Bowling Ball

A sixth of the Baltimore area's remaining duckpin bowling alleys went out of business during the holiday weekend, and another is switching entirely to tenpin lanes -- ominous signs that the game with midget balls and pins is fading from its nativelandscape.Slated to shut down by todayare three alleys operated by AMF Bowling: the Joppa Center in the 1600 block of E. Joppa Road in Towson, Harford Center in the 6100 block of Harford Road in Northeast Baltimore, and Middlesex Center in the 1100 block of Eastern Blvd.

Grasping a 16-pound bowling ball close to his chest, the 13-year-old Columbia boy stared down the shiny lane. He swung his left arm back, then forward and the ball hurried down toward a precise collision with the pins. A strike.The fall of all the pins did not provoke a celebration from Bob Helman, an eighth-grader at Owen Brown Middle School, only a confident smile and an exchange of low fives with his teammates. At Helman's level of bowling, strikes aren't surprises, they are expected.Bob is one of the youngest of the 30 teen-agers in the junior-major division, age 13-21, of the Laurel Boys and Girls Club bowling league.

A group of fifth- and sixth-graders at Linthicum Elementary School turned classmates into robots and ran them into walls -- all in the name of science.Under the watchful eye of engineers from Northrop-Grumman Corp. Friday, the students guided their robo-classmates through a maze as they learned about computer programming.The youngsters are taking part in Discover E, a program started in 1990 by the National Society of Professional Engineers to encourage students to pursue careers in engineering.

Roger Barnes of Edgewood won't be 21 until June, but he's already posted tenpin scores that bowlers double his agehaven't attained.The Edgewood High School graduate began his tenpin career when he was 3."If I could find someone to sponsor me I'd be on tour in a minute," Barnes said. "I think I'm ready."He's averaging 206 in the Sunday Gutterbusters, 208 in the Thursday Major Men's at Fair Lanes Edgewood and 209 at Brunswick Crown lanes in Middle River in the Friday Industrial league.He's shot two 800 sets and recently added a seventh perfect game to his string of 300s.

Reno, Nev. -- This ain't no bowling alley.With 78 lanes and 1,500 seats, this is the National Bowling Stadium. That's right, stadium. The first in the world -- a $46 million glittering temple for America's bowling faithful.It takes up a city block in downtown Reno. It's five stories high and 368,000 square feet of space -- slightly less than the Astrodome in Houston. There's a grandstand, press box, skyboxes, a lobby with marble floors and mirrored walls, a 1940s-style diner, and a 166-seat IMAX theater shaped like a bowling ball.

Kirk Janney, born and raised in Harford County, began bowling tenpins as a teen-ager; now 22, he carries a 208 average in three leagues -- Monday and Tuesday at Bel Air Bowl, Thursday at Fair Lanes Edgewood.Last month he had a night to remember."I wasn't doing anything different that night," Janney said. "My first game wasn't even up to my average."That first game was a 198; his last game of the three-game set was a 215. But that middle game was a beauty.Twelve strikes for his third career perfect game.

Mike McKenzie will be 19 years old Wednesday. It also will mark the first season in an adult tenpin league for the Manchester native.On April 13 he made sure he received a great birthday present.McKenzie had a fine youth career in the Young American Bowling Alliance. He progressed steadily from his beginning as an eighth-grader, learning the fundamentals, practicing when time permitted, bowling every Saturday morning at Hampstead Bowling Center in the YABA league, building his average every year and finally competing in youth tournaments.

Anita Manger started bowling duckpins at Fair Lanes Middlesex when she was 5 years old.The Arnold resident switched to tenpins, fell in love with the game, and has never left it.Active in two leagues, the Thursday Challengers at Fair Lanes Southdale and the Tuesday Budweiser at Greenway Bowl Odenton, she currently is averaging 188."I think that my average will start to go up," Manger said. "When I changed to the Beast [bowling ball] a lot of good things started to happen."Until the past few months, she had been using a 12-pound Rhino; now the left-hander is throwing a 13-pound Beast.

Barbie Bryant has been bowling tenpins for "about four or five years."The Ellicott City native now lives in Catonsville and bowls two nights a week -- Sunday's Colts and Fillies and the Wednesday Social Security league at Brunswick Normandy.For Bryant the league bowling is a way to escape the pressure of her work; she's a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the intensive care unit.That doesn't mean that she doesn't take her bowling seriously, she does. You can't carry an average in the 190s without concentration and dedication.

That bowling looks so simple, doesn't it? You tune into a Professional Bowlers Tour event, see some apparently ordinary Joe or Mark or Bill roll strike after strike and immediately you think, "Gosh, I could do that."Well, don't kid yourself, rookie, says ABC bowling analyst Nelson Burton Jr. Knocking down pins in your Friday night league is one thing. Doing it on Saturday afternoon, as the professionals will do in the finals of the Greater Baltimore Open from the Country Club Lanes in Rosedale tomorrow (3 p.m., Channel 2)

Bill Boucher used to bowl when he was younger, but he hadn't played in years, he said. But when he saw a Nintendo Wii game set up at the Bain Center in Columbia, he decided to try a virtual version of the game. The 80-year-old Clarksville resident quickly got the hang of it, bowling strikes and splits by holding a remote control and moving his body as though he were really bowling. "It's a weird feeling, but fun," he said during a game last week against a few other players at the center.

