This installment of The One Board originally appeared in Bowlers Journal International, October, 2019
Anyone who has ever held a video camera (or cell phone, which is strangely named after the least-used feature of the device) in a bowling center has been accused of being a jinx. Anyone who has ever had the front nine, 10 or 11 strikes before failing has accused someone with a camera of being a jinx.
The cameraman jinx accusations are most rampant at the top levels of the sport—the PBA and PWBA—in which human beings are employed to capture footage of the best players in the world performing at their best.
Bowling fans and even casual sports fans like to see the 10th frame of a perfect game. Video people like to capture good content, particularly since their job is to create good content fans want to see. Hence, a person with a camera hits record as a player steps up in the 10th, three strikes from perfection. Everyone involved wants to see those three strikes.
The video person, fully knowledgeable of the potentially looming jinx-related allegations, tries to be covert as he approaches the player, even if every step yields another kindhearted joke from a fan about how this poor schlub is going to ruin a perfect game.
The player strikes on the first shot in the 10th. He walks back to the ball return, glancing up ever so briefly but long enough to catch a glimpse of the cameraman. The player’s eyes immediately dart away, but he knows the camera is there. Worse, the cameraman now knows the bowler knows he’s there. On the 11th shot, the player rolls his best attempt of the day but leaves a devastating stone 8. Next: blame the now divagating cameraman, who is already being showered with boos by the surrounding fans (many of whom, by the way, were also recording the final frame on their video cameras that can make phone calls).
Formerly, my argument against the asinine cameraman jinx was simple: there are no jinxes. It’s just that it’s harder to roll 10 strikes in a row than nine, 11 than 10 and 12 than 11.
Now, though, I know better. It is a jinx. However, it’s not a cameraman jinx; it’s a bowler jinx. It happens when the bowler glances—even for a microsecond—into the camera lens.
The innocent cameraman is trying to give bowling fans some excitement. He wants nothing more than to capture a perfect game by one of the best players in existence, then share that perfect game with bowling fans all over the world, spreading joy and cheer to those who couldn’t be there in person as well as a chance to relive the moment for those who were there.
Then, just as the cameraman is about to complete his masterpiece, the bowler stumbles over himself, throws a terrible shot and leaves a 3-6-10 for a 297, completely ruining the cameraman’s day because, as we all know, 297 is the worst score a bowler can post after rolling the first 11 strikes. 299 at least comes with excitement and hope until the bitter end of the shot. 298 is pretty boring as no one wants to look at an 8-count in any situation. 296 is usually a hilariously bad shot that took all the drama out of the result by the time the ball reached the arrows. 295 and below is simply hysterical as well as notable for its rarity. But 297 is atrocious, and now this poor cameraman has footage of it, all because the bowler jinxed him and refused to roll that last strike.
If the bowler hadn’t been there, surely the cameraman would’ve been able to capture the 300.
Bowlers: please stop jinxing cameramen. All they want to do is see you roll 300. Don’t glance at their cameras. Trust the process, take it one shot at a time and, for the love of thumb-tape adjustments, please strike 12 times in a row.