So if you bowl regularly, having a near-fatal stroke nine frames into your third perfect game in a row is not at all surprising?

I was in a junior bowling league in middle school and don't remember any coronary occurring, but then again I was 12 and I've never bowled over 257.

that article is unreadable, so boring. i dont even know what he did.lol

shot 300 tonight, 1st 3 games 794, last game 180. a stone 8 pin cost me 800. whatever, me and my wife are in 1st going into position round next week.

no, shooting 899 is pretty sick, some of how the writer describes it makes me not even want to believe all the medical stuff at the end, i dunno... but anyway it's the descriptions of all the actual bowling, the decisions, his retarded little tics, presenting all that stuff as if it's incredibly fascinating when it's really not. and i found the attempts to put bowling in the context of his life and the whole robot - misanthrope - child of divorce thing sort of clumsy and unimaginative. i guess what i meant is it's a fairly interesting story, just a really badly written article.

As someone who bowled my first 300 @12 without dying, I find this story incredibly melodramatic (not so subtle brag, i know)

Since to my surprise, I see this thread is still active. Here's some things I've seen/heard about perfect/no so perfect games...
-Long time league bowler who never bowled a 300, threw the first 11-in-row & quit league for life without finishing. A friend told me he saw this, but I never believed him.
-292, front 11 & the last shot took out the 6/9. Guy completely missed the ball at the bottom.
-Foul or gutter on the 12th shot, I've seen both.
-Senior dies before the last shot (heard this more than once, & believe I read it was confirmed once).
-The story of a bowler in the 1930's named 'the count' who allegedly threw a 300 by candle light during a pot game when the power went out.
-First 11-in-a-row I ever saw as kid, guy was super drunk & lofted his last shot to the arrows. Ball hit flush pocket, 6 wraps the 10, & the 3-pin comes forward missing the 10-pin & about 15-feet forward down the gutter.

Anybody else have some perfect/not so perfect game stories?

The story was way overdramatized. It was an 899 where the guy had a stroke in the 12th frame of the final game, but still finished. The article turned that single sentence into a way too long article.

BTW, my wife's grandmother allegedly had a minor heart attack while bowling league and insisted she finish the game. (She didn't know it was a heart attack until after the game).

good post. ive heard that 292 is the only game never bowled from some jackass. lol

A quick Google suggests it's been a lot more times than even I would think. I'm sure for the most part people legitimately tried for most of them though, while this was absolutely just a terrible shot (I tried to find a news article, this was done in the mid-90's at New Frontier Lanes in Tacoma, WA.). I've also heard of leagues with odd game pots like 292/284 etc.

It would be seriously difficult to do this with a plastic or urethane ball on a short oil pattern, so I bet there were very very few before the early 90's (possibly none). FTR, I've made a bad shot & taken out the 6/9 more times then I can count.

Going at the 6/9 would be the tough way. In warming up, I always go after a 7 pin (lefty obv) and take the 4/7 straight back way more often than I would be able to take out the 4/8 if I tried.

My favorite is when someone leaves the baby split (2/7 or 3/10) and puts their spare attempt back through the hole. Only thing topping that would be the pba washout (1/2/4/6/10) and then right back through the same spot on the spare attempt. Seen both a handful of times each.

I love the disappearing ball between the baby 2-7/3-10, every time I've seen it I thought the bowler was about to pick the spare. I personally throw a straight plastic ball at the spare, & thus never get to experience that wtf moment.

When I was a kid we called the 1-2-4-6-10/1-3-6-4-7 dinner, as in you could gamble/or make a free meal deal on getting it back through the hole. One year at nationals my buddy left it in the singles event, he was going at about a 450 pace at the time (spent all night drinking & gambling in Reno, & didn't make a good doubles partner either..but we cashed with his 540 or whatever) in the 3rd game & low and behold stuck it back through the same hole. Tony Roma's was on me that night

Unrelated, but I once saw a senior league where every time somebody got 5 & didn't hit a pin on the 2nd ball, they'd hum the theme song to Hawii Five-0 (this may be common?).

I've always thought the 3-4-6-7-9-10/2-4-6-7-8-10 was the 'PBA washout' (4 through the face), ofc terms are sometimes extremely colloquial in this sport -or- I'm just plain wrong.

I believe you need to leave the head pin for something to be termed a "washout." Thus the F4 as I know it (2/4/6/7/8/10) cannot be a washout.

100% agree, lol never even thought about it.

I was on a five man league where if someone threw a gutter on their first ball, they had to buy five cheeseburgers from the snack bar for the team. Whenever it happened one of the guys would scream "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESEBURGER" at the top of their lungs, which resulted in everyone in the house watching as your ball rolls down the gutter. It was an expensive and embarrassing mistake to make.

That is awesome! To bad poker can't have this type of public shaming. Such as when someone gets it in dead on the turn, people gather around sweating the last card & sing (some song about stupid or dead) or better yet scream CheeeessssssseBURGER!!!

615 this week, nothing came easy at all.

is there any conventional wisdom on what effect, if any, really hot humid weather has on lanes & oil patterns? one of the guys i was bowling with was saying he always bowls worse in summer because of this.

i shot 666 with a 278 the 1st game last night. we bowl for 1st place of the doubles league tonight. we are gonna crush pins! its worth 1k.

when its hot the oil gets thinner. so, i dont think the shot holds up as long as when its cold outside.