It’s bowling season, and I throw in the towel for CiCi’s Pizza

/ October 7, 2014
I warm up at Bowling Green lanes in Cicero, N.Y. (Photo by Steve Vicik Jr.)

I warm up at Bowling Green lanes in Cicero, N.Y. (Photo by Steven Vicik Jr.)

When last I reported about my Thursday night bowling league, I was considering how a summer video session could work wonders for my average come this season.

This was a special bowling week, one of two in this 2014-15 campaign that we’ll roll on Sundays, too, to make up for the dark league nights for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So I figured it was the perfect time to tell everybody about how I … didn’t pick up my bowling ball once between last season’s finish and this season’s start.

No video sessions. No practice games. I didn’t even dust off my bowling bag until I had to pick it up and put it in my car on Sept. 4.

This strategy of strict avoidance saw my average plummet from 163 to 150 after the third week of the season. They don’t list your average until nine games are in the books. That’s a good thing, because I needed to rally in weeks two and three to get the average up that high. To say I stunk in week one is an understatement of Earl Anthony-esque proportions. Go ahead, Google him if need be.

I could not get my ball to hook into the pocket. It was throw it out, watch it stay right. Repeat. Repeat. Change the line, watch it go way left. Repeat. Repeat. Change the mark and be completely messed up. Repeat. Repeat.

And then, in week four, something in my arm swing came back, or perhaps I shook hands with the headpin at a better angle, or the my foot speed and directional pitch slanted just right or the lane conditions dried …

Week five was even better than week four.

And in this week six, I rolled a 200-plus game on both Thursday and Sunday. I’m trending up, to 159, and I expect to surpass last season’s 163 by the end of this month, hit 165 by Thanksgiving and 170 by the New Year.

Who needs video? All I needed to do was keep that dangling towel out of my back left pocket and warm up for a month.

On Sunday, two teams decided to make up their session a different day, and the team we were bowling told the higher-ups they’d best bowl on Monday instead. That left the lanes to the right of us open and nobody else to distract on our set of lanes.

Steven Vicik Jr. warms up.

Steven Vicik Jr. warms up.

I decided to take advantage of that situation for an impromptu on-lane photo session during warmups, and better vantage points during regular rolling, too.

Randy Dearstine focuses during a real game.

Randy Dearstine focuses during a real game.

I’ll be writing about his crew several times during the 30-week season, I figure, so it’s time to get to know them, yes it is. This is the fourth year in a row that Steven Vicik Jr., Randy Dearstine and I have joined the team veterans, Tom Stagnitta and Tiny Hanavan, on their longtime squad.

Tom Stagnitta watches his shot. Likely a strike, I say.

Tom Stagnitta watches his shot. Likely a strike, I say.

Steve and I actually joined them two years earlier than that. Steve married Tom’s daughter, Kristin. Randy and Steve and Krissy all worked together in the past. Tiny and I were first introduced through my dear wife Karen and our friend Diane. Which somehow make us all one big happy bowling family.

Super sub Jim Santy filled in for Tiny, who was opening his hunting camp.

Super sub Jim Santy filled in for Tiny, who was opening his hunting camp.

For the third season, we’re rolling under the name CiCi’s Pizza. I want to change it. I do believe that owner Jim Santy, who is our super sub, forked over half our entry fee at the bowling banquet last season. But his Cici’s closed its doors between last season and this. Double darn. The last two years, he gave Steve a free pizza to bring to the lanes every Thursday night.

Even Santy said Sunday we ought to take the name off the squad. But Steve wants to keep it for the season.

I’d like to change it to to something that pays homage to the two guys who started the team years ago. I want to call our team Tom, Tiny and the Other Guys.

Would you keep a towel in your back pocket to dry your bowling hand even if you discovered through pictures that it made you look silly? Would you keep the team name even though the sponsor folded? What would your team name suggestions be for our sponsorless bunch?

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48 thoughts on “It’s bowling season, and I throw in the towel for CiCi’s Pizza”

  1. I don’t bowl, but your post reminded me of my parents who were both bowlers. Genetically, you can really tell I’m adopted. They weren’t great, but pretty good. If it were possible to get the ball into the right lane next to the one I bowl in, I would do it. I do remember watching Earl Anthony bowl on TV. I think Dick Weber was on then too.

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    • I used to watch bowling on TV with my parents, Cat, Earl Anthony and Dick Weber, both. They both bowled, too, my father way more serious about it than my mother. And that’s how I got started in this game. Sometimes I feel like I have a hard time keeping it on the proper land, too. Once in a while the ball shoots off to the right with a mind of its own! 😦 I’m glad I reminded you of that time with your parents

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  2. Of course you are a bowler, Mark! Dang that would be fun to bowl together. Or let me rephrase that, you bowl and I have a beer 😀 I am the worst bowler on the planet and can’t even imagine hitting 200! You go, kid! Hmmm…if I can run, maybe I can bowl? Especially if a sweet bowling league shirt was involved. Double sweet.

