It’s not often, even during times of protest in Eugene, that one sees four strikes in one night.
Fortunately for my best friend and unfortunately for myself, our Monday night at Eugene’s Southtowne Lanes saw more than that.
In our first game, my friend bowled four consecutive strikes and six total, for a royal whomping of 171 to 76.
I was rusty. I swear.
The second game picked up a little for me. I tamed my inclination to spin the ball at the end of the throw — stemming from years as a softball pitcher — and managed to finish in the 90s. My friend pulled a muscle and was also held to the 90s.
Ah, the joys and inconsistencies of bowling.
It is often argued that bowling isn’t a sport. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that, but I don’t agree wholeheartedly. Bowling does resemble a sport at times.
For instance, they show it on ESPN. Granted, ESPN is not the end-all, be-all of the sports world, but a time slot on one of ESPN’s growing number of channels must mean something.
Bowling has the intricacies of baseball with the speed of basketball. We were in and out in an hour after playing two games.
These few points, though somewhat plausible, are not a case for bowling as a sport. The best case for bowling as a sport is simply the abundance of healthy competition.
The point that makes the worst case? If you aren’t willing to put in the extra money, you have to rent shoes.
Spray can-cleaned shoes aside, bowling is just another one of those quasi-sports, and whether you’re willing to call it a sport depends on your own view.
Bowling is one of the many quasi-sports that isn’t really a sport, especially if you subscribe to George Carlin’s school of thought.
I agree with Carlin’s opinion that baseball, basketball and football are the only real sports. While there are other sports, those are the three motherships.
Hockey is a weird combination of basketball and boxing on ice. Tennis is just frustrating to watch. Golf? If you try to tell me that hitting a ball, watching it fly and then chasing it down the lawn is a sport, well … I guess I just don’t understand the draw.
Bowling is one of those cult-type sports. You either love it or you hate it. If you love it, and you have the time and the money, you probably belong to a league, or two. If you hate it, you probably grew up in a small town where the only thing open past 6 p.m. was the bowling alley.
The simple act of bowling is refreshing, though. Running clears some people’s heads; for others, it’s driving. Bowling is also one of those great cleansing activities. Even if you go just to have fun with a friend or five, focusing on trying to throw a ball down a lane and hit pins at the end of it definitely makes you concentrate.
It’s not as serious as golf or as non-stop as basketball, but bowling has its positives that outweigh the negatives. Even if the local alley is the only thing open as late as IHOP.
The league aspect of bowling is frightening — some people take it way too seriously — but at least it makes for some good throwback shirts at the local Goodwill. On the other hand, bowling is a nice workout for those inactive folks who hate to run and lift weights.
Bowling is only a sport in the sense that there is a ball, you’re being active and there’s a purpose: to knock down the pins.
Although that machine at the end of the alley always wants to set them up again.