Blog.Treo

I, am a Natural

I, am also a nerd. A nerd in many things that interest me, bowling being no exception. Here’s the story:

It’s the final week of my league, Gutterdusters at Mont Clare. The standings are fixed and really, we’re just bowling for fun. My teammate, Tony, uses this as an opportunity to bring a couple extra orbs of destruction, a good idea on his part. It’s typically not a good idea to debut a new ball during league play. Tony knows he’ll be bowling at Mont Clare again, as will I, so what better time to test out a new ball or two when nothing is on the line?

Way to go Tony!

Tony has less hand in his ball than I. He’s a true stroker and tends to use aggressive equipment to get to the pocket on oily conditions. I, on the other hand, often find myself moving WAY left to keep my shot to the right of the head pin. I’m actually a stroker as well, but I get really good rotation off my hand. Couple that with the fact I typic…I digress.

During shadow ball, I see Tony roll a ball that I can only dream of rolling myself. Right up the 10th board. It doesn’t move an inch till the back-end and rides a rail to the pocket. Like I said, Tony rolls a straighter ball than I, but I’d never seen him roll one like this. I asked him about it and he gave me a proud grin. The kind of grin a guy gives you when you make a comment about his new car. “It’s urethane” he beamed. My eyebrow raised…it made sense. A urethane coverstock would explain why Tony’s ball rolled arrow straight till the backend. I hadn’t got a good look at it yet. It was black, dull shine, and no logo of graphic that I could see. I assumed it was a vintage ball.

When it was my turn to throw a practice ball, I asked Tony if I could use his ball. It was then that I got my first surprise: It’s a brand new ball, with inserts and a slug for the thumb. I also see the logo, but don’t pay it much attention. His span is a touch shorter than mine, but otherwise the ball fits my hand almost perfect. The thumb is snug, but bearable. After seeing him throw it, I set my feet to roll it up 10 as well. Because the thumb is snug, I take it easy. 1-2-3-4-5, roll…

Bliss!

I was prepared to be disappointed. Like I said, I have much more rotation to my stroke than Tony. I figured the ball would start reading the lane about midway down, then break way past the head pin. But that’s not what happened. It spun-up as soon as it left my hand, rode the 10th board to the back-end, and when it hit the pocket…WHAM! It crushed it. Better than my Eraser. The booming strike caught the attention of more teammates. I crossed to the other lane and waited for the ball to come back. In the meantime, I turn to Tony and shrug. The ball comes back and I give it a better look. I see that not only does it roll beautiful, it looks beautiful. Black with a sheen, but not shine, the word “Natural” in a retro font similar to Magneto, and a super cool chevron logo – all in a 1950′s inspired teal.

This time I pay a little more attention to how the ball sits in my hand. I also focus more on my marks. I threw the first ball leisurely, not really paying close attention to my feet or target. But it got my full attention now. I double check my feet, take a deep breath, test my thumb and remind myself not to let my backswing get too high. 1,2,3,4,5…

WHAM!!!

I crushed the pocket again. I took particular note of how well the ball carried through the rack. A real good strike, nothing sloppy about it. As a matter of fact, these last to strikes I threw felt too easy. Almost like I was cheating. When the game started I rolled the Natural a couple more times, each time being a resounding strike, with the exception of when I simply missed my mark. This is the ball I’ve been looking for…for years. And soon, it will be mine.

Shaking Off the Rust – and Dust

Treo of Gutterdusters V here. It’s taken a few weeks, but I think I’ve got my legs beneath me again. I bowled at the league meeting and immediately took to the lane conditions. But, for week 1 the lanes were conditioned *right* before we started. I have a respectable amount of hand in the ball and typically don’t have a problem making my ball break. I just couldn’t make the adjustment and had an abysmal night. I’ve slowly been bringing my average up, and last week saw me starting with a bad game, making the adjustment, and finishing strong in games 2 & 3. Tonight I expect to have the courage to throw my “flippy” ball in game 1 and move to the smoother ball for the duration. The flippy ball doesn’t sit in my hand so well anymore, which in the past, has caused me to throw every ball in the bag poorly. These are all symptoms of other things I could work on as a bowler, but for now, I’m just trying to make the best use of my skill set as it exists.

I didn’t bring both spheres of mayhem last week, but this week I will. I expect to throw the Big Hit in the 1st game, all the while watching the line to see how I’ll attack it with the Eraser in games 2 & 3. I’m feeling confident and relaxed, and I pity whomever our opponent is

Tweetup Bowling – Chicago Edition

We’ll be at Waveland Bowl – Addison & Western starting at 8am. Contact me for details.

voice – 773.351.6655

sms – 847.644.4414

Spikes Under the Lights v3.0

It’s REALLY hot today…I’m sure there will be dozens of people out on Columbus Dr. tonight. I’ll be making the trip around 9pm.

