Bowlers Journal International - January 2008 - (Page 30) UPCLOSE Well, it is fun. Right now, it’s all positive, and I’m having a lot of fun with it. You sound like someone who hasn’t been changing a lot of diapers. Oh, yes I have. Maybe not quite as many as my wife, but… I’ll even take the midnight shift sometimes. I’ll try to get her to take those while I’m bowling, but last week, I was up. So how does that impact your career down the road? My plan is to bowl out here as long as I’m competitive. I think I can do that for a few more years. Beyond that, I’ll probably bowl senior tournaments at least, most of them. Then it all depends on whether Paige and my daughter can come with me. I’d much rather have them travel with me than not. With three [Senior] tournaments here and three there, it just doesn’t make sense to take the RV, which would be the big reason they could come with me. I know there isn’t a lot of money in the Senior events, but even so, I still enjoy the competition. As long as I feel competitive, I’m probably going to keep doing it. I still play horseshoe tournaments, even though there’s no money in that. How do you think you're perceived by the horseshoe players? You’d have to ask them. I know I’m a bit of a celebrity because of my bowling, but it’s really hard to say. There’s got to be some jealousy. I once asked you why you picked two sports that paid so badly, but now you're moving up on $4 million on the PBA Tour. Money isn't the reason to get involved in anything. When I was a kid, I got involved with horseshoes because, for whatever reason, that’s what I wanted to do. I realized early on that it was something I could do my whole life. In bowling, I got good enough, started entering tournaments, winning a little money, and I saw an opportunity because it was around that time that I realized I wouldn’t ever make much money playing horseshoes. At the time, it was kind of cool, being able to do this for a living. But I still knew I needed to get my education, my degree in physics; I took my time to go out on Tour, and 30 bowlers journal international fortunately, I’ve done well since. I understand you’ve switched to pitching horseshoes left-handed. I actually did that three years ago. Whoops. I guess I'm not up on the horseshoe-pitching news. I played so poorly in the World Tournament that I figured I could pitch lefthanded just as well. When I was younger, I broke my wrist and my finger, and I learned how to do it left-handed, and carried an average that way. I used to average 85% right-handed, 50-55% lefthanded, so I knew I was half-decent. In the last couple of World Tournaments, I averaged under 70%. That’s not good, eh? a sporting event or a business, we are trying to do the best we can. I think I have that, and I have the coordination that allows me to be really competitive in the sports that I play. Your dad was into horseshoes. Were some of the lessons he taught you part of the drive? He was more of an organizer. He played, but he wasn’t really a top player. He formed an organization where we lived, and became the national secretary-treasurer back in the early '70s. One of his best friends was the 1960 World Champion, and through him and their friendship, that gave me a desire to play horseshoes. At first, my “Money isn't a reason to get involved in anything. But I saw an opportunity in bowling; I realized I wouldn't ever make much money playing horseshoes. It was cool being able to bowl for a living.” For me, it’s really bad. At one time, I was 80-85% and I had a 90% [ringer rate in] tournaments. My best at the World's was 88%, which was second-best ever. I used to average 85%. I have several World titles, but when I averaged 69.9 and 69.8%, that was horrible. I was so frustrated, and I figured I could do it lefthanded and have more fun. At first, people thought it was silly, but I was doing halfway decent. Then I went to a tournament and averaged 70, 75%. The sad thing is, I actually did better my first year left-handed than I did this year. I finished fourth this year, but I only averaged 64% at this year's World's, kind of pathetic. I’m considering playing right-handed again. Well, regardless of the sport, you really seem quite driven. What drives you? I guess it’s what drives anybody to do anything. It’s part of human nature to be competitive. It’s part of our genes, a survival-of-the-fittest thing, to go out and beat the others. Whether it’s dad didn’t teach me. Finally, he taught me, one of my brothers and three of my older sisters how to play, and I just went out and practiced and practiced, and within a year, I finished second at the Junior World Championships. One of the advantages in horseshoes, of course, is that there is no environment to hold you back, whereas there is in bowling. Big difference. One thing I like about horseshoes is that it’s more of a pure sport. You don’t have to worry about conditions so much. In bowling, you have to figure out what you have to do to bowl well on that lane condition. Also, what works one place isn’t always going to work somewhere else. And bowling has a lot more luck involved in each shot, and it has a shorter duration. Bowling is only 10 frames. It’s hard for people to understand that, statistically, the 10frame game is unbelievably short, yet that's how we're deciding titles. It’s almost absurd. In horseshoes, games JANUARY 2008
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