I was watching the Detroit Tigers play a postseason baseball game on TV when broadcaster Tim McCarver introduced some facts about the city of Detroit. He pointed out that everyone knows that the Motor City is home to several automobile manufacturers.
The other facts, he suggested, were not quite as common. He proceeded to list three things. Detroit tops the nation's cities in the following categories:
The city of Detroit sells more fishing poles than any other metropolitan area in the United States. I have to admit that I was not aware of this fact. I did read once that Seattle has more boats registered to people than automobiles. These facts surprised me, as I can't imagine not having a car and I have never owned a fishing rod, let alone a boat.
One would think that Seattle would sell a lot of fishing poles to the people who bought boats, instead of cars that likely were made in Detroit. Apparently not.
I also remember several years ago that the Seattle City Schools outlawed public displays of affection on school grounds. The Superintendent of Detroit's schools found that amusing, suggesting that he wished his students were more "affectionate" and a little less violent.
The second fact was that Detroiters consume more potato chips than residents of any other city. I have no idea why that is the case. I'll leave it to you to decide if this was a truly interesting fact or not. On a side note, the good folks at Ballreich's may want to look into the Motor City market, if they are not there already.
It was the third fact that really got my attention and gave me the impetus for this column. Apparently Detroit has the most bowlers of any city in the country. I wasn't expecting this news, but then again I had not given much thought to which city might have the most bowlers.
I know that St. Louis is a bowling mecca and is home to the Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum. Milwaukee has always been known for bowling, but Detroit came as a surprise. Naturally I wanted to know more and searched the Internet for information, but I came up empty.
I couldn't find anything about the number of bowlers in Detroit. It would have truly been interesting to get some information to share with my loyal readers. That was just not to be.
Don't fret though, my friends. I just happen to have some bowling facts that I can share with you. It will be up to you to decide if they are truly interesting.
Did you know that:
An Andy Varipapa perfect game consists of 12 consecutive strikes thrown over two games.
A bowler must carry a separate average when they bowl with the opposite hand.
Three strikes in a row is known as a turkey, four straight is a hambone and five consecutive strikes is called Yahtzee. Any more than five and you know that it's not me doing the bowling!
Nearly 100 percent of balls thrown into the gutter will not knock down pins. It's true. A select few will bounce out and strike pins, thus the "nearly" tag, but they don't count.
And finally A left handed male bowler, wearing a pink shirt while bowling on a Wednesday, is 43.2 percent more likely to chop the four pin off the 4-7 spare than a female right hander wearing black on a Sunday with a last name starting with I, will miss a 5 pin from the 7thframe on in game number three.
Now that's interesting if not totally true, but what did you expect. I got that factoid while fishing and eating potato chips in Detroit last month!
Taking a look at some league scores from the last couple of weeks, we'll start with the Twilight League. Larry Distel topped the 700 plateau with a 705, while Chad Snyder rolled a 624, Kevin Young 599, Michelle Wagner 411 and Robin Brownell 395. In the Wednesday Morning League Tyson Swope shot 665, Zach Gaietto 647, Mark Huffman 615, Aaron Sherman 612, Ken Lofton 610 and Harry Smith 607.
Sunday Night Rock N Roll League scores included Tim Sturgill 647, Chris Rhodes 646, Dirk Nimocks 624, Bob Steele 622, Gary Golden 620, John Funk 606, Dottie Funk 468, Rose Steele 468 and Brittany Roberts 460. In the Sportsman League Rich Yates Jr. posted a 677, Tom Wilkinson 630, Chris Peck 627, John Tyree 614, Rich Yates Sr. 606 and Ken Butturff, Jr. 587.
Tyson Shope also led the Rocket League with 632. Rich Yates, Jr. had 625, Mike Distel 611, Tim Sturgill 587, John Funk 577 and Dottie Funk 426. In the Imperial-Majorette League Steve Steinmetz Jr. had 609, Jeff Peer 555, Brian Jakupca 547, Deb Nominee 499, Phyliss Hyde 443 and Linda Brookes 436.
Al Stephenson is The A-T's bowling columnist.
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