Omaha daily bee., 1919-10-19
By A. L. LANGTRY.

Hy A. l.. LANGlR1.
Secretary Of American Eowling Congress.
Now that the base ball series to
decide the worlds champions is out
of the way, the bowlers who were
wild ever base ball in the middle
west will settle bacl, to the serious
thoughts of bowling and the tanning
will again start as to who is the
champion, and it is expected that
Jimmy Smith, Count" Gengle
Frank Carauna and the rest of the
boys who are acknowledged to be
the best ever, will come together
with a clash that will afford many
miles Of bowling abb stories to go
the rounds.
While in Chicago last week a
prominent newspaper man from Gin
cinnaG vino was attending the series
at the White Sox park. and who is
more interested in base bali than
bowling, came at me strong with the
question as to who is the champion
bowie. Of the country. and l came
right back at HIM with the query,
who IS the champion base ball play
er. He laughed, and said that he
guessed that / had the argument
won, as there was no champion ball
player, for just as soon as some one
would pull daring play, or pitch a
gilt-edged, alright game, that the
next, some one else in some distant
part oil the country would 60 him
one better, and the pitcher who had
Just pitched no-hit game. would be
hit for about Is hits his next time
up, and the all-star in or outfelder
would toss off a game by dropping
a fly that looked easy, SO there was
no champion bali player.
Many Chances in Bowling.
That exactly agreed with my idea
regarding a champion bowler, and
while we may acknowledge that
there are star bowlers, at the same
time the star will have a terrible
slump and lose several games
through easy errors on single pins,
or miss the head pin when strike
is needed here and there in a game
to pull it cut of the fire. There is no
sport or recreation on earth where
so much chance is taken as there is
in bowling, and when you figure that
the head pin is 90 feet from the
foul line, and that old bowling ball
has to go down lot of wooden
planks from the foul lines to the pins
it is bigger element of chance than
in base ball where the pitcher only
has to throw through the air with no
interference whatever. It brings
bowling down to as near a pro-ama-
teur sport as any recreation can be
brought in the sporting line.
In addition to this, the publicity
given the scores by placing the num-
Der of pins on a score sheet every
frame, by someone who is scoring,
and hundreds watching, it makes
the games safe, as in publicity there
is safety.
Leads with Sanctioned Leagues.
The popularity OF the game has
been brought about by these condi-
tons, and it is the most popular
game in the country for an active
participant. For instance, how
many men who attend the worlds
series can play base bali in any form,
while you will find in large bowling
alleys in different cities every night
from 1000 to 10000 bowling in
leagues alone.
There is one establishment in De-
troit that accommodates each week
omething like rs leagues or better,
and all in one house. In Chicago
there are over 100 bowling alleys in
the loop district, where so to 20
leagues are going into action week
ly, and these are only a few in
stances.
In sanctioned leagues so far this
year Chicago leads the van with
over so, followed by Detroit with
IS, and Milwaukee comes third with
about so leagues sanctioned. Every
bowler in these leagues are support
ing organized bowling and are menu
bers of the American Bowling con-
gress. This does not apply to big