Mike Lemongello had Ice Water in is veins

I remember the night in the 1960s at Ave M Bowl in Brooklyn NY

The house was full by 2 am, plenty of action, plenty of betters, in walks this short thin stringbean, looked like he was about 14 or 15 years old, actually he was 16, his backers challenge the house, (a house full of top notch action bowlers) He starts off bowling against either Mac or Stoop, I forget which one.

To make a long story short, over the next couple of weeks he destroyed everyone that was thrown at him, including Freddie the Ox on the 4 lb logs,

Turns out he wasn't a stringbean, he was a lemon, one of the 5 best action bowlers of all time... Bernie B

I was part of the action scene at Ave M Bowl in Brooklyn in the sixties, there was a 3 year run that Ave M had big time action 7 nights a week, all the biggest name action bowlers came from all over the tri state area, the house had all it's lanes going with action many a night until the wee hours of the morning. Saturday night was actually the slowest night when the really big action was at Central Lanes. One night his skinny kid that was called Lemon came in from Long Island with his backers, he looked like he was about 13 years old (actually he was 16) and not strong enough to throw a sixteen pound ball,hich he did. He went on to beating all the top bowlers that came to Ave M for the next 4 weeks straight, he was totally unreal...  Butch

I was at Whitestone one night with Ernie and the same thing happened. We were in our early 20's and he was about 16. He came in with his crew and challanged Ernie. I think they went back and forth and Mike came out one or two up. But, they got along very well and Ernie told him to come to Gun Post the next weekend so they could bowl doubles against Ralph Engan and Hank Borroughs.

The rest is history, they were unbeatable.

That was all before we started going up to Central, Gun Post got raided one Sunday morning around 5 am and the cops took away the kid holding the money and unscrewed the score table and took that for evidence. Didn't bother the bowlers though. Very funny.

I'd love to chat with you, how do I contact you?... Harry Bar

Lemon was better than all mentioned.

Schlegel second best. How could you forget about the best, Richie Hornreich? Kitter was the best in the late seventies when all mentioned were on tour, except Lemon who did not  bowl much then. kitter did crush Roth in a doubles match at rainbow in 1976.

Billy tops, you think lemon knows he is in the pba hall of fame? voted in by the VETs committee in 1994. What a character but class act on the lanes. Lemon would bet on anything.Still picture that skinny 130 pounder walking into Central Sat. night. those were the ACTION days, never since, never again.

The best action bowler ever from Long Island is without a doubt M.L. (Lemon)

The best action bowler ever from Brooklyn is without a doubt R.H. (The Horn)

Who was better, Lemon or Horn?

Which was the greatest action house house of all time?

My top list of action houses in no particular order was:

Central Lanes
Yonkers Bowl
Whitestone Lanes
Deer Park Bowl
Ave M Bowl

These houses were in a league of their own, any other house would have to go on the B list.
 

I disagree. Gun Post had as much or more action than Central but because it got raided all the action moved to Central. There were nights at Gun Post that you couldn't get to the snack bar because it was too crowded. Action on just about every pair and all the big names. Jake Charter, Joel Meyers, Frankie Medici, Ernie, Mike Limengello, Fats and Deacon, RALPH, Howie Polefski, (my favorite) Jack Clemente, Iggy Russo, Chicago Bill, Billy The Kid, Doc Iandoli etc. etc. etc.
If you remember Gun Post, here is a trivia question: What was the name of the manager?
JK

The truth is there were so many great action bowleres in the 60's that everyone has their favorites. It's like picking great hitters between Joe DiMaggio And Ted Williams.

Lemon and Horn were two guys I loved seeing.



