The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-01
FINE PHILOSOPHY
OF THE TEN PINS
Causes and Reasons, Powers
and Laws Cited
HARD TO BE CONSISTENT
lis One Game In Which No Man Dare
Boast of His Powers for He
May Lose Any
Day

May Lose Any
From the Omaha Bee.
Who has better show than you? No.
body.
Who has as good a show as you? Any
body.
| That is the ten pin game on the card.
provided you have graduated into the
'pick-up-your-spare'' class.
Have you heard men say "Jobn Is so
many pins better than Bill?v Such talk
Is foolish; record talks for nothing II a
man mas a little grit. It does not mat
ter what man has rolled, can he get
the pins when he wants them?
| Play him, let him prove that he is bet
ter than you right now.
There Il certainly no game that fur
n,shes SO much Inconsistency as the bowl
ing game. The league records show it.
| Don't fight shy of the man who beat
you six straight games yesterday. Won
are just losing chance to get even with
MIN II you do. Feel like you surely can.
How many of the league top-notchers
come out on top in an open game?
What figures does high average mar
gin OF few pins cut in an individual or
three-game series? Cut out that error
you have been making about third game
and the edge is yours.
never figure that you are not In the
other mans class; never look for an EASY
game.
| Don't play the game as IL you couldn't
afford to lose. Go up against the hardest
.nere is, no matter if you have never
played anywhere but on local alleys.
None of these dope" or WINDY city,
celebrities ever brought anything new to
town.
Don't Get Sore
| Always play your own game. Never get
sore or look disappointed because you
didn't get strike. You can't gain any
thing by calling your opponents atten-
ton to 1t. If he didn't see it he proba-
| Oily won't believe 1t, and If he did he is
as good Judge as yourself.
Don't swell up if you have stroke or
two OF good luck-nobody ever gets very
much ahead of the tenpin game and you
are liable to have the laugh against YOU
next frame, and wonder how the ball
ever got through and left so many pins
up on both sides of the alley
Don't say Hard luck to your oppu--
nent or Pick 1t up, old fellow" IL you
don't mean 1t, any oftener than you can
help. Talk as little about the game as
possible, but keep your mind right on it.
If your man gets ahead of you, remem-
Der that you can do in the last five frames
what he did in the first five. Always fig
ure, as we have heard a bowler aptly
| remark, mo matter how bowler starts
out, he never gets many pins over 2OO"
| Shoot for that mark yourself, and the
first thing you know you've got your
man.
Some interested bystander will remark.
II don't see what license Bill has to sbe
in that game. He ought to be over there
with John" Bill unconsciously demon
strates that he Is not out of place by
being the high man of the bunch He
may roll 129 or so In his next game, but
he was high once, and If there are ten
men in the game, and they roll as many
as nine games, It Is more than all of them
can say.
How Scores Fluctuate
It's really wonderful how tenpin scores
will fiuctuate. A mans average may be
$780,, and his games will run 200, It's, 19S 1853,
1S1, 21S. His average of these six is 1856
You ought to be able to beat him at least
three of the six games, unless you get
poor games when he gets his. That would
be poor judgment, which some people,
of course, have.
Sometimes the harder man is trying
the worse he gets Often he gets them
and he just can't help 1t. He'll go along
with that mow-'em-down habit, every
ball breaking right into the spot and ris-
ing a panic in the pit. That Is when he
is right. His eye is clear and carried a
picture Of how that ball Is to set right
along the line. He has perfect control
and at the psychological moment it butts
right into the one-three for the turkey
that gives him 20-pin lead on the near
est man. There is no mistake in his
swing. Tenpins then, to him, is the only
game.
But how about the other man; is he
not In the same class? He is probably
better bowler. That is, he has a better
record and you probably could not get
dollar to q doughnut against him on the
next game, but how about him now? He
is just doing what the other fellow may
be doing next game. He simply "Cant
get en-
Take a rear view of the squirming and
the body english" as he approximates
the foul line the abortive swing. It's al
most pathetic. He can't get results at
all. Get down and walk around him. Get
a few feet ahead of the foul line when he
rolls the next francs Look back at the
expression. What face-glassy eyes and
distorted features, as IL some atrocity
was being perpetrated right In fr6it of
him, and there Is 1.-The ball won't come
up"
How Luck Changes
Next time you see the same man in ac-
ton, what do you hear? Something like
this: He's certainly hitting them today;
that's seven right in the spot. He should
have had eight in a row-2O4 in the eighth,
24s last game. He's right today. 1 won
der why he never Makes 300."
There are days when you could beat
the best bowler In the country and beat
him bad. There are days when man
has just the right speed, perfect foot
work, the proper grip on the ball, when
his eye has got the pin frame in focus
and anything over 200 looks easy. If you
are the man you are unbeatable, but ii
does not require very much to disturb
such conditions.
There Is very little difference between
perfect strike ball and ball that will
bring the impossible $40 split. II a man
IS a little off in his foot work you can
readily see what effect it must have on
ball that has to run the length of an
alley little more speed than usual
some little freak of the grip. will have
its effect on the action of the ball and not
infrequently the eye for some reason or
other may lack the concentration which
is the chief asset of the bowler.
A bowlers Inconsistency during a league
season may be readily explained