Week Three

I wonder what Jim Thorpe’s second week at Carlisle Indian Industrial School was like. Maybe he felt a little pressure after the initial hoopla of the whole walking-in-unknown-and-crushing-them-all thing. Perhaps he choked a bit at first, and drank a little beer to cope with the pressure.  Maybe he just needed some time to really get to know his teammates. These are things we can only guess, because back then they didn’t blog.

Posterity will not have to wonder such things about us, because the history of the Third Rail Bowling Club is being written, even when it isn’t so much being made.

TRBC’s third week saw only 3 players: David, Amy, and Cap’n Allison. What we lacked in breadth, we made up for in depth. It was a deep night, of deep discussions, leading to the kind of deep bonding  you often see in movies about sports. We learned that Allison is an athlete of long standing, was a ranked tennis player, and a dancer as well. We learned that David can’t imagine remarrying if his beloved wife were to die an untimely death. We learned that one beer is probably enough for Amy when she skips dinner. We discussed ballroom dancing, parental favoritism, family holidays, surfing, and proper and improper channels for rage. We honed our high-fives. There was hugging. I’m getting a little misty here.

Our opponents, Team 11, started strong, using professional sub G., the league high-scorer, who appears to have a robotic arm that may or may not connect to his brain. The entire team was intimidating—they came with their own team shirts, shoes, balls, and well-honed spins. But once we hit our stride (and they lost Robo-G.), we kept pace, and even pulled off a game 3 win, like the scruffy-but-pluckily-determined kids in the Bad News Bears.

The scores for the night were:

David “Varsity” Padrusch: 117, 121, 143

Cap’n Allison “Al” Tilly-Carswell: 119, 117, 92

Amy “The Hoff” Hoff: 105, 146, 151

So that means the total score was 1,111. (Cool.) Adding in our phantom player's score gets us up to 1531. I'm sorry, I don’t know how to figure the whole handicap thing: unlike my teammates, and much like the young Jim Thorpe, I am a newcomer to the world of sports.

Oh yeah! We also learned from Team 11 that it makes good financial (and hygienic) sense to buy one’s own bowling shoes. After checking out a poster displaying some of the options, Allison was drawn to a purple skull-and bones design, while Amy liked the black ones with white stars. Of course, we will keep you posted on this exciting development.

I will leave you with our wise Captain's sunny words of encouragement, to one of us who had only knocked over one pin on the first try: "That's the best, because you have so many to aim for on the second try!". So true, so deep.