Splitzter - October 10, 2003

I After espousing mightily upon the bowling achievements of our old buddy, Geritol Bill Botjer, in last week’s column I received an email from the King Dumper himself, Barry Rosebrook. It read, “Rich Lederer, not to be outdone by Geritol Bill, shot games of 268-269-244=781 this week in the Corn City League.” Holy moly… what’s happening in Deshler this past week? Did Dumper put in Amflite II’s? I can’t believe those Twister pins are still in with scoring like this.

But ah, I forgot, Rich Lederer is the bowling guru of Deshler. It’s good to see one of the “older” guys marshall 80 plus years of bowling knowledge into a three hour segment and pop a number. It has the old Splitzter wondering just how much scoring to expect when the county tournament hits Barry’s maples. Keep tuned in, gang. Barry’s warming the guys up for home-field advantage in a few months. There certainly is plenty of talent in the Land of Corn.

How about that Brandon Cramer kid? If Mike Cramer is “The Hammer”, what would that make Brandon… “The Tack Hammer”? Brandon was bombing them the other day for his Saturday morning junior league with a 258 game and 630 series. Nice shootin’, kiddo.
I hear Todd Strall will be out for the year with a torn ACL. I guess I’m a bit confused. When I hear ACL, I think of words like athlete, conditioned, etc.. Todd Strall and athlete fit together like Splitzter and Adonis. It just doesn’t work for me. Now if we’re talking Todd Strall and Al Bundy… that fits. Sorry to hear about your plight, Todd. Get well soon, buddy. Heal yourself and we’ll see you on the lanes next year.

The gals chocked up a couple of sixes last week. Defiance’s finest, Shirley Perez, led the pack with her 626 series and 244 game in the Party Mart Classic Thursday. The other six was Linda Kinder this past Tuesday on the Wendt Shoes league with a 605 series, 223 high game. Rose Ashenfelter had second high game for the week with a 225 in the Saturday Nite Mixed. Way to go gals.

A very weird week for the fellas. Barry Rosebrook had high series this week with a 747 in the Hernandez Classic. Nice shooting, to be sure, but I guess it was the way he went about it. He started with a 179 game, then finished 290-278 for the seven. While the 290 game also was high mens’ game this week and the 278 tied for third high, it sure is a funny way to get to a 747. Jeff Lesinski had second high game with a 280 start, also in the Hernandez Classic, but finished with 185-184. Must have been a full moon out this week. And we know about guys and full moons. Other 700’s this week were: John McClure-734; Gene Homan-727; Bob Beckwith-719 and Len Clark-700.

On a side note: The Splitzter heads out for the land of Uga (that’s U of Georgia’s mascot’s name for the un-initiated) to proudly see his son graduate boot-camp. For the many who have enjoyed Jason’s “cooking” talents at River City’s snack bar two years back, he’s doing well and expected to report to Seattle in a few weeks. Is there any better feeling, moms and dads, when you can watch your offspring leave the nest and fly on their own.