Bowling Ball

To practice or not to practice -- it's a question that keeps coming up time after time.On the one hand are the bowlers who tell you that without practice a decent average is impossible; on the other hand are the folks who don't practice and still put up the numbers. So far this season we have at least one of each at Brunswick Normandy -- Jeff Baker and Richard Lockie.Baker, a Nebraska native who lives in Ellicott City, bowls in three leagues -- the Thursday Mixed and the Friday BG&E at Normandy and the Monday men's league at Fair Lanes Kings Point in Randallstown.

Thirty years ago Sam Rothman put a duckpin bowling ball into his daughter's hand. Anita Rothman, now of Carney, has never put it down for long."My dad started me bowling at the old Northwest lanes on Reisterstown Road," she said. "My first league was at Fair Lanes Pikesville. I've never lost my love for duckpin bowling."Not even when cancer struck in 1991. After surgery, Rothman returned to the lanes."I just wanted to enjoy bowling again," she said. "I missed a lot of the 1991 season and I just wanted to get back in competition after the surgery.

Some bowlers remember the time when the only tenpin ball you could purchase was rubber. Some remember when only polyurethane was available. Some of the younger bowlers think that reactive resin balls always have been around."

Pitching a baseball and throwing a duckpin bowling ball could place a lot on strain on your arm, because baseballs are thrown overhand and duckpin balls underhand. That stretches arm muscles in different directions.But Larry Schillenberg of Chesterfield solved the problem with little difficulty. He throws the baseball with his left hand and the bowling ball with his right hand."I started bowling when I was 7 years old," he said. "And right-handed worked just great, but when I picked up a baseball it felt wrong to play the game that way, so I switched to the left hand [for baseball]

The Secret Service detail at the White House operated without the services of Jim Klock for about a month this summer."I finally had to have to surgery on my shoulder," said Klock, a Columbia resident. "Whenever I threw a [bowling] ball, the pain was intense."It wasn't bowling that did the damage to my shoulder. "It was throwing a baseball that started the problem. It compounded a problem with the alignment of the arm and a shoulder that I had since I was a kid."Klock was a pitcher in high school and college and, as most pitchers do, lived with discomfort and pain in his arm."

Ginny Blackowicz, marketing director for Hampstead Bowling Center, has named her Young American Bowling Alliance and National Duckpin Youth Association Saturday morning leagues "The Stars of Tomorrow."Which ones will make it to the top? Who can tell? But Blackowicz predicts at least two young tenpin bowlers will have future success."Tammy Fisher and Mike McKenzie," Blackowicz said, "I'm surthat these two youngsters are stars of tomorrow."Fisher, 18, and a 1993 graduate of North Carroll High School, is a freshman at Villa Julia College, majoring in elementary education.

Nine years ago, Walt Cervenka crushed his bowling hand during a drag racing accident at Capital Raceway.The tragic episode ultimately propelled Cervenka into the bowling business and into developing what he says is the best system for fitting and drilling tenpin bowling balls.It's called Photo Fit. Cervenka, the owner of Cervenka's Pro Shop at Fair Lanes Ritchie in Glen Burnie, actually makes a photocopy of a bowler's hand to more accurately drill a bowling ball.But back when he injured his own hand, Cervenka didn't own a bowler's pro shop.

Kay Connors and Mike Dawson have a foolproof plan for winning tenpin tournaments: never lose a match.That is exactly what the two Harford County bowlers did in the Harford Lanes 32nd Invitational tenpin tournament at Aberdeen.The event is scratch bowling against the cream of the Harford Lanes tenpin bowlers -- 108 bowlers who have thrown a minimum of 150 winter league games are invited to participate in two divisions, 54 men and 54 women. The double-elimination format guarantees everyone a chance to do well.

What's it take to jump from the Young America Bowling Alliance junior bowling program to the adult ranks?Dedication and talent, for sure . . . and a tough mom for a coach."

Last week, 2,000 bowlers from all over the country gathered in Las Vegas for the National Amateur Bowlers Inc. 10th annual Nationals.The event featured 12 tournaments over seven days of non-stop bowling on the 106 lanes of the Showboat Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center, the largest bowling center in the world.And when it was over, the Crofton Keglers captured first place and $2,000 in the team event.Dotty and Brant Sheldon, mother and son, teamed with Bobby Shuyler and Lou Castlemen to post an outstanding score of 2,390 for the three games that earned them the title.