As I say hello to Monday, I wish the I could just get an I.V. of coffee. It's cold, my back hurts, and I just cannot wake up! At any rate, Monday is here and I need my 'morphine', so here we go.
So TGIF didn't happen this week due to a scheduled break, so at the last minute, I floundered on entering a local tournament. I had myself completely talked out of it since I didn't want to focus on the tourney and then turn around and get on a plane Monday (today) for meetings in New York. Roll on Saturday morning and I find out that my meetings had been canceled. Going through my list of do it or don't do it, I decided not to roll the tournament because my mind just wasn't prepared for it. With my mental game being a bit shaky right now, the last thing I wanted to do to myself was spend a few hundred on a tournament that I didn't have a chance to money in. And it's not even really about the money, it's about the fact that I would look back on a poor showing and just become increasingly pissed off at myself. Next time... and I will be ready.
This week PBA League action featured the Silver Lake Atom Splitters and the Dallas Strikers dueling it out for a slot into the semifinal round. Chris Barnes for the Atom Splitters took on Norm Duke of the Strikes in the head to head match worth one point. Early on in the match, Duke just could not generate enough pin action to trip out the 10 and quickly fell behind Barnes who could only strike. Duke, the only player/manager of any PBA League team, quickly benched himself for the 14lb rolling Rhino Page, who is recovering from wrist surgery. The move wasn't to try to win the match, but to get an understanding how that 14lb ball and his repaired wrist would carry on the deck. What turned into a game where Page was pacing Barnes for a possible 300, it was not to be. Barnes went high in the 10th and left the nasty 4-6-7 split for a decisive 265-208 win.
In the second match, it was a fight for survival. Neither team could take over and just run away. The Atom Splitter's pair of Barnes and Bryon Smith and the team of Duke and Mike Machuga of the Strikes showed the viewers why spares and high pin count matter so much in competition. Trading punches of spares, sprinkled with a rare strike or two, it came down to the 10th frames with Smith needing to 9 count to tie or a strike to win. The ball off his hand looked a bit soft and proved to be just that as it hit the pocket leaving an 8 count for the one pin loss, 195-194.
With the points tied up 1-1, the triples match became the momentum match to swing into the finals which would be critical in taking the day. The Atom Splitters sent up a power house trio made up of Dom Barrett, Wes Malott and Tommy Jones, with the Strikers represented by the technicians of the game, Rhino Page, Amleto Monacelli, and Dave Wodka. Today was a day where power won out, strike after strike from the Atom Splitters prevented the Strikers from every really being in the match with a commanding 213-184 win.
In the final match, the Dallas Strikers had to win the Bakers game to snatch the win away from the Atom Splitters. Using the full roster of Duke, Machuga, Monacelli, Wodka, and Page against Barnes, Smith, Barrett, Malott, and Jones, both teams knew what was on the line. Like a slow rolling ball, the Strikers took up until the 7th frame to really get rolling full speed, which in a single game is a tough situation to recover from. However, it looked like the bowling gods were looking down and flashed the pins with a messy 2-8-10 split left by Jones in the 10th frame, cracking the door open just enough for a chance to pass the win over to the Strikers. Page and his 14lb ball stepped into the 10th frame needing to sheet out in order to pull out a one pin win, but today was not to be his day. On his first shot, the southpaw left a stone 7 pin giving the match and the passage to the semifinals to the Silver Lake Atom Splitters. 205-185.
Next up is the final elimination match up show casing the Philadelphia Hitmen lead by Bill O'Neill versus the Pittsburgh Jack Rabbits captained by Finalnd's golden bowling boy, Osku Palmeraa on March 23rd. It's going to be a good one!
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