Daly was the biggest backer for sure.

sicke st, if you were in central in 67, schlegel never beat richie or lemon. Ernie was great as long as the shot was outside. Ernie could never play inside because he is blind in one eye. so many here really do not remember how great richie was. does anybody here remember how great charlie faino was from 1970-1975. he lived off of action and raised a family doing so. he was unbeatable during this era and rarely lost. when urethane lanes came into play in 1976, charlie's full roller was not as effective and jeff kidder became the king. somebody asked who was better jeff or ernie. at their best kidder was, from 76 until his retirement in 81. he was the best in the country. ernie was never the best at any point in the sixties. of course the competition was much stronger in the sixties.

lemon never knew me. I always bet in the back. Same with hornreich. Became friendly with Richie at Fiesta. have not seen him in a few years, although I know you can find him at maple every afternoon. remember buffalo. saw him in florida over christmas. he got out of the slam last year or the year before after doing five years in Federal. He's flipping burgers in a bowling alley.
still would not trust him as far as i could throw him. and he weighs 300+

ralph was the smoothest bowler I have ever seen. He was the Fred Astaire of getting to the line. He never ever beat Hornreich. You guys do not remember or were not at central in 1967 to see just how great Richie. He beat jim godman the pba hof with about 18 titles including the toc in 1967.he kicked his ass in doubles bowling with ernie against lemon and godman. and destroyed him when godman came back again for singles. in both matches godman averaged close to 240 and could not win. richie had so much talent from 16-21 and threw it away gambling. he's still good, but not even close to what he should have been.

the only time lemon made any money in action was when he bowled with ernie then his clique wanted to try and get it all,so lemon picked a partner and ernie bowled with a bowler name of pete mylenki and lemon and his clique never knew when to quit and all the money was then in the manhattan cliques pockets,that's also what happened to ritchies money to,ernie was a hustler not a action bowler when he got on the lanes the other bowler lost. if you see lemon.ritchie you ask them who has whose money.ernie and his girl lived in a penthouse downtown n.y.on all their money and i put my self thru college.in one night ernie and pete beat ralph & doc 4 or 5 straight each game down to the 10th up a pin or 2 both teams struck out exciting and very profitable.lemon could never pick a partner ernie always could,he bowled him singles and it was to tough the only winner was going to be the house,to be a good hustler you have to know when to get out,ernie did and the rest of the bowlers didn't.

great action bowlers, here are a few of the best and any time they bowled with or againest each other was like a great game in any sport you loved to watch. joe s,frank medici ralph engan(the most feared), jake charter, dewey blair, lemongello,ritchie hornriech,jack clemente,rich pizzutti, jeff kitter,john massaro,ernie schlegel,doc iandolli,jimmy mChugh, pete mylenki,mike derose,and many more that i'm probably other people can add to this great list. each one of these bowlers had alot of talentand when they bowled each other it was beautiful to watch no matter who one the clutch strikes the jibeing was worth the price of admission

SICKLE SHOULD CALL YOURSELF SICKLECELL BECAUSE YOU ARE SO FULL OF SHIT. ERNIE WAS NEVER IN LEMON'S CLASS. WHERE DO YOU GET OFF TALKING ALL THIS BULLSHIT. BOWL ME. I'D FOLLOW YOU AROUND THE COUNTRY. I'M STILL PRETTY GOOD, BOWLING ONCE A WEEK WITH A 205 AVERAGE. I'M TIRED OF ALL THE BS HERE. RICHIE AND LEMON WERE THE BEST. YOU JUST NEVER CAME TO CENTRAL ENOUGH. The only single matches he ever found up there in 67 were against richie. my god schlegel was voted into the pba because he's been out there forever. lemon won 6 stops in about 9 years including the first bower with two majors in one year, 1971, us open and pba national in paramus. earl and the best ever wrw this year only bowlers to accomplish that. If lemon would have bowed ernie every day. max the shy would have been cleaning up from all of ernie's borrowings. you oldtimers just forgot.and ernie bowled jeff at the hub before jeff became great(pre 1976). schlegel could never beat faino whom you idiots forgot about. Just ask berardi how good faino was. HE crushed berardi enud at fiesta.

