Marshall Holman had just won his first Firestone tournament of champions when he showed up in South Florida with his attitude and ego.He and his PBA roommate(Sal Bongiorno) came into Don Carter's looking for action that usually happened after the Classic scratch league finished.

                                  Old Man Jessie was one of bowlings great characters.His nickname was "one game" Jess because he would bowl anyone one game for a hundred dollars.One game and one game only and no crying about his illegal loaded bowling ball he would use and no second game after you lost. Jessie,at 73 won many hundred dollar games  because in them years 40's 50's and 60's a hundred dollars meant alot more than today or the day Marshall asked Jess if he wanted to bowl one game.

                                  So here was cocky ,arrogant ,21 year old Holman shoeing up to bowl old man Jess one game for a hundred dollars. Jess carrying his loaded ball to lanes 15 and 16 (middle of the house) and Holman bringing his arsenol of spanking new equiptment he used on tour and at least one hundred people ready to watch this epic match.

Hollman: I need practice to line up

Jess: No practice lets do it

Hollman: I need practice

Jess: Alright no match

Jess took his ball and his one hundred dollar bill off the table and started walking away when from the bowling circle Marshall yelled to Jessie "Bring your money back old man I can beat you without practice"

Hollman: You go first

So without throwing a shot Jess had Hollman rattled and after throwing a typical Jessie nose dive strike to open the match you could see the fire coming from Hollman's ears.He added to his fury by opening his first two frames as his proffesional bowling ball overreacted leaving him with huge unmakable splits and a score of 17 in the second frame.

    With the exception of Sal (Hollman's roomie) everyone watching was rooting hard for Jess.Jess was a local handyman well liked by everybody and the current Firestone chump was despised for his well known antics on T.V. So after Jess threw two more strikes frames 2 and 3 one being on the Brooklyn side and the other a nose job again, the crowd in the back went wild.

                                         Hollman spared his next two frames as did Jessie and when Hollman struck in the 5th everyone knew he had lined up and was hoping that a 41 pin lead in the fourth for Jess would last untill the end. Hollman struck again in his 6th for his first double and like the picture in my blog he took his anger out on the booing crowd giving both middle fingers to everyone there........class act......

Most people say that when Marshall Hollman won the Firestone Tournament of Champions two weeks earlier this was what changed him from pissy attitude immature child to adult champion I say I know better . He became a man the moment he realized right there on lanes 15 and 16 that he was bowling a old man for one hundred dollars and not a single person was behind him.

                                       Marshall threw a bunch of strikes to finnish the game leaving Jessie room to win in the tenth if he could double.With the support of the gallery Jessie nosed dived again the first strike and when for the first time in the match hit the 1 3  pocket leaving the "true tap" of bowling the 8pin to lose Jessie just turned and said lovingly to his supporters "that's what I get for hitting the pocket" walked off with his head high.

                                     Hollman put his bowling equiptment away and left with Sal with head bowed and the one hundred dollars he had won still on the scorers table.He had won a game but also learned about humility.

                     Epilog

Marshall Hollman went on to win a few more Championships and became the legend he sought to become.He learned how to harness his emotions and still to this day when I talk to Sal we end up remminising about that night .

    Jessie Guthrie died within a year of that memoral night .They say that he still hops bowling alley to bowling alley in heaven asking the angels if they want to bowl one game for a hundred

DON'T EVER THINK YOU ALONE CAN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE !

Thinking back,many things happened during the time I worked the late shift at DC lanes Boca Raton.Naked bowling from all night partying to pitching quarters to the foul line for a hundred dollars a toss. I watched Pete Weber crawling on all fours (too many rum and cokes), watched Brian Voss practice every morning at 6am throwing ball after ball for hours upon hours.

                                       I learned about dedication, life ,pursuit of perfection and waste of talent. I observed class, lowclass, and everything in-between. I will never trade the years at the bowl and the life lessons I learned there.

                                               However,I would trade the day the bank across the street was robbed.It was 9am in the morning and I had just finished my shift.I was waiting impatiently for my relif that morning for I needed to relieve some bad spiggetti I ate earlier that night. When Betty finally arrived I dashed to the restroom to do my bussines unknowingly at the same time two masked men had just robbed the Suntrust bank of all thier loot and made thier escape through our bowling establishment. Yours truly was relaxing and reading the Bowlers Journal (what else) when to my surprise three Palm Beach Sherriffs entered, kicking open all stalls with weapons drawn.

                         Needless to say my constipation problem was solved and thank god noone got hurt.The crooks were caught later that day and all the money returned.

This is a repost from last year 

I would like feedback on this post...What are your favorite bowling nicknames youv'e heard around the lanes.....My favorite is Steve and Joel Rudolph from originally New York and then South Florida where I bowled against them...Individually Steve was known as "Stinky Steve" because of his distinctive smell and his brother Joel was "Slug". They were in my time the original sandbaggers that would alternate years of dumping so they could bowl together(staying under the cap) in the big money scratch league...They were hated by most because of this so when it came time for people to describe Steve and Joel they would just say we are bowling the"SMELL LIKE EACH OTHER BROTHERS" tonite......hee hee.....Mitch

Can you believe I havn't blogged since I returned from the rainforrest.I have been soaking up the outdoors all summer trying something different .I can not lie, seeing a big change in me,enjoyong Mother Nature and life in general. Here in Curacao I notice much more than when I worked in New York and Florida at the many bowling centers there.At the lanes, the only animal life was that of either the rats in the basements or the ones on the lanes pot bowling.

                                                      I am excited to be back and blogging again and look foward to telling more stories of my experiences through my years of bowling. I hope you all enjoy the up and coming league season (I miss that).I bowled some games the other day,throwing strikes and spares and now am thinking of drilling one of these new Columbia balls.

                                              The itch is back

                                                  Mitch