Bake your balls boys and let the oil drip!

It is somewhat disheartening when we bowl 15 pins above the team average and get annihilated by almost 100 pins!! We took an even worse beating in the 2nd game, losing by almost 200 pins!! Fortunately, the third game combo of us having our best game (822) and the opponents having their worse (995) resulted in us escaping with 2 points, winning by a whopping 4 pins. Dan's "I'm clutch in the 10th" comment to Brian almost came back to haunt him as he tight roped his 1st ball along the gutter and left a sloppy pin placement for his spare attempt. Pat's effort for the evening, a career best 543 (199, 153, 191), were the only bowling scores worth mentioning. Nice job!

As usual, there were some classic comments made during the evening (none quite as good as the Jim D "outfit" comment last week). "It's a shame its not a mirror", "She wasn't parting the sea she was picking seeds", "All I am looking for is a little peek a boo(b)" and "The lanes are finally drying out its time to go full throttle" to name a few.

As we were leaving for the evening, Mr. 300, started telling us about some urban myth about baking your balls in the oven. My first reaction was "how do you keep your short curlys from burning?" After a little clarification I realized he was talking about BOWLING balls. I don't care what he was talking about but no one is going to put my balls in the oven.

2008 - Grab your balls we are going bowling!!!

After our 2 week hiatus Los Disablos came to the alley as a united team. Everyone wearing the new team outfit......except off course, the captain!!! It wasn't long before our opponents discovered our unified look and had a nice little laugh. Although Brian's apparent snub and or boycott of the T-shirt did inspire one of them to ask: "what's wrong with him, didn't he get the e-mail?" I'm sorry Brian, I know Scott's shirt says "captain" on it, but please, get with the program.

It was somewhat alarming to see Los Diablos at 0-7 and at the bottom of the standings as they have re-set the league for the 2nd half. Despite an un-inspired 1st game 778 (11 below average) we actually dominated the opener by over 70 pins, thanks to Pat (177) and Rick (191) keeping us alive. The 2nd game we regressed, bowling a 762. Rick again bailing us out with a 198. We did rebound in the 3rd with a solid 826. Rick (202), Jim (190) and Dan (183) led the solid effort.

Brian, taking the T-shirt boycott a step too far, turned in a girl's 7th grade intramural league effort with games of 125, 119 and 120. Wow! When are you getting that new ball? We did manage to take the night 5-2, perhaps inspired by the shirts or a visit from former sub Jim D. Some classic comments were made, though none as disturbing as the "Wow, Jim, you really look like you are bulking up!! You really fill out that outfit!"

Free balln' is ok but free fallin' is not!!

The good news was that when we showed up we found out that we were in 2nd place as of the end of the 1st half of the year, thus ensuring us a spot in the spring playoffs. The bad news is that in the current state of free fall from 1st that we are currently in we may have that playoff spot taken away from us if things do not turn around. Boys, you can free ball if you choose, but free fall is not good. We took another 0-7 beating. Two weeks off before we see where that puts us in the standings.

We actually did not bowl all that bad, with Pat (523), Dan(518) and Jim M. (504) all exceeding 500 series. Brian seemed re-energized with a 473 and J.D. brought up the rear with a 405.

An unexpected gift from Santa's helper lifted the teams' spirits and everyone is looking forward to the edge our new shirts will give us.....Grab your Balls, we are going bowling! Let's get back on track.

"Average" just does not cut it

Our poor showing from the week before dropped us to 2nd place for the 1st time in a long time. The plan was to stick to the goal of bowling our average and letting the handicap do the rest. The good news....we bowled above our average all three games. The bad news.....team "Any old strike" played to their namesake and blew away their average in the 1st two games. We were down 0-4 and 94 pins going into the last game. With our 1st half play-off spot in jeopardy and the old guys on the other team getting tired, we saw a slight chance to salvage the evening and possibly scratch out 3 points.

Brian rose to the occasion, saving his best effort (191) to the last game on the way to an impressive 495 series. I am not sure but I believe Brian had a little glimmer of realization that a weekend session at the alley can be beneficial. Dan's solid 563 series (1st game of 226, a personal high) and Pat's strong 509 helped keep the evening from being a total disaster. Subbing for sub J.D., Jim H. cancelled his trip to New York just to hang out with the boys, drink some beer and throw the rock. As always, Jim was right at or above his average.