Oversleeping and Football Envy

That great night I had playing vBall last weekend? Yeah, turns out it cost me. I overslept terribly for my Sat. morning league. No big deal right? Wrong…I’m League Manager and I’m supposed to be there to set up the net and court.

Right after work I went to watch a bunch of my people practice for their co-ed flag football league. I’m REALLY jealous…football is my most fulfilling sport, although I’ve only ever played pick-up games. My shoulder wasn’t healed when the season started so I didn’t take the chance. I love vBall, but the first sport I can ever recall wanting to play is football. Next season I guess.

TreoBenny

voice | 773.351.6655
SMS | 847.644.4414

Another Great vBall Night Under the Lights

Last time I joined a group and played with them the duration: 5-on-5 co-ed. Tonight I started off with a small group, 3 guys 2 girls. They were playing 2-on-3 when I showed and had drawn very small boundaries in the sand. When I joined them we evened out the teams, 2 guys and 1 girl a piece. However, they never expanded the court. Try as I might to adjust, I kept feeling as though I was too close to my teammates and many of my plays went beyond the sidelines. I played 3 matches with them, rally scored to 25, before they strapped up their rollerblades and called it a night.

All this time a 6-on-6 game was going on the next court. I waited for their current game to finish and asked if I could join. These were all men from India – Chennai mostly. I played several more matches with them…maybe 5. They use techniques for setting and serving I’ve never seen in my ITZ league. It was an extremely enriching experience. The guys and I parted with hearty yet tired smiles and weak but sincere handshakes. It was after 11pm and we had all been playing for quite some time.

Here’s to another great night next week!

TreoBenny

voice | 773.351.6655
SMS | 847.644.4414

Spikes Under the Lights – Special Friday Edition

I just woke up after a LONG night on seesmic.com (check it out!) It’s pretty hot out today. I’m seriously leaning towards playing some vBall tonight on Columbus. You can reply here or email me or use the numbers below. See you there!

Benny H.

voice | 773.351.6655
SMS | 847.644.4414

Spikes Under the Lights – Week 2

After my fantabulous experience last week, I returned to the vBall court at Columbus & Balboa, but alas, this time no one showed. I’ll no doubt target Tuesdays and Thursdays to go, but I won’t go tonight. I’ll post here when I plan to go. If you read about it, be about it

Mobile Blogging at Its Finest

This is somewhat of a random thought, but one could argue that’s what mobile blogging is all about.

I play co-ed softball. I’ve only ever played on one organized team. The name of that team NOW is Diamond Dominators (3rd season.) But…the former name, (first two seasons) was Diamond Pimps. A few of us (guys) thought it was a cool name. We patterned it after the Max Julian film, “The Mack.” However, as time passed we realized that the name had much to be desired when revealed in a mainstream setting…like securing sponsorship for example. In fact, many of us became embarrassed when the associations to the word ‘pimp’ arose. Solicitation – prostitution – degradation – intoxication – smackabitchforplayinwitmymoneyation.

Tonight as I was walking from practice, I realized something. I’m wearing a Diamond Pimp (DP) jersey and a brutha waiting for the bus says to me: “y’all be pimpin dem diamonds huh?” To which I felt obliged to reply: “All the time…all the time.” It seems that, now that my team’s name ISNT Diamond Pimps, I can wear the shirt with pride. Go figure…

vBall on a Hot Chicago Night…

I could write several posts based on all that has been going on lately…school, freelance projects, my first NASCAR weekend…big, big stuff. But, I’m not going to write about any of that tonight. Tonight I’m writing about beach volleyball (vBall.)

I’ve played in a league last summer (ITZ of course) and I’m playing again this year. The difference is I’m the League Manager this year. But ITZ vBall is NOT what I’m going to write about tonight.

Tonight is a typical Chicago scorcher. Air temps in the high 80s, humidity in full force, driving the heat index way up. In short, it feels like 95. I’ve been a Chicagoan all my life and I know how eager we are to get out in the summer. On a night like tonight, there are just as many people outside at 11pm as you might expect at 6. I sent a few texts to my friends to join me for vBall downtown on Columbus drive. A pure genius decided to build a sand pit on top of a tennis court so we could not only play vBall right on Columbus drive with the skyline as the backdrop, the courts are well lit at night as well.

I wish I remembered names better, because I played with 9 really fun folks tonight. The only name I remember is Carolina…at least I hope I remember. If you’re reading, I hope those pretty toes of yours didn’t suffer severe damage. Actually, if any of you guys have made it to this page, please write me so I can edit this post and acknowledge all of you. I had such a blast! Thank you guys for letting me play and maybe we’ll play again sometime.