Pro Bowling

Who besides me remembers the pro bowling tour on the Wide World of Sports? Bowling has been reduced to some dumb jokes about small towns lately. But it really was a popular game when I was growing up.

I always enjoyed playing and watching it, too. My Dad used to root for Dick Weber and I always rooted for Earl Anthony. Mark Roth was a Hell of a bowler, too. So was Marshall Holman, but he was a little too flashy.

Anyone else?

Mark was a good friend of mine growing up. We first met at age 12 when Rainbow Lanes (on Knapp Street) opened. We were in a junior league together. I was a pretty good bowler then, averaging 144 and I was third in the league. But Mark was head and shoulders above everyone even then (he was averaging 160).

We went to junior high and high school together (he never graduated high school) and I tease him now remembering when we cut classes one day to go into the City to see a bowling exhibition at the then new Madison Square Garden. Andy Varipapa was doing trick shots and we were watching when, all of a sudden, Dave Davis (then one of the top pros on the tour) came over and said 'hello' to Mark (who at that point was in a few pro-ams). I was really impressed and Mark never let it get to his head.

Anyway, he had a stroke a few years back and we joked that both of us now need canes.

I remember watching bowling with my pops years ago. We went bowling a lot too since he was on a team. Are you as good of a bocce player as you are a bowler? Maybe it's an Italian thing we like to watch a ball roll down a lane or court

Very cool SC.

Yeah, I remember you mentioning Roth to me years ago, SC. I guess it slipped my mind. I remember reading about his stroke, too. He was way too young for that (not that there's a "good" age for one). I also remember reading that he lives way upstate now.

Yeah, he's waaaay upstate now near Oswego. He opened a small bowling alley up there a few years ago. Gotta take a trip up there and bowl him now. It'd be a REAL handicapped match.

Aahh, don't say that. You still have a few good years left .

But Oswego? That makes your neck of the woods look like Downtown Brooklyn. My brother has a hunting cabin not far from you, in Liberty. He loves it .

Yea, I bowled my high game was 268. I had a lot of 200 games. My brother in law had a decent amount of sanctioned 300 games.

When the automated scorer was invented I thought that was the best thing since bullets.

I used to go bowling at stadium lanes right across the street from the old Yankee stadium.

Later I tried to bowl in every bowling alley in Brooklyn.

You know what's bad I had a bag that held two bowling balls. Everyone once in a while I would ball a 130 game. It looked really bad.

I had to wear dark shirts when I bowled. I had a habit of resting the ball on my shirt. Where a light colored shirt it would leave a dirt mark on the shirt.

I tried everything to get better. I had the balling glove with the pad on the palm was supposed to give you more lift. I had the wrist brace. I had every fucking thing and still was never consistent.

My thumb used to rip because I bowled too many games. Had to use something they called new skin to replace the skin warn off.

There used to be a stupid bowling show in NYC called bowling for dollars. Guy went on it that could not bowl for shit for chump change. That show made me laugh out loud. Guy bowls throws a gutter ball and says I did not keep my thumb straight

I did have a fight in a bowling alley once. I grabbed him by his pants and ran down the lane with him and threw him into the pins.

I remember the old bowlers like Ray bluth, the left bowlers Earl Anthony, andy varapola they set up 7 10 split he would throw two balls at the same time and get both pins.

There was a guy before dick webber forget his name. Slow approach he could not extend his arm out for some reason. He was the best for years I can not remember his name.

I have seen Mark Roth Boul in Brooklynyes Rainboul lanes on knapp street.

Remember knapp street pizza once in a while I will buy a scilian pie from them.

There was a bowling alley under the L train across the street where they filmed the French connection. All the pro bowlers including Mark Roth would bowl against each other for money. There were some guys in that who I never saw before who were beating everyone.

Don carter was the guy I was thinking of. Remember Harry Smith, Billy weylou I looked up the PBA hall of fame. It's in Texas as a big bowling pin in front of it.

Remember duck pins throw a botchie ball type ball you get three balls to make a spare. I had to go up state to kill someone. Haha just kidding I think and thought it was a real bowling alley to kill time get the pun.

I get my pizza delivered from a place in Liberty!

Ave M Lanes. Guy named "FishFace" owned it. I saw many BIG money games there including Mark.

Mark lived two blocks away from Rainbow Lanes (in an apartment building on Avenue V - I think). He spent HOURS each day there. He started out with about a 10 step approach (little baby steps) but even way back then he could really crank the ball. He got a job pinchasing and then oiling the lanes and then as a mechanic, all while in high school. He ended up buying the lanes after he became a pro.

He was on our school bowling team and junior year he told me I should try out for the team, telling me I was good enough to make it. I knew I was a good bowler but I had no confidence at all in myself then. So I smoked a joint right before the tryouts and went on to roll a 98 in my first game. I found my line in the second game tryout and rolled a 242 but I missed the team by two pins (since it was total pins for the two games).

This is like memory lane for me

Lefty bowlers always did well because not many people bowled lefty so the left side of the lane held the ball better then the right side of the lane.