Climb down the stairs past the neon blue and canary yellow walls and you'll find a slice of hon heaven. Short, squat pins fly here and there as midget balls glide along the wooden boards. But it's not just duckpin bowling, the game invented in Baltimore in 1900, that most of the clientele seek at Taylor's Stoneleigh Duckpin Bowling Center. They're drawn by the down-home, slap-on-the-back flavor of the 52-year-old alley. What makes the place unique, patrons say, is that this haven for a working-class game is in the middle of a Baltimore County neighborhood better known for its soccer moms, bagel shops and tree-lined roads.

A sixth of the Baltimore area's remaining duckpin bowling alleys went out of business during the holiday weekend, and another is switching entirely to tenpin lanes -- ominous signs that the game with midget balls and pins is fading from its nativelandscape.Slated to shut down by todayare three alleys operated by AMF Bowling: the Joppa Center in the 1600 block of E. Joppa Road in Towson, Harford Center in the 6100 block of Harford Road in Northeast Baltimore, and Middlesex Center in the 1100 block of Eastern Blvd.

Grasping a 16-pound bowling ball close to his chest, the 13-year-old Columbia boy stared down the shiny lane. He swung his left arm back, then forward and the ball hurried down toward a precise collision with the pins. A strike.The fall of all the pins did not provoke a celebration from Bob Helman, an eighth-grader at Owen Brown Middle School, only a confident smile and an exchange of low fives with his teammates. At Helman's level of bowling, strikes aren't surprises, they are expected.Bob is one of the youngest of the 30 teen-agers in the junior-major division, age 13-21, of the Laurel Boys and Girls Club bowling league.

A group of fifth- and sixth-graders at Linthicum Elementary School turned classmates into robots and ran them into walls -- all in the name of science.Under the watchful eye of engineers from Northrop-Grumman Corp. Friday, the students guided their robo-classmates through a maze as they learned about computer programming.The youngsters are taking part in Discover E, a program started in 1990 by the National Society of Professional Engineers to encourage students to pursue careers in engineering.

Mike McKenzie will be 19 years old Wednesday. It also will mark the first season in an adult tenpin league for the Manchester native.On April 13 he made sure he received a great birthday present.McKenzie had a fine youth career in the Young American Bowling Alliance. He progressed steadily from his beginning as an eighth-grader, learning the fundamentals, practicing when time permitted, bowling every Saturday morning at Hampstead Bowling Center in the YABA league, building his average every year and finally competing in youth tournaments.

Anita Manger started bowling duckpins at Fair Lanes Middlesex when she was 5 years old.The Arnold resident switched to tenpins, fell in love with the game, and has never left it.Active in two leagues, the Thursday Challengers at Fair Lanes Southdale and the Tuesday Budweiser at Greenway Bowl Odenton, she currently is averaging 188."I think that my average will start to go up," Manger said. "When I changed to the Beast [bowling ball] a lot of good things started to happen."Until the past few months, she had been using a 12-pound Rhino; now the left-hander is throwing a 13-pound Beast.

Uppy Webb Jr. of Catonsville has been bowling tenpins for a long time and still doesn't completely understand the sport.Until April 5, his best game and set were 278 and 698, respectively. Not bad for a 190-average bowler, who bowls in only one league -- the Wednesday Special -- at Brunswick Normandy.Throwing a 16-pound Dick Weber Legend bowling ball (recommended, fitted and drilled by Howard Marshall), Webb pounded out his career-high individual game and set.His first game of the night was a 255; then came a disappointing 189. But Webb wasn't through.

Barbie Bryant has been bowling tenpins for "about four or five years."The Ellicott City native now lives in Catonsville and bowls two nights a week -- Sunday's Colts and Fillies and the Wednesday Social Security league at Brunswick Normandy.For Bryant the league bowling is a way to escape the pressure of her work; she's a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the intensive care unit.That doesn't mean that she doesn't take her bowling seriously, she does. You can't carry an average in the 190s without concentration and dedication.

That bowling looks so simple, doesn't it? You tune into a Professional Bowlers Tour event, see some apparently ordinary Joe or Mark or Bill roll strike after strike and immediately you think, "Gosh, I could do that."Well, don't kid yourself, rookie, says ABC bowling analyst Nelson Burton Jr. Knocking down pins in your Friday night league is one thing. Doing it on Saturday afternoon, as the professionals will do in the finals of the Greater Baltimore Open from the Country Club Lanes in Rosedale tomorrow (3 p.m., Channel 2)