guys make good points about it taking time to adjust after a layoff but that loses it's steam when you realize the people in question bowled a winter league this year and started a spring league soon after AT THE SAME BOWLING CENTER! Benefit of the doubt goes out the window knowing that and no other excuses are needed!! 200 average bowlers don't shoot 120 games and 400 series very often if ever unless injuries are involved.

I see your point.  Then that's up to the league to create better rules to regulate it, if not, you end up with sandbaggers!

They did in our Thursday night summer league. I had to bowl for my wife and I made a joke that great I get to start over and was going to set a 170 average. I said that as a joke cause I hate when they don't use last years average as the entering average. Needless to say when I went to turn our recap sheet in, there was several people waiting to check my scores. I didn't get any handicap and didn't expect to, but I could have had a bad night! People can have a bad night, but we know at the center if somebody is missing on purpose. We had a league in another house and if the team had the game won they didn't pick up spares. It was obvious, but it't hard to prove.

Sandbaggers know they hold the advantage because it is hard to prove without a doubt. Those that do it to gain an advantage in big money leagues are the worst. Those that do it to stroke their own egos by using it to win their (non-big money) league championships are just phonies. Anyone that has bowled for any length of time with these bowlers know when bagging is going on, but if they call it out they know there will be heated discussions over it and they usually just let it go. I think as in our league where it happened, the team was reveling in the fact they were beating the crap out of everybody, just made it frustrating. Leagues do need to try and protect itself from this but it doesn't always work. Our league has the rule that you use last years average for the first two weeks, but if only two guys on the team are doing the bagging, the team can still look somewhat legitimate as the team this thread was about, did.

But, guys please quit going on about how after the summer layoff it takes a while to get back in form. That is true, this case is totally different as it's a summer league with very little if any down time between the winter league and it.