The Greatest Bowling Story Ever Told? - bowling

Bowling Digest, Oct, 2001 by Bob Jr. Learn

For this hometown hero, the final day of the Flagship Open in 1996 started on a perfect note and ended on an even sweeter one

FIVE DAYS BEFORE MY 34TH birthday, I received an incredibly rewarding and satisfying present: a victory in the PBA's 1996 Flagship Open, an event held in my hometown of Erie, Pa.

The championship itself (my third as a pro) wasn't what made that April day so special--it was the sum of all of the day's events. In victories over current or future Hall-of-Famers Johnny Petraglia (300-279, the 10th-ever televised perfect game and my then-record-tying 52nd sanctioned 300 game), John Mazza (270-268), Parker Bohn III (280-279), and Randy Pedersen (279-257), I averaged 282.25 and rolled 44 out of a possible 48 strikes. I also earned a $100,000 bonus for the perfect game from my home center, Eastway Lanes, where qualifying took place, and a first prize of $30,000 for the victory in the Erie Civic Center.

That day's three-game (850) and four-game totals (1,129) easily broke the former PBA TV records of 815 by Jim Stefanich in 1975 and 1,070 by David Ozio in 1996. Collectively, we five finalists averaged 276.5 for eight games to shatter the old TV record of 253 set the previous year in Erie. Furthermore, I earned my win in each of those four games by having to strike out in the 10th frame. Best of all, I accomplished all of that in front of my family and friends. I believe that I probably had the best day in the history of professional bowling. That Flagship Open is unquestionably the match I'll never forget.

There was nothing I had been doing on the lanes to prepare me for that stunning day--it was one of those things you cannot anticipate. On the tour I was bowling pretty well, with numerous second-place finishes, but I hadn't won an event in three years.

I bowled in the junior program at Eastway Lanes and worked there as a kid, so I knew the place well, but its management had made a recent switch to synthetic lanes, erasing any advantage I may have brought into the tourney. For most of match play, I was in the middle of the pack. It wasn't until the last round that I began to go on a good run.

I received a big break in order to finish in fifth place and qualify for the TV finals. I could have clinched fifth had I struck out in the 10th frame of my final match, but I left the 10-pin on my first ball and wound up with 10,217 pins and a 12-11-1 match-play record. After I finished, I figured I'd be watching the finals from the stands. Pete Weber, who was bowling against another opponent, needed only a first strike in the 10th to leapfrog over me and into fifth place, but he didn't get it. He left the 4-pin and finished sixth with 10,196 pins, despite a superior 15-9-0 record.

I was in. My first emotion was relief. I had felt a lot of pressure all week and thought I would be able to breathe a little easier--but it wasn't that simple. I knew the finals were on four lanes at the Civic Center, and I also knew there would be a big crowd. It was going to be the experience of a lifetime because, despite finishing in the top 10 a couple of times, it was my first finals in Erie.

I was so nervous that I don't even remember falling asleep the night before. When I got up I was still very nervous, and all I ate that morning was a bagel. At lunchtime, I couldn't eat anything. My wife Stacey and our two children Brandon and Brittany, who were 15 and eight at the time, drove the 15 minutes to the Civic Center with me from our home in Harborcreek.

That morning I didn't have a very good shot on the left lane in practice. I kept leaving washouts. Believe it or not, I grabbed a ball that had been drilled just the previous night, and when I threw that on the left lane, my shot recovered. It was an AMF Swirl, the same kind of ball with which I had been practicing, only with a different layout. I used that ball the rest of the day.

The funny thing is, before the first game I was thinking that 220 would be a great score. After I threw four strikes in a row to begin the show, I said to myself, "Well, it looks as if I'm going to get at least 220 out of this." Never did I think about shooting 300.

In the 7th frame, Petraglia left the 7-pin, spared, and then struck out for a 279. When I got up in the 10th frame, I knew I needed at least the first strike just to win, which made me think even less of getting 300.

I did get the first strike, and after that shot I said to myself, "Wow, just one more for $100,000." As I got ready for my 12th delivery, I calmed myself down. "You waited all your life for a moment like this--don't screw it up," I thought. And as soon as I let the shot go, I thought, "Oh, my God, it's a strike." It was a strike--and a perfect game.

I started running around like a lunatic, hugging my family. Petraglia, who had rolled the previous televised 300 game during the championship round of the 1994 PBA National Tournament, hugged me. It was incredible. The roar of the crowd was deafening. There were 5,500 fans there, but they sounded like 55,000.