There was a guy Eddie Feigner had a famous soft ball team the king and his court. They hsrdly ever lost a game. He also bowled blind folded held a 190 average bowling blind folded.

Sorry to join this thread late. PB, bowling was actually on before Wide World of Sport. It was on from 3pm to 4:30 then WWofSports came on. We watched those two shows religiously. Dick Weber and Earl Anthony were unstoppable. There was a younger, good-looking guy who starting to take over the top spot; can't remember his name. But there were some lesser known guys like Gus Lampo great name. Then Mark Roth dominated for awhile. He had a powerful ball.

I bowled in leagues for awhile. Nothing high end; beer leagues. One year I had a 166 average, bowled a 626 series with a 260 game. That was the pinnacle of my career. I'd probably be in bed for a week if bowled three games today. We had fun; beer frames and if we were having a shitty night...shots of Wild Turkey.

You're right. I'm in the habit of remembering ALL Saturday afternoon sporting events as being on The Wide World of Sports.

My mind is slippin, MC. It's like the man says: I'm an over forty victim of fate .

It's really a travesty how few bowling alleys are left in NYC compared to even 20 years ago when I was child watching my dad and listening to stories about my grandfather Dom LaBargo.


http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-For-The-Mob-Redemption/dp/0991128915

A guy named Bob Perry from NYC put out a book recently called Bowling for the Mob, which discusses how much mob presence was around the action bowling that took place at that time. I'm not sure how much of it is really factual (I believe he claims Gotti had money on him at some point), but maybe some of you can shed some light on it.

Also, Mark Roth is doing pretty well now actually, I believe he's mostly recovered from that stroke. He posts in a facebook group called Where Have All the Bowling Alley's Gone?, which discusses exactly what it sounds like lol.

He had gall-bladder surgery recently and he still needs a cane to get around but otherwise he's doing OK. He owns a small bowling center way upstate, NY, so he's still in the business he loves.

I watch it sometimes on weekends. I got interested in it upon hearing that Jerome Bettis was a competition bowler.

I remmeber going with my mother when she went bowling. She used those small bowling balls.

Duck pin, Oli.

What kid goes bowling? They got those little flat rectangles that they work with their thumbs. How exciting.

Joining this thread late:

Bowling alleys (at least in NYC) were on the seamy side--like pool rooms, you had to be at least 16 to enter--until the late '50's, when automatic pinsetters really took off. Then there was a frenzy of building, with 50-lane bowling buildings not uncommon. Bowling also was televised: "Whispering Joe Wilson" (anyone remember him?) was the commentator. He "whispered" because he didn't want to disturb the pro bowlers. Don Carter was the top bowler.

My friends and I used to take the subway to downtown Brooklyn to bowl at Nevins Lanes, which had human pinsetters and duckpins. We also used a place near Grand Army Plaza. Then two gigantic bowling establishments opened up not to far from us: Seaview Lanes on Flatlands Avenue between East NY and Canarsie, and another one (name escapes me) on Linden Blvd. They were so popular that you had to wait at least an hour or two on Friday or Saturday nights to get a lane.

Remember Maple lanes on 60 street always a popular bowling alley went out of business last year. But I mention a think their are not promoted bowling alleys hidden in the bowels of grammer schools here in Brooklyn.

I said my daughter had a birthday party in a school basement either on 65 street or 60 street can't remember which school. It had a bowling alley, disco room heck it had a speak easy like characteristic. I thought this would be a good place to run an illegal gambling game. It even had a bar.Church was Regina Pacis.

When I first moved to Brooklyn I looked at a house at the beginning of Gerristen ave. it had a full size in ground outdoor pool with a cabana and a shower to rinse off chorlene. Basement had a full size bar with s juke box and two slot machines and a crap table. even had a false wall concealing another room. It also had a hidden floor safe.

I wanted to buy it, but my wife wanted to live some where else. Plus it had way too much wood work through out the place.

In Brooklyn their we're a lot of pool rooms. They all had pictures of Jackie gleeson as Minnesota fats from the hustler on their walls. Man I liked that movie.

A lot of those pool rooms were owned by a guy named Jackie Cannon. That guy was a real pool hustler.

Later he sold most of his pool room but kept one on flatbush ave near ave K. I met him in that place. I was a fair pool player. But this guy was great and he was also a great guy.

Later he sold that pace and tried to open up an entertainment center in NJ lost track of him after that.

Check out this list of Bowlings 50 greatest. SC, Mark Roth #5. The guy I couldn't remember is Nelson Burton Jr. He became a color analyst. One guy on the list is Joe Berardi. He used to bowl at our local lanes.

PBA 50 Greatest

Cool. Thanks for posting that link, MC.

Any top 50 list without Ray Bluth on it just ain't right!!

The thing that sticks out the most in that list is Pete Weber being number four. To this day he never really gets the credit he deserves because he was always overshadowed by his father.

My point is, Pete Weber was a GREAT bowler in his own right. He's not Dale Berra trying to live up to Yogi .

Who do you think you are? I AM!

Who is tenpin477?

Just a 2teen average house hack who wishes he could throw it a quarter as good as Pete Weber does