Magic City Memoir

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Magic City Memoir
December 2003

Secret Committee

Happy Holidays, well at least until you have read the article.

Well, well, well it seems that I am not the only person fed up with Sandbagging in our area as evidenced by the response to my last article. My thanks to all of you who either wrote in or said something in person. I was surprised with the amount of people who came up to tell me that they agreed sandbagging is cheating.

It appears the Birmingham City Tournament directors are also taking an interest but much like an unplanned trip to Louisville 2 weeks ago things are being kept very secretive. So let's blow the lid off what we know already. I have spoken to a member of the City Tournament Committee and I have been told that there is going to be a re-rate committee for the city tournament but the members are being kept confidential. What we do know is that three of the members will be league bowlers. I think that is great but I have a major problem with this and since no one would elaborate about the committee, let's look at what this committee should have. So like the all city team maybe we can make this a reality as well. First of all having league bowlers on the committee is a good idea, but and this important, you need these bowlers to be active participants in tournaments as well. If you have someone who bowls in a league on this committee and they do not bowl in tournaments what have you proved? The member can say "oh that's John he only bowls one night a week and averages 169, he just bowled 660 scratch in the city because he got hot." Everyone else KNOWS John, and John bowls every Magic City and every TNBA and every handicap tournament and surprise, surprise John's tournament average is close to 200, but if the member does not bowl these tournaments how would he know? The committee is a good idea, the secretive way they are going about it is wrong. I called the Tournament Director and asked had the members of committee been chosen? He acted shocked that I knew and said yes they had. I told him next year I would like to be on this committee and I was told that was up the City Tournament Committee. So I will see how this "committee" is organized and I will be glad to contact the members after they are announced and find out what tournaments they have bowled in. Now if they make a committee of people like Louis Manzella or Dewayne Braswell or Victor Hill, then ok I am all for it, but they put all scratch bowlers on there or people who do not bowl in most of these tournaments then what have they accomplished? The answer is absolutely nothing. They have taken a good idea and goofed it up, and will try to fix it next year. NOTE TO THE CITY TOURNAMENT COMMITTEE: Quit worrying about stepping on people's toes and make the announcement of who the members are. I am not worrying about stepping on anyone's toes and I as I have said many times, THERE ARE TOO MANY SANDBAGGERS IN ALABAMA. Why is the city tournament committee trying to keep the re-rate committee a secret? Why not just tell who the members were when I asked? I can tell you why, because they did not want the names printed in this article. So instead I wrote an article about how this great idea will probably turn into a fiasco. To the members of the re-rate committee understand this is not a personal attack on you, it is a statement that things should not be kept secretive when asked. We, as bowlers who pay association dues, should be able to have some input as to who should be on such a committee especially when the committee is hand picked from league bowlers.

Highlights and lowlights forget about them, no one gave me any so if you want to know the high scores look in the Birmingham News on Wednesday of every week. I will still be reporting any instances of re-rating and I will be publishing it in this article, so get ready re-rate committee when the time comes I will be asking for the list. Of course it is your option not to give it. The only question would be why not? Scared of embarrassing someone? Afraid it will hurt someone's feelings? Cheating is cheating and sand bagging is DEFINITELY CHEATING!!!

Again Happy Holidays and I will see you next year.

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If a bowler has no idea how a person bowls in tournaments can a fair judgment be made, on whether someone is cheating ?

Don is a Birmingham bowler. If you have any story suggestions, please submit to Don at dchammer@charter.net

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