A key factor in our success was watching the really solid Detroit crew pound the "Secret Michigan Shot" LOL the day before we bowled. (They put their two teams on different squads so they don't beat each other up in brackets. We prefer to have total control of "managing" the environment on our lanes and split all our brackets 10 ways.) Anyway, both of their teams bowled very well and gave us a good idea that what I had seen watching Dirty's group in February was reality and that our plan was good. They were on our team squad in 2004 when they won the team title and really put a hurting on us in brackets. Figure Don would appreciate that!
In team we bowled on 7-8, which was a death pair for us in 1995 when it was the only pair with no one on it in the 7:30 squad in front of us. I went 530-726-736 that year – FRY. Anyway, lane 8 ALWAYS is tighter than 7 and it was for our squad - but not as much as it usually is when I bowl PBA regionals at the Stadium. I attribute that to our lane management. We all started around 10 board with balls with surface and just slowly moved in during the night, ending up around 20 still with strong balls. It was ridiculous how many brutal taps we had but that's how it is for everyone at the Stadium. IMHO, if this was an AMF set-up team might be 3,500. Examples: Gail had a Dutch 200, Mac finished Game 1 with a 4-7-9 (spare), strike, 4-9 (open), solid 9-spare, solid 9. And Richter's last game was X, solid 10, X, solid 8, 4 bagger. I was 28 clean until I gas-faced the 29th frame by wrenching on it and splitting. That shot made the night a lot less satisfying for me and would have been brutal if we didn't already have titles. Still, 3,261 for second was a great result. And it provided motivation fuel for the next day LOL. In brackets, we about doubled our money – about 5,000 in for squad action and about 10,000 out.
In minors, me, Steve, Mac and Shades went 15-16 to 13-14 while Gail and three of our second team guys flipped with us. A big key was Steve and I went to the Stadium to watch where the teams in front of us started on the lanes. The guys on 15-16 were mostly straight up 10, while 13-14 had 2-3 guys playing in with lots of revs, That meant we started 15-16 about 15 board with surface strong balls (2 Special Agents for me) and ended up about 20. The pair was as nice as the doubles pair we had in Baton Rouge when Steve and I won.
13-14, on the other hand, was on FIRE! I went from a 2,000 Special looking at 20 to a box shiny Shift firing it and spinning it at about 22-23. Fortunately, there were enough guys playing the track in the team squad in front of us that there wasn't any hang and it was mostly a matter of making sure you were aggressive so it didn't jump high. In the last game, I had the front 9 throwing it as hard as I can without overthrowing it. The Shift is such an awesome ball it even allowed me to carry at the Stadium LOL. I mentally screwed up in the 10th when I noticed Steve move in a little more and I stepped on the approach without a decisive thought in my mind about how to throw the shot. In retrospect I should have gone 2 and 1 left and made a nice relaxed shot instead of staying where I was trying to throw it harder, which resulted in a major punch in the forehead shot that hooked way early for a 3-6-10. We put about $2,000 in in daily brackets in minors and again about doubled our money.
NOW HERE'S THE BIG SECRET TO OUR SCORE – We only had 20 opens in 45 games. And that included just two single-pin misses and three chopped spares – the other 15 were splits and washouts. Mac also made a 4-9 and a 3-10 and TWO 3-6-9-10s, and I made a 3-10 and a 5-7 (whoops). We only had three 30 cleans among us but we had eight 29 cleans also! No 1-5-9s or 3-6-10s.
For the gamblers out there, we had some major fun playing craps at the Sands. Anywhere where the dealers crack off 2BADs! is the place to play LOL!! Plus, they treat bowlers right at the Sands.