LICHSTEIN SUCKED. His son is far better than he ever was. DOTTY FOTHERGILL was the best woman bowler and a lefty in the country in the late sixties. do remember the night lich walked into raceway in the fall of '69 with dotty and like a fool decided to bowl doubles against lemon and bobby pancakes who was not that good but was on a tear for about six months. lemon won 5 or six straight. lich and dotty never returned. what a joke. also one night pancakes who was on a roll beating everybody in sight decided to bowl lemon. another joke. pancakes stepped up too much. lemon eight straight. I wish I had seen dewey bowl but I heard enuf about him, especially the night he crushed ralph and quit to go to school. Hornreich did tell me a few years ago how good dewey was as long as the shot was outside. dewey was deadly playing the track, but not that good once he had to play fifteen. and ernie did beat richie at central in the beginning because he was smarter. he would come at 3 am and challenge richie. he beat him because richie was there at 1am and already bowling and by the time the match got started the horn was tired. after a few times, the horn started showing up at 3am, rested and ernie never beat him again. I will admit that ernie was the best for my money because I never walked out a loser betting on him in the back. He had so many easy matches. As for ritchie, i could never get a bet in the back because everybody knew richie was the best. one night ernie beat mike chuchillo 7 out of 8 at central. to get chuchillo on the lanes, richie would have needed to spot him at least ten. you need to speak to schlegel one day and he will tell you that richie and lemon were much better. if you still believe schlegel was better then you forgot that whenever the horn and schlegel bowled doubles, richie was ALWAYS anchor. WHY? Because he never missed when it counted. enuf already.

You're right,Pete didn't belong on the same lanes with Lemon. But that didn't stop him. I was Pete's partner against Lemon and somone he brought from L.I. We beat them 4 or 5 games in row. Lemon covering all the action himself. Lemon shot 220every game while his partner shots 180. Pete and I at 210 each. The match was in Hackensack N.J. Pete not satisfied,so he wants to against Lemon alone. Pete takes Lemon to his home house in River Edge. Lemon takes every dollar we had.

Belfairbuck. Just wondering why did you bet on Mylenki? I guess you were taking a shot. why not quit after the first loss. Who was your partner in the doubles match? One other question. Who would you have bet on, on being the best in the tenth. Lemon, Hornreich or schlegel and why?

Thanx. Ralph was a great action bowler but I thought hornreich and lemon were better. If they were hooking too much, ralph had problems because he threw so much ball. He did with a ball what some bowlers cannot do today with resin. He was the smoothest bowler I ever saw, including all l the great pros. Ralph did win three stops. A real nice guy who passed away in the late 70s from cancer. I remember the night in central when he bowled Ray Shell and they tied at 300.

I went to Central just a few times, wish it had been a lot more.

I saw Ralph, Ernie, Mike, Iggy, but not Dewey

In those days I mainly stayed in at Ave M in Brooklyn, (horn, Lemon, Iggy, Mac & Stoop, Freddie the Ox, Ernie, Petraglia, Roth, and about every big name you can think of) and the rest of the Brooklyn action houses, there was a lot of them in that era. In the seventies I saw a lot of action at Raceway lanes on Saturday nites
(horn, jeff, Berardi and many others) one of the best characters from the seventies was the Beeper
 

do not lie. you started being nasty jk. read back. foti is a right, owns the shop at roosevelt in jersey city and was real tough over 10 years ago before he put on a ton of weight. the beeper is still around and bowling. and wow, you never mentioned the horn at central. am i the only one that knew he and lemon were king there. and wow, i definitely knew you, because i was at raceway every weekend in the late 60s and maybe till 1970 when the action shifted to lyons in new jersey on friday nights.

I'm still surprised that you belittled Kidder. You are definitely entitled to your opinion but I hope you are not putting yourself in Kidder's class. Many today consider him the best action bowler ever.That's because they never saw the horn in his day. I have never heard your name ever mentioned. I may have seen you bowl but I can't remember and I have been around this game 40 years. My ratings of the best amateurs and action bowlers I've seen:

1960s-the horn and lemon in a tie, with schlegel next and dewey blair(he could not play inside)
1970s- faino then kidder
1980s until he moved to florida in 87 or 88- hank behrom-kidder only bowled two years-hank rarely bowled bad and won alot of tournaments. he chewed up the horn at colonial, daly won 10g and then proceeded to get robbed in the parking lot for everything. Rudy was still learning to make spares.
1990-no doubt Rudy-the two best were he and neumann but neumann rarely bowled action.
Today-scianna from the island and fagan when he is off the tour. scianna-this guy bets his own cash and i have seem him double the bet, lets say to $600 when he is stuck.
He fears nobody. I've seen him come down games and always walk out a winner. he is one tough mf in the tenth. he clocked robert smith a few years ago.
If you still plan to come back to the game and practice alot and want good action, scianna's the man. guaranteed to travel to maple.
My opinions again.

SC, you are right about Jake Charter. He threw a tank. Remember he was a regular at Gunpost along with Ralph and Hank Bouroughs. Sorry I don't have a specific match in my memory bank. He could talk up a storm also. That stuff was almost as good as the actual matches. He always had a grin on his face.

The gabbing among those guys and Ernie, Iggy, Lemon, Chicago Bill, etc. was priceless.

Love reading your posts. You have the knowledge and respect for those great days.

Green acres closed before Scianna was bowling action. Lemon was the best ever from the island and in all houses. Mchugh was never better than him in any L.I. house. Kitter was great after Lemon was out of the game, otherwise Lemon would have kicked his ass also.

Lemon was the best action bowler by far from the island, way before your time. joe s I met last year and got to know fairly well bets it up. He hates to fly, therefore no Vegas. He will travel to your house and after he beats you he will spot you ten pins if he has to, to get a rematch. He will not bowl lefties no matter how bad they are. Best action bowler around since Rudy vanished. Two months ago he beat Neumann two straight and Neumann as usual was shooting.

Rudy lives in Mississippi now. For whatever reason, Scianna rarely bowls in tournaments.He bowled in the regional in Florida last weekend. Mack was probably bowling some easier competition in Singapore.
Ya hoss, believe me these guys never saw Kitter bowl.
Is Woodmere the place where the action is Saturday? Expensive weekend for Smith. He travels 3,000 miles to see his girlfriend and then gets waxed on the lanes. Action is just a whole new ballgame. Now Scianna is real good and the best around these days. I'm sure if he keeps bowling Smith, he will go down in the long run.
And kitter feared nobody. He challenged Earl at GC one year. Earl said come to Seattle. Kitter and DALY went. For whatever reason(s), the match never took place.
Remember, when Rudy was here, Joe was second best. And Rudy beat Pete Weber on three different occassions. Twice here and once in Texas. Kitter, Lemon and hornreich were better. You had to be there to believe. Rudy never bet alot. the three bet thousands.

The originator of fruit salad did lose to Richie on more than one occassion. How could you forget? You had maybe 6 tour wins in your career. Lemon had that in less than ten years including two majors in one year. You are smarter because you are still here. You were not a degenerate gambler like lemon and richie. And covering all bets please. $100 was a good bet for you in Central. Richie, Lemon and if you remember RC bet a grand many many many times. for my money you were great because I never went home a loser betting on you in Central. it was tough to get a bet on Richie or lemon because they were the best around and always the favorites. Remember when you and richie chopped up godman and lemon at central. Richie was the anchor.
 

Lemongello Surrenders On Kidnapping Charges

Saturday afternoon and evening at Falcaro's in Lawrence was the premier action house during the mid 70's and early 80's. Guys came from all over to challenge the house bowlers. The true house action bowlers at Falcaro's were as follows and not necessarily in order of the best.

Tommy "Triple" Yadanza
Bruce "The Dipper" Pastor
Gibby ("The matchmaker") Pastor Sr.
Gibby Pastor Jr.
Barry Clare
Phil Caporusso Jr.
Al ("Ironman") Pinola
John The Pollack
Joe Viverito
Big Al
Julio Curra
John Dugan
Maury Berger
Steve Weiss
Steve Gowa
Paul Katz
Ira Katz ("The Whale")
John Kurkemelis
Steve Reiss
Aaron Goldfedder
Louis Rothman
Michael ("The Sailor") Sperber
Dino Star
Freddy ("The Silver Fox") Mayo
Freddy ("The Ox") Arbolino
Andrew Castardi
Mike Kilgannon
Mike Lemingello
Ray Shell

Anyone who remebers more .....please let me know..

Action Bowlers who came down to Falcaro's during this era to bowl either house bowlers or other bowlers from the region were as follows:

Jeff Kidder
Bill Dailey
Tavie
Joe Cologna
Cliffy Berglund
Tony Devito
Ricky Papandrea
Gino Papandrea
Louis Prisco
Big Earl
Bobby Simonelli Jr.
Hank Behrbom
Snake
Les Shirwindt
Jimmy McCue
The Beeper

Anyone who remebers more .....please let me know..
 

Lemon's house was not Falcaro's. Of all those mentioned, he was the best with Kidder in second place and Mchugh third.