Simon Sez: Saturday Sept. 12

Every week, I list thank you's to people that I interract with during the week in bowling. This week's ultimate thank you goes to only one person many will never forget:

Dave Harmon.

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ON TO OTHER STUFF: One of my journalism heroes is Jerry Berger, the retired gossip columnist for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Now he's back doing what he does best at Berger's Beat. It's been up only a couple of weeks, and already he's written about bowling - but only from the outside:

PINHEADS: St. Louis Sheriff's Deputy Charles Kraft has been accused of threatening a couple with a gun during a dispute about a parking spot at a Shrewsbury bowling alley. His subsequent legal problems in St. Louis County have drawn the support of his friends, including managers in his department and judges. A recent fundraiser to help pay his lawyers was hosted by the St. Louis Sheriff Lt. Ray Harris, and Deputies Charles Russo and Kathy Kraft, sister of Charles. Wonder what the St. Louis County prosecutor thinks about that?

Gee, and I thought the only thing they cared about at the County Building in regards to bowling was ignore bowling proprietors, except for those days of the year they want their property taxes...

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Just a thought and President Obama made a big hullaballoo about health care. I would have loved to hear Dave Harmon's opinions about health care. The message here? Bowling is only a very small part of our lives.

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I enjoyed my trip last Sunday to Oasis Lanes in Union for their Plastic Ball Tournament. The center and staff are very nice. And shortly after we were done, open play filled all 24 lanes.

However, the turnout was abysmal, only 16 entries, for a tournament that had $700 added prize money. The last cash spot paid $150 - for an entry fee of only $50.

I don't want to hear anyone complaining about prize money, etc. for a while. Here was a tourney with added money that had lots of empty entries.

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Speaking of tournaments, don't forget, the 700 club and Roll for the Dough bowl tomorrow. But wait, there's more! Jeff Carter is back home after a little more than a month in Detroit. You think Guzz would be taking a rest? Nah. He hosts his annual Match Play Tournament tomorrow at King Pin Lanes in Springfield, Ill. Belleville's Lee Boudouris is the defending champ.

For more about Jeff's tournament, go to his website, http://www.jeffcarterbowling.com/. You'll also see pictures of pretty bowling balls Jeff uses in PBA tournaments!

Interesting all three tournaments above are in Illinois. I guess Missouri gets the week off.

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The Rams or the US Women's Open tomorrow? I'll be bowling tomorrow first. Then I'll watch the Open. All the bowling finalists are winners. And when the Open telecast is done, I'll watch the Cardinals or Nascar. Now you know how I really feel about the NFL team that plays in St. Louis in the building with the tin roof.

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This month's edition of Craig Mathew's The Bowling News is in St. Louis bowling centers and pro shops. Read his column, which is right on regarding the league featured two weeks ago by Bowling Hood. Incidentally, the news from bowlers in that league has been defeaningly quiet the past 10 days regarding their prize money. Either they got it or they're in the dark. Bowling Hood is in the dark too. Inquiring minds want to know.

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One of my favorite people is Jim Bulinski at Shrewsbury Lanes. In the small world department, Joe Halpin, who was the program director at WIDB radio in Carbondale when I arrived there in 1976, saw on Facebook that I was involved in bowling. So Joe sent this picture taken at Shrewsbury during its inaugural year 50 years ago.

Joe's dad Bill is pictured on the left. Anyone know who the others are in the picture? Send it to at Shrewsbury, jim@shrewsbury-lanes.com or Bowling Hood. BTW, Shrewsbury resumes it's Saturday no-tap tournaments tonight.

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DAVID CALDWELL IS ALIVE AND WELL: Sure Gran Prix Bowling Supply is doing well. But David now is the political activist! He has a website that deals with issues in Creve Coeur, www.crevecoeurvoter.com/. I've been involved in an issue with Delmar Gardens and an office building they want to construct near my house and church. It'll be on the 10 p.m. news Monday, watch and you may see both of us on the tube.

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I don't twitter. But I do Facebook. And so does Crest Bowl. Their chief, Mike Flanagan celebrated his 30th birthday in style, helped by Jodi of course. She reports everyone had a good time and nearly everyone was still standing like a stoned 10 pin at the end of the day...

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FROM FACEBOOK TO JUST PLAIN EMAIL: When will the St. Louis USBC start notifying us by email of upcoming events, meetings and issues that we need to know about? Or the Missouri USBC for that matter? I'm not a member of the Illinois USBC so I don't know if they use mass email or not to update their members. No more of this make bowlers hunt-and-peck for information. Why do you ask us for our email when we pay our dues?

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So Walter Ray Williams, Jr. signed a new ball contract with 900 Global. Someone once said WRW could win throwing a box. Maybe bowling isn't such a poor business. Stone Container, the worldwide leader in corrugated box manufacturing, filed bankruptcy this summer..

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Al Pote in Decatur sent this along about the PBA regional being bowled there later this month:

Decatur's Spare Time Lanes will have another PBA tournament on Sept. 25-27, the Midwest/Central Brunswick Open. The Pro-Am will start on SATURDAY at 6pm, where the entry fee is $20 for adults and $10 for youths. Jason Queen, Pete Weber, Jeff Carter and Steve Jaros are scheduled to compete. There will be Brunswick bowling ball specials. Admission is free and you are all invited! If you have any questions, please reply here to bowlalpo@yahoo.com or call Spare Time Lanes at 217-875-3141.

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DID HE REALLY SAY THAT? From the archives comes this gem I taped from a recent St. Louis County Council meeting on the no-smoking issue. Subject, Robert Haddenhorst, Creve Coeur (Mo.) Councilman (turn up your volume a bit to hear)



And to think, this guy in my Councilman and also attends my church.

Imagine what he would have yelled out at President Obama if he was at his speech this past Wednesday.

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THE NEW AND IMPROVED USBC WEBSITE BOWL.COM: I promised a month ago I would review it again with a Part 2 segment. I'll start now. Fix your forum section. For nearly an entire day this past week, I couldn't log on so I could post a message.

I liked the old www.bowl.com forum better.

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Finally, I close out this week's Simon Sez with a shout to Mike Anderson, publisher, editor, chief bottle washer at www.stlmedia.net. Mike, thanks for the nice nice about this blog on your blog!

Actually, Mike was my inspiration to do this blog on bowling. He's run stlmedia.net for 9 years and it's easily in the top 5 of all such blogs in the country. Since I didn't see anyone doing it here in St. Louis, or anywhere else for that matter, I decided to use Mike's site as my model.

One thing bowlers have with people in the media - most gossip worse than Washington D.C. insiders. Heck, bowlers love to gossip (and complain) about sportswriters and sportscasters. So if you like that kind of stuff and want to know the latest news and trends in St. Louis and national broadcasting, go to Mike's site. He outscoops the Post on broadcast and journalism news. He also has a forum there, and you'll have to register, but it's all good because it's free. And bowlers know about wanting free stuff!

And yes knuckleheads, BOWLING HOOD will soon have a forum.

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THANK YOU: To Carolyn Marty, Jim Bulinski, Joe Halpin, Jonathan Peterlin, Richard Doak, Terry Lines, Gary Voss, Al Pote, Jerry Berger, Don Reed

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Until next Saturday, rip the rack and win lots of jack.