Bowling Ennui in the Capital District

I’ve taken the turn off I-90 to Exit 5, the Everett Road exit, many times.  And among the various hotels and car dealerships that dot the landscape between I-90 and Central Avenue, one can see the YNN news studios.

Of course, if you lived in Albany long enough, you don’t recall those as the YNN studios.

No. That building was the home of the Albany Bowling Center.

At one time, bowling was the biggest and most popular individual sport in the Capital District.  There were dozens of bowling lanes and alleys around the area, with tons of leagues.  There was even a popular television show, “TV Tournament Time,” in which area bowlers competed on Sunday morning at Boulevard Bowl in Schenectady – and then later, at two special lanes built at the WRGB studios – for cash and prizes.  And who could forget Howard Tupper waving to all the small fry?

Today, there are still leagues in the area, and there are still some great bowling centers – Del Lanes and Playdium and Sunset Recreation and Boulevard Bowl and Uncle Sam Lanes, just to name a few.   But some of the great bowling houses – like the Albany Bowling Center, Schade’s Academy and the Bowlers Club, the latter of which once hosted the PBA’s Empire State Open for many years – are shuttered.

It used to be that you couldn’t get “open bowling” at some houses because there were leagues operating every evening.  Now, most nights you can walk into any bowling center and there are plenty of lanes available for recreational use.  The “Rock ‘n Bowl” and “Moonlight Bowl” nights used to  be major draws at these bowling alleys, now they’re just another promotional night that most centers have on their calendars.

Yes, there’s still a televised bowling competition every week, I think it’s sponsored by Huck Finn’s Furniture – but even that doesn’t seem to have the same aura of seriousness and pride as did the old TV Tournament Time television show.

Don’t get me wrong.  I appreciate the sport of bowling.  My family bowled successfully in both candlepin  and tenpin leagues.  My old Street Academy math teacher, Bill Neumann, once bowled a 300 game with his left hand – and then later bowled another 300 game with his right hand.  That’s skill.

But with attendance and interest in the sport diminishing over the years, I blame one single factor for the sport’s disinterest for a new generation.

Technology in the sport increased to the point where success is no longer based on skill.

That’s it, plain and simple.

In 1980, the average bowler had one bowling ball and maybe his own pair of shoes.  The ball was usually made out of rubber or urethane.  And if you ever bowled a 300 game in a bowling center, that was considered a major achievement – I still recall when Del Lanes actually put a sign over a lane where one of their league bowlers actually achieved a 300 game.

Today, bowling balls are made of more reactive materials.  They have an internal block weight that is set up so that if you roll the ball a certain way, the ball will actually turn in mid-rotation, allowing the ball to strike the pocket more accurately and with more response from the pins.  And that’s not even factoring that many bowlers have a “strike” ball and one or two “spare” balls, which are drilled differently, for game use.  And those signs that Del Lanes used to put over the alleys where a bowler might have hit 300?  They would have to put those signs up with a digital screen, to acknowledge all the 300 games bowled in their building every week.

The lanes are also souped up – many alleys have now been “short oiled,” meaning that balls rolling down the lanes will hit a dry spot near the pins, causing the ball to hook at that exact spot – and again, hitting the pocket with more force.  Again, this increases point totals and scoring.

So let’s figure this.  Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, a good league average was about 175 to 190.  Today, if you don’t have an average of at least 225, you may as well just hang up your bowling ball.

There’s also the perception that bowling today is a sport for the lower class, the sport not of Earl Anthony and Parker Bohn III, but of Ralph Kramden and Fred Flintstone and the Big Lebowski.  Most bowling alleys have their own bars, where at one time you could drink and smoke and bowl – all at the same time.  Yep, a longneck in one hand, a bowling ball in the other, and maybe a Marlboro in an ashtray next to the concourse.  What was that old joke Jim Rome used to say about bowling – that it’s the only sport that you get better at with the more beers you drink?

Perhaps there is an opportunity for bowling to turn its game around.  Perhaps there’s a chance that the sport will find its way to a new generation, who can appreciate its mixture of physics and athletics and skill.

I hope so.  I just don’t want to see another bowling alley in the Capital District close due to lack of attendance or lack of interest.