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    • If you can run, you can learn to bowl, Angie McFly. Especially to earn a sweet bowling shirt, I know! 🙂 It would be fun to bowl together, but I am not volunteering to go running. 🙂

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  3. If you don’t want to keep the towel in your pocket, you could thread if through your belt in the front like a loincloth. That wouldn’t look silly, I promise. 😉 Seriously, though, that’s awesome that your score is picking right back up despite your failure to pick up the ball all this time. 😀 I notice your bowling friends, unlike your golf buddies, don’t go for the nickname thing. I like your Tom, Tiny and the Other Guys suggestion, but I’d like it even better with nicknames, such as Scooter, Smitty, and the Other Guys. 🙂 Good luck bowling! 😀

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  7. Love these glimpses into the life of Mark. Duh, keep the towel. It makes you a better bowler, right? I think you should find a brewery to sponsor your team. All sorts of name possibilities there.

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    • Nah, the towel is out. I don’t think it made me a better bowler. Just a co-Winky-Dink that my average was higher when it was flapping in my left rear pocket like a wind tester, Liz.

      I don’t think our squad drinks enough on-site beer to be sponsored by a brewery. I don’t drink at all when I’m bowling. I know. Go figure. And I’m Polish, too. 🙂

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    • No more towel, because I think it threw my balance off to the left, Beth. Now I’m making up excuses to keep it out of my pocket. Oh, vanity. 🙂 Lost at C is a great name suggestion. Very intelligent. Some guys on my team might not get it. Ha-ha, only kidding guys. 🙂

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  9. Mark, you are only a shadow of your former self, and I kinda like the towel (flap, flap). You could call yourself the goose team if everyone wore a towel in the back pocket like that (quack, quack). I tried bowling several years ago and held some records at the Bowl-a-drome. I had the most gutter balls in the history of the place, and it had a long history even then. I also noticed my aim improved as my liquid intake grew. Or maybe I was just seeing it wrong, and the balls that went down the other lane next to mine didn’t actually count toward my score. The ball got lighter as the night went on though. Good thing I’m not really a big sports person, since I have crooked vision. Everything is usually about 2 ft to the left of what I see. And that’s when I’m cold sober. Haven’t done much drinking since I was 20 though. Not as much fun after I was legal aged.

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      • Since I’ve already sideswiped one car Mark, I don’t take chances any more. I don’t drink and drive–never did for that matter. My poor dad was called more times than I care to remember to come and get me and drive me home because I also don’t ride with drunk drivers. funny, he never fussed at me about it. guess he knew what the day after was going to be like.

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  11. I am smiling at the towel hanging out of your pocket, that makes you a true bowler, Mark! I can become better, as the night goes, depending on the iced drink I may be drinking… smiles!

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  13. I love how you connect with people through sports Mark! As for the team name, sounds like ci ci’s did a lot for the team. If you change the name, how can you honour your previous benefactor? A plaque maybe? Or a team photo with an inscribed message of thanks? Would the bowling ally hang such a photo?
    Diana xo

    Oh and winning is everything – towel looking stupid be damned! 😉

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    • One vote for keeping the name throughout the season, and you have very sound logic behind it, Diana. 🙂

      Unfortunately, I am falling for the no-towel approach very much. No more faux tail for me, my friend. 🙂

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  14. Lord Thundering, me son, me son – you bowl 200? Yikes! I feel proud when I break 100. I am standing in the presence of a bowling god. Ha! Of course given you bowl 30 weeks a year, all is as it should be. I am an excellent bowler when I have had 2 1/2 beers. Before or after that I am terrible. But it is a lot of fun especially with a group. And how many balls roll at 2 1/2 beers? ha! Not many – maybe 1 or 2 in a night.

    Anyway, to your team name – if Cici’s previous owner has already paid half the team support and bowls regularly with yourn team, you could aks him what he would like. There is no advertizing value left in the name, and obviously you need a new sponsor. He may want to trade the credit with another business so he gains some advantage from his contribution. (So, for instance, if he is a sportsman and knows the owner of the local sports shop, he may go to that owner and solicit the remaining necessary funds to support the team in exchange for, say, a 10% discount on merch.) Anyway, if he has already contributed, he should get some say.

    As far as your towel is concerned, I think your dilemma is quite funny. Love that image of the towel flapping along behind you as you throw. Ha! In all honesty Mark, many great atheletes have eccentricities that become iconic and emulated. Like “Tebowing”. For some others and a discussion see http://iplj.net/blog/archives/5608 That being said, your backpocket towel could easily become your trademark – you could start a new trend. Be brave and lead us to victory, Mark! (Flap, flap)

    Great post Mark – Thanks.

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    • The former owner said Sunday he thinks we should change the name. But there’s good reasoning on both sides of the aisle, as they say in politics. He was a good sponsor and there’s no harm in keeping the name. The team fee is paid for the year, so there’s no need to see another sponsor. If we changed the name, it would be a fun name, not a sponsor’s name, I think. There are sponsor-less teams in the league who pick names that reflect there personality. Last week we bowled 315’s Finest; our area code here is 315, and they all indeed were really fine bowlers. That sort of thing.

      I don’t like the flapping towel. Can’t do it now that I know how it looks. Sorry, no stab at trademarking for me, my smart friend! Thanks for your vision on these matters, Paul. 🙂

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