We did win the last game and were close to taking the series (losing by only 14 pins). Next week is the end to the 1st half of the season, let's ALL step up to the plate and lock in our playoff spot.

The noose tightens!!!

It's all about bowling your average. Captain Brian has sung that song numerous times and we have seen it work out numerous times. Unfortunately Los Diablos bowled below their average every game and the results, although painful and unfortunate, were not unexpected. An 0'fer!!! 0 and 7, skunked, ass-whooped.
With the exception of Dan's respectable 522, all members saw their averages take a kidney punch, no one even reaching their average in any game! One postive note was Brian continues to climb towards the elusive (at least in the last 3 weeks) 400 series with a 392. Looks like he has put those 380's in the rear view mirror.

With our "solid" effort this week, we may have sunk to 2nd place in the standings. Fortunatley, this upcoming week is a position week and we can control our own destiny. We need a collective team pep talk, we need to pick up the king pin, pick up those one pin spares with the width of 2+ balls and get back to smelling our balls. J.D. will be subbing for hop along Rick and hopefully we will pick up some steam heading into the final weeks of the fall season.

Week 13 and week 14 updates

Week 13 (11/20/07) we were without the services of big Jim who was out in the wilderness guarding sheep on Brokeback Mountain.....or was it hunting deer in Wisconsin? Either way we missed his wit and wisdom. With Todd R. throwing the hook with a houseball on the way to a 450 series, we won the evening 5-2 by a total of 3 pins!!! Thank goodness Brian stepped up his game from the previous week's 383 and coaxed another 6 pins to fall this week. The 389 series put us over the top. Pat and Rick led the team with a 508 and 512 series.

Week 14 (11/27/07) The standings sheet reflected our slim 1 point lead on the previous week's sheet (50 to 49) had grown to a 6 point margin on the strength of last week's 5 pointer and the 2nd place team's 0-7 effort. Thanks to a 3rd game rally, we were able to squeak out 2 points and ensure that we will still be in first place next week.

With the exception of Rick (202 and 179) all team members were below their averages for the 1st 2 games. This led to team scores of 772 and 763, well below our team average of 787. This stellar effort led to a good ole' fashion ass kicking and we were down 140 pins with only 1 game to go and our 1st place standing in jeopardy. A shot of tequila later and the team rallied for a 3rd game score of 902, all team members except Dan exceeding their averages. Dan, throwing a strike and falling across the foul line for the 2nd time this year, has been banned from using the men's room for the rest of the year.

Some notable scores from the evening: Pat entering into the "less then girly" territory with a 114, Rick with a career best 216 (previous 211) and an awesome 597 series (previous 536). One can only think what would the score have been if he had not left the 9th and 10th frame open in game 2 and had not thrown the dreaded gutter ball in the 10th frame of the 3rd game. Pat achieved the 3 strike turkey and Rick the 4 strike burrito. As Rick pointed out later, maybe if Pat was not wearing the size 14-16 boys pants he had on, he could have achieved the burrito, too. Based on Pat's "no-hands" package adjustment, seems as if he could have used a pair of Sansabelts with a skoatch more room in the crotch.

Huh oh, we stubbed our toe!

Hot off our 5-2 week against Morningwood from the week before, Los Diablos entered week 12 solidly in 1st place with a 50 and 27 record and up 6 in the "won" column. Welcoming back team captain Brian and super sub Jim H., we were feeling pretty good.....until we started to bowl. The team average had crept to a franchise best 791 on the strength of solid weekly team efforts usually paced by 1 or 2 members having exceptional weeks. There were no exceptional efforts ths week although Jim H. did improve his average by over 3 pins.


Now on to the gruesome details. If a score in the 120's is girly, what do you call a score 30 pins BELOW that? Although a 92 would probably place in the top 10% of the Naperville area Brownie bowling tournament, unfortunately this is the Villa Park men's league and they will not allow us to use bumpers despite the obvious fact that they would certainly help. A no-show series of 414 (138 for each game, 10 below average) would have done the team better than the childlike 383 series turned in by our fearless leader.

On the strength of a final game 212 Dan stopped the downward trend of the last 4 weeks and actually increased his average 0.8. Pat bowled right at his average and for the 2nd consecutive week was the king of Huntington, edging out Jim M. once again. Even captain Brian took note and pointed out this recent trend to the man who would be king. Always the wordsmith, Jim replied "Look at this, I'm taking crap from Mr. 383!!"

Let's re-group and hope that the 2nd place team did not take 7 last week.