Must have been a full moon...

[Gates]

Ok, so as some of you know (and even less care), I am the president of my Thursday night league. We've had our ups and downs, including our secretary quit the league over harassment issues. Nothing like last night.

The lanes broke down in the third game. And not normal break down. They fell apart. 220+ avg bowlers were rolling 130-150 with 5 or more splits per game. And it wasn't just the lanes falling apart. PEOPLE fell apart.

I broke up two fights last night. TWO. I haven't broken up a fight since I worked the door at a bar 5 years ago. This was beyond childish. A notorious grump was rolling a tough third game, and kept making ball change after ball change. His 4 ball roller was behind the table where his team was sitting, and after a bad split, he grabbed his ball off the rack, and threw the ball into his bag from a decent distance away. What he didn't see was another bowler walking behind the table, right in his trajectory. Poor sap took a 15# ball to the shoulder, clearly startling but thankfully not injuring him. The two exchanged stares, and when not even a muttered apology was offered, the man who was hit with the ball just lost it. Understandably so, but still. These two grown men were face to face screaming bloody murder at each other. I managed to get between them right as they started shoving each other. I sent one guy outside to have a smoke and calm the hell down, and gave the other a stern warning that we do not throw bowling balls under ANY circumstances. As I was doing so, I heard another bowler slam a table and scream the F word very loudly, followed by another scuffle. Evidently, when he pounded his fist on the table, he spilled a pitcher of beer on his own teammates who didn't take kindly to the offense. So now, I had to run down to lanes 1 and 2 and break up a fight between teammates. The VP got there before I did, and was pulling the two men apart when I got there in time to hear what had happened. The lane attendant was called, the mess was cleaned, and order was restored, but the rest of the night was just spent on edge.

So it was close, but thankfully I can still say I've never seen a punch thrown at a bowling alley. YET.

[BubbaRay]

WOW Gates, sure sounds like one heck of a night on your hands. There is no excuse for throwing a bowling ball at all. In one of my leagues a few years back, one guy who had a bad night threw his ball from the setee area out toward the wall which is around 15 feet away. Luckily no one was hit or hurt and he was expelled from the leauge . No second chance.

The screamong and banging of tables and ball returns and kicking the chairs has no place in bowling either. As long as you warned them make darn sure they understand that any future actions like this will not be tolerated and is cause for suspension or removal. I do not envy you havint to put up with these actions but you handled them very very well like a Gentleman should have.

[Gates]

Believe me, Bubba, I was as glad as anyone that the VP and I got in between both altercations before anything more than shoving took place. I'm no gentleman in a brou-haha. If punches were exchanged, both parties would have been quickly "subdued" and removed from the alley, bouncer style. There's no excuse for fisticuffs at a bowling alley, much less in front of women and children. After the final game was rolled, ALL involved parties were convened, and stern warnings were issued.

For those who don't know, most bouncers (self included) are trained in either jiu-jitsu or krav maga, which emphasizes take downs and holds over striking. Since it's illegal (in Maryland, anyway) for a bouncer to strike even the most violent patron, we have to know how to subdue and extract a person without hitting or harming them, although I've had to choke out more than one drunk who just wouldn't calm down and stop swinging at anyone near them. I quit the business when I hit 27, quoting Danny Glover's "I'm too old for this sh*t". There's only so much drunken fratboys you can take before you burn out on it. In every situation the first choice is always diffuse the fight with words, not actions. Anytime you can step between two people and calm the situation down without a single punch thrown is success. Agression is always the last resort. No exceptions.

Bar politics shouldn't even be an issue at the alley. I'm still mad that people disrespect a game I love by acting like children and fighting. I tried to resolve the situation last night calmly, but I know I let more than a little contempt show for the agressors, and I regret it already.

[Dave34]

If I got hit in the shoulder with a bowling ball and the guy didn't apologize, I would punch him in the face.

Right after I got done crying on the floor.

[Lonewolf300800]

Gates, you've certainly having an eventful year in this league so far. I commend you for your patience and perserverence. We need more level headed, caring people like yourself to help guide this sport into the future. I've been in your position before during the 2004-2005 season. I was the secretary for a Friday night league at a little 8 lane center here in town. One of the bowlers had his two teenage children bowling and didn't want to fill out and pay for sanction cards for them or sign the necessary parental consent forms. I would kindly ask him for his signature and let him know that they would be considered illegal bowlers per the current rules and any wins could be subject to forfeiture. The next time I left my lanes to go ask him for his signature, he just snaps and comes at me in anger fists raised and swinging. Big mistake on his part, as my Marine Corps training kicked in and I defended myself. By the time things were broken up the cops were there, but no one was arrested and no charges filed after the man agreed to sign the consent forms and pay for the sanction cards. Not a night that I am at all proud of in any way, I was only defending myself, but fighting has no place in bowling nor do any of the shenanigans you had mentioned.

[tyketto]

I pretty much agree with everyone else. Contempt or not, you did the right thing, and I know of men (and women) that would have done much less.

What kind of gives me the chills in my spine is that the first fight I ever saw in my life happened at a bowling alley, and just as my mother's league ended and the next one was to begin. I was 6 or 7 at the time, and everyone in my mother's league knew me. I mean, you know how you are as a kid running around a bowling alley week after week. Everyone gets to know you.

Well, my mother's league was having a meeting or so, when during the next league's warm-up, two guys start arguing about some problem they had outside the alley that they brought into the alley. Pushing/Shoving occurred, one guy threw the other guy up against a wall in front of the arcade, the 2nd guy through the first guy up against the lockers.. I remember someone stepping between them to break it up with the last thing happening was one guy's left hook connecting to other guy's right jaw.

Police came up, and that was the last I saw. From then until I grew up, I was petrified of men's leagues, because I thought that happened as par for the sport. Keep in mind I started bowling when I was 4, and my first league (granted, a learn-to-bowl league) was at 5. If the fight was what was to happen when I bowl in adult leagues, I was scared ****less.

If it weren't for Saturday Afternoons with Anthony, Roth, and Hollman, and being true gentlemen for the game, I would have quit, never to look back again.

BL.

[Rowdy]

I know and care that you're the Prez on the league. Been there,done that,burned the T-Shirt.

You are way more benevolent than I would have been. The guy that threw the ball??? Gones-ville. Pack it up and hit the road,Slick. The guy that hollered the "F" word??? See ya. Go holler that crap in a bar somewhere else. Grownups should know better.

The only way to prevent "bar politics" in a bowling alley is to have a non-drinking league.

Hope you made it abundantly clear to both these Sesame Street dropouts that they're on a very short leash the rest of the season.

You also have nothing to feel regretful over. Unless they cause more crap,and then you'll regret not giving them the heave-ho.

[Gates]

Yeah, so even after I warned both involved parties from last week, I get a call from my local USBC rep stating that someone at the alley filed a complaint about the behavior in my league. So now, instead of having already confronted the guilty parties from last week, according to my rep, I have to convene the captains before we roll tonight to issue an official warning that such behavior can and will result in suspension of USBC membership and banishment from the league.

The simple fact that I must address a group of people who are mostly older than I am in order to scold them like children upsets me a tad.

I think I'll take Rowdy's advice. I've been Prez, Vice, and Secretary. Now I will never do this again. ;)

[VmsTopGun]

Time to issue yellow and RED cards.

[BubbaRay]

The simple fact that I must address a group of people who are mostly older than I am in order to scold them like children upsets me a tad.

I think I'll take Rowdy's advice. I've been Prez, Vice, and Secretary. Now I will never do this again. ;)

Gates, if they were old enough to act like children , they are old enough to be scolded like children. Did that make any sense?