Dead Ball Syndrome and Amazing Finishes

Dead Ball Syndrome (DBS) is something I had never heard about until I started researching why the new bowling ball I have just stopped hooking. When I got it in November it was a big hooking ball. It hooked about twice what my old ball did and it allowed me to play a completely different shot.

Lately though it seemed as though it was hooking less. I chalked it up to the lanes having more oil on them and not to the ball itself. It wasn't until Wednesday night that I realized something else was wrong. About midway through the 2nd game I was really struggling to get the ball to hook at all. It was getting ridiculous, so I switched back to my old ball and I didn't have any problems getting that one to hook. I finished out the night with that ball and did ok. We still managed to
win 5 of 7 points and retain first place so I wasn't too concerned.

Thursday morning I started looking around on the internet and came across DBS and what causes it. I emailed my bowling ball guy, Rob Bailey, and told him about it too. He suggested I come in to have it cleaned. I made an appointment for Friday after work and went to see him. He explained that while the ball looked clean it was actually not. The new particle resin balls have pores in the surface that absorb the oil, which is what allows it to hook. The pores get clogged like a
teenager after a pizza and no more oil could be absorbed so it stops hooking. He cleaned it up really well and sanded the surface back to it's original condition. I also bought some special cleaning solution and need to clean the ball after each night. I've never been good at that so we'll see how well I keep that up. I haven't used the ball yet, this Wednesday will be my next time out.

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If you haven't seen The Departed yet, go rent it or buy it. Bought it and watched it Saturday night. Phenomenal movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Sunday was all about amazing finishes. First, the Nissan Open where Phil Mickelson gagged a one shot lead on the last hole by bogeying before he went on to lose in the 3rd playoff hole to Charles Howell III. Vintage Phil.

The Daytona 500 one-upped that big time with a spectacular finish that saw Kevin Harvick come from way, way back to pass Mark Martin at the finish line to win by .02 seconds as the rest of the field did a slam dance behind him with almost everyone crashing a couple hundred yards from the finish line. Clint Boyer even crossed
the finish line on his roof... on fire! It was wicked. I really wanted Martin to win, as it was his 23rd attempt at Daytona and had never won. He led much of the last 20 or so laps but couldn't hold off Harvick who was in about 30th place with 10 laps left.

Then I went to my hockey game (9:00 start so I'm a little pooped this morning). We were down 1-zip right out of the gate. We were short handed and looked flat, plus the other team had the best player in the league and had the best goalie in the league. I was about ready to write the game off but we kept hanging around. Towards
the end of the 1st period we got a rebound goal to tie it up. Then half way through the 2nd period we banged in two quick goals and we seemed to have them on the ropes. But they came through with another goal to cut our lead to 3-2 entering the 3rd. Once again we pushed our lead out to 2 goals at 4-2 only to see them come right back to make it 4-3. It stayed that way and with about a minute left they pulled their goalie and had us scrambling around like crazy as they swarmed our goal. At one point there must have been 6 guys in front of our goal. I was just hitting anyone that came near me. Couldn't even tell where the puck was most of the time. We managed to hold them off and got an open net goal at the end to win 5-3, our 5th straight win to get our record to 10-3-1-1 (tied one game but won the shootout).
We go up against the first place team (12-1-1) next week. We are the only team to have beaten them this year.

Only bad thing about next Sunday's game is that it's at 4:30 and the Badger/Ohio State basketball game is on at 3:00 which means I'll miss most of the 2nd half. I'll have to tivo it and try not to hear who won but it'll be impossible.
And with Florida losing Saturday, there is a good chance OSU and UW will be 1-2 in the polls. I hate to look ahead but there is a very real chance Wisconsin could be number 1 come next Monday. First up however, the dreaded Spartans of Michigan State tomorrow night.

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Also, the Amazing Race all-stars started last night and of course, the team everyone seems to be gunning for is Rob and Ambah. They better keep gunning because they're all behind those two. I'd really like to see them get knocked down a peg. Like someone in the race said, "don't you two have your own network now?"

Phew, I need more coffee. Have a great week.