Monday, October 1, 2012

Week 4 - 88 Nate

Flashback...


2008-2009 Week 27
Unbreakable Sports Records - Wilt Chamberlin scores 100 points in one game, Cal Ripken 2632 consecutive games played, Wayne Gretzky 215 points in a season, Ty Cobb lifetime batting average .366, Cy Young 511 wins, and...Bryan 84 - one game score at league bowling!!!!!!!! Years from now everyone will have claimed to be at the Freeway Lanes that cold March night but only a handful will be telling the truth. I could write about Brick's 214 in the last game or Ryan's 206 but weeks, months, years from now we will only be talking about the night Bryan was nearly perfect. The night when he missed nearly every headpin, that night when he missed nearly every spare, the night when he didn't come close to a strike, the night when everyone who watch him throw knew he didn't have a snowballs chance in hell of breaking 100, I was there and it was awesome!!!!!!

I remember that evening like it was yesterday, it still brings a chill to me when a read the recap. Here we sit 3.5 years later and the 84 still stands as the single greatest errrr worst performance in Llama Chaser history.

"Records are made to be broken" is what we always hear. Well not the 84! That 84 means something. That 84 represents all that is great about the Llama Chasers. We want to win a bowling title but that won't stop us from making fun of one of our own when it is called for. That leads me to my good friend 88 Nate(or Brick as you may know him but that doesn't rhyme with 88).

Let me start from the top.

We began practicing bowling and the lanes seemed a little off. The ball wouldn't hook back when it normally should, seemed like maybe there was a bit too much oil or the oil pattern was something we have never used. The entire league struggled the first game. Tom, Kevin, Andy, Brick and myself were all under average but still managed to win. Game 2 it was the same story all five of us under average but another victory, I even bowled a 126 and ended up in the skirt for game 3. We were all having difficulty finding the head pin but at least we were 2-0. This is when the magic happened...

It started out with Brick shooting a stellar 50 after 5 frames. Brick has been there before but then usually throws a few strikes in a row and ends up with 150+. Not tonight. Tonight he was special!! In a determination I hadn't seen since Bryan C. in the winter on '09 Brick was locked in.

The 6/1 in the 6th frame pulled him to 57, then came a very smooth 5/0 in the 7th which brought the quiet hush of a "Don't look, don't laugh" from the table. After a 9 in the 8th frame and an 8 in the 9th, Brick was staring history in the face with a 79 through 9 frames. There was no doubt he had it in him to drop in another 5/0 as he did in the 7th. But there is no joy in Llamaland the mighty Brick got a 9...88 Nate was born.

We have had a little fun since then with 88 Nate, Tom was thinking of calling him "Dale Jr." or just "Junior" after Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his number 88.

Andy said last week "You can't spell Nate without 88." (Doesn't really make any sense but sounds fun)

Week 4 was not quite the historical night we had back in 2009 but it was close. Bryan C's 84 was bad but he averaged like a 130 that year. Brick averaged a 206 last season and bowled an 88. That's awesome if you ask me!

Check out this list of the 25 worst single game performances in sports history...
http://www.complex.com/sports/2011/05/epic-fails-the-25-worst-single-game-performances-in-sports-history/

For those of you wondering I would put 88 Nate at number 5 on this list, right between "Nick the Brick" and "Meltdown at the Masters".

We ended up losing game 3 and total pins on the night so we finished 4-3. So our slow start continues but all of our averages are down so hopefully we can get on a hot streak in the coming weeks.

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