This installment of The One Board originally appeared in Bowlers Journal International, July, 2019
It’s a well-known fact no bowler has ever gotten a good break, despite the other well-known fact that all bowlers’ opponents—who are also bowlers—have been graced with nothing but good breaks since the inception of the sport. Never mind those statements being mutually exclusive; they’re both true and everyone knows it.
In the interest of public civility, bowlers have come to an unspoken agreement that allows them to silently stew over their own bad breaks and their opponents’ good breaks while publicly attributing all perceived luck as being completely acceptable because “things even out.”
The concept of breaking even is so common in bowling that players enter tournaments only after having done the math to determine where they need to finish in the standings to pay for their lodging, food and other travel expenses. Breaking even is a good thing. Finishing any higher and cashing a larger check is a bonus.
“If I stay in this hotel room for two nights, split the cost with my roommate, eat nothing and finish 30th, I break even,” says Bowler A. “Things even out.”
Once Bowler A gets to the tournament and makes match play, guaranteeing a 24th-or-better finish, he has a lead over an opponent in the sixth frame and can gain a nearly insurmountable advantage with a strike in the seventh. He rolls what appears to be a perfect shot, but leaves a devastating stone eight.
After the opponent mounts a bit of a comeback, Bowler A sends a terrible shot down the lane but luckily rolls a 2-pin in the 10th frame to clinch the victory.
“No, that wasn’t a great shot,” says Bowler A, “but that one in the seventh was the best one I threw all night and that should’ve struck. Things even out.”
Now, consider Bowler B, who qualified third for the stepladder finals. He won all three matches on TV and claimed the title by defeating Bowler C, who led the field by 300 pins into the stepladder finals and fell victim to the have-to-win-the-tournament-twice maxim.
“Yeah, Bowler C probably deserved to win this week,” says Bowler B. “But I led last week and finished second, so this kind of makes up for that. Things even out.”
Fun fact: almost every pro bowler who has won multiple times can tell you immediately how many tournaments he or she led, how many of those he or she won and how many he or she won from any position below first on the stepladder. Things even out.
These types of break-even scenarios are happening all over the bowling center throughout every round of competition.
It starts with eight games from A squad on day one. Then eight more from B squad. Then another eight from C squad. Then an exact copy of day one (aside from the ordering of the squads, of course) on day two. And another exact copy on day three. Throw in a couple more days of match play and the life has been sucked out of everyone within a 100-kilometer radius.
Finally, at the end of the fifth day, we get to the 104th game of coverage: position round. Eight players still battling for five spots and all bowling right next to each other. The players run out their strikes, yell triumphantly after good shots and make it known to their competitors they are going to earn one of those spots on the TV show. For 10 frames, there are no friends and no pleasantries.
The competition is intense. The action is captivating. The fans are delirious with excitement and their cheers are deafening. This is a true spectacle of a sporting event and it’s all going to come down to the 10th frame to determine who makes it to the show.
Things almost even out.