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Scott Simon

Gender: Male

Location: St. Louis MO

Relationship: Divorced

Children: Maybe Someday

Body Type: Some extra baggage

Height: 5'10"

Religion: Catholic

Ethnicity: White / Caucasian

Skype: About Me: I am a PBA member in the Midwest Region

Music: Sinatra is my favorite

Movies: The Right Stuff, from Tom Wolfe's book. Dad was one of the aerospace engineers in the 50's and 60's who put guys in space and on the moon.

TV: The PBA on Sunday! Old PBA tournaments on ESPN Classic. Oh yeah, The Shield and Rescue ME are pretty cool too.

Books: Just read KNIGHT, the biography of Bobby Knight, written after being fired by Indiana. He graduates student/athletes, does it by the book, yet he's criticized by sportswriters who generally don't have a clue what leadership is all about.

Likes: Bowlers who work hard and try to be better. Jeff Carter stands out here. Bowled with him in Springfield, Illinois for 2 years. I learn a lot just by watching him. Maybe someday I can help him conquer Pattern 2, similar to what I grew up on in the 70's.

Dislikes: Bowlers who are lazy and think all there is to life is a house shot, siladium 300 rings, brag they can beat the best, but never can find the time to bowl a regional.

Hobbies: Sports Trivia. Assistant Captain of SPRINGFIELD ISOTOPES, 2005 & 2006 Budweiser National Sports Trivia Championship Team. Like PBA exempt players, we're the country's best in this field.

Vices: Vice? I have no vice! 2-N-1 maybe, LOL.

Virtues: Do unto others as I would like them to do unto me - wish more bowlers would adopt this instead of bad-mouthing the game.

Heroes: Nelson Burton, Sr., my first coach. His sons, Bo & Neil, haven't done too bad either, LOL.

Ray Orf, the most underrated bowler in the 60's and 70's. His 890 in the early 70's was the most amazing thing I ever witnessed in bowling. Was one of three references who signed my PBA application many, many years ago.

Rich Weber. Now the MWPBA director, back in the mid 70's, he got me fitted properly and taught me things that made my game take off, and led to a very sucessful collegiate career at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His dad wasn't too shabby either, LOL.

Rich Grawer, Missouri Hall of Fame basketball coach, 3 state titles at DeSmet (my alma mater), then 11 seasons at St. Louis University with two NIT post season runner-ups. As a teacher and coach, what I learned from him applies to everything I do mentally on the lanes. Pretty good history teacher too, now AD at Clayton High School, Clayton MO.

Bill Selman, my former hockey coach at St. Louis University (74-76). Taught me how to be tough and to overcome limitations. As an American in a Canadian sport, it was a lot of overcoming, LOL. What he taught me about being tough was the reason I recovered in 2006 from a major accident (see blog August 3, 2006 - Not Now).

Randy Lightfoot - next to PDW, the best bowler ever to come out of the Jr. Archway ranks in St. Louis. Made the St. Louis Rolaids PBA Tour stop TV show when he was 19 back in '76 (whose finalists included a couple of guys named Roth and Anthony), won the Burger King Open in '78 (record $30,000 1st place prize at that time - the US Open winner that year won only $10,000!!!), then later won the '81 Masters (trivia, first Masters ever on TV, shown by CBS). We're contemporaries and today great friends - Randy coaches the Lindenwood Lions, the 2005 Collegiate National title winner. Greatness has Randy's pic in the dictionary, on and off the lanes.

NEW ST. LOUIS ONLINE BOWLING GROUP

Friday, October 31, 2008, 01:18 AM [General]

I am now the editor of a new online Missouri/Illinois/St. Louis bowling group via the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Here is the link for you to subscribe.

http://my.stltoday.com/Groups/Bi_State_Bowling_Times

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Winning on a Sport Shot Pattern - and not even knowing about it

Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 11:35 PM [General]

If the headline is strange, it matched my reaction after winning a King Of The Hill tournament at Shrewsbury Lanes last weekend.

I like proprietor Jim Bulinski and glad to see he'll be hosting the 2009 Missouri USBC Tournament. I didn't bowl there since June after he resurfaced the lanes. The friction level was too way too high and I didn't have equipment to match, plus I was bowling poorly as I noted in my previous blog.

It's a 3 game qualfier, cut to the top half for match play. I open with a 219, decent score, only two other scores top me so I'm ok.

But then I move to the next pair and it got UGLY! One ball backed up into the 6-pin. The next ball stood up on its own and hooked past the head pin. AEROSOL SHOTS! Had to do a lot of grip adjustments just to shoot 178 and 165.

You'd think those scores wouldn't make a cut, but I finished 2nd. That's how ugly it was. There were scores in the 120's! My teammate from Hazelwood's Summer Scratch Trio, Troy Morton, wasn't happy. Unfortunately, he didn't make the cut.

I then am seeded to bowl Ned Hendrixson. Great up-the-board player and has won a couple of the King of the Hill's. On the final two shots of my last qualifying game, I move left a dot. Two strikes absolutely hammered. So I said if a one dot move left was good, two ought to be better.

It was. I beat Ned 215-135, then bowled Nick Barkman for the championship. He's very good, another super up-the-boards player. But I know the approach and direction is from the left. I start out with a flagged 2-8-10, but know I have the right reaction. I don't miss the pocket for the next 8 frames and win 215-185.

Here's where I am stunned. I collect my winning prize and the tournament organizer asks me what my e-mail address is so he can send me the patterns for upcoming King of the Hill's. My reply is, "what do I need a house shot pattern for?"

His reply? "That wasn't a house shot, it was a sport pattern."

Stunning. Now I knew why a ball backed up into the 6-pin and why everyone struggled from the twig while I found daylight two-dots left. Interesting that I qualified easily not knowing it was a non-house shot pattern.

Answer? I use and teach the five-grip/3-release arsenal. I have 15 different ways I can attack a lane. Had I known it was a sport pattern, those 178 and 165 games would have been easy deuces.

Jim Bulinski wasn't there. I'm telling him not to show up for future KOTH's. I won without him, LOL.

I can still play this game. This paragraph I wrote on May 7th is so true:

"TIP: You can only get better and be at the top if you can admit you are bad when you are bad. The best at anything are usually their own worst critic."

I was awful this summer. I knew it. I'm throwing the ball very well and super sharp now, because I knew what to change, and how. It won't last forever, but I wouldn't bet against me right now.