Lenny The Cane / Action Stories / The Present
Amy DillonAmy Dillon , of Miami Florida, now 19 and bowling for Witchita State, after transferring from University of Florida. I first saw Amy bowl when she was 12 years old, I had formed a junior challenge match between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, with the best 5 girls and boys from each city, a 3 game home and home match , scoring by points. The Miami girls, with Amy at a 185 average and the low bowler at the time, crushed our Ft Lauderdale girls, all 5 girls averaging over 200, the Ft Lauderdale boys upset the talented Miami team. The brightly shining star was Amy Dillon, short of stature, mighty tall when it comes to bowling. She has won the Miami herald bowler of the year, the greter Miami top 8, the Ft Lauderdale top 8, and the coca cola state junior girls on 3 occasions, finishing 2nd 3rd and 4th in the nationals. She has also lead the prestigious Las Vegas ch tournament , bowling a 300 in that contest as well as leading with a 236 average only to get beat, for the title. She has also won the Florida regional tournament of champions, beating the very strong , Shawn Evans, a few years ago. The same Shawn Evans who was world jr bowler of the year in 98 and a team usa member. Amy has to her credit 2 - 300s and 2 - 800s 816 and 827. I will try to have Amy as well as Shawn on the chat line in the future, unless they, some how are restricted from their freedom of speech. lennyd
500 pounder Mike Stanco 300Thursday, 15-Apr Tonite 500 pound bowler mike stanco broke down in tears as he bowled his first 300 at sawgrass bowl in sunrise Florida. When Iasked him his weight after he finished he said that last month he was over 600 pounds and that he had just lost a 100 pounds and wasnt sure. His 4 man team bowled a great of ( 1110 ) Eric Walker 279 - Nick Calcagino 278 and Steve Farmer 253 along with the big man bowling 300... lennyd
The Second Coming In Fort Lauderdale we have the second coming of Richie Hornreich and Mark Roth, 35 years after those 2 juniors tore apart the new york area. Having watched and bowled action in the NY area for 40 years till I moved to Florida, have I seen a more dynamic duo than these two youngsters, Matt Gilman 16 and Collin Hayes 14. Matt at age 11 bowled his first three hundred and at 12, an 800 , he now has 8 300s and has come very close to 800 on numerous other occasions, he has just been pressed by 14 year old bowling phenom Collin Hayes, who in the past 9 months has thrown 7 - 300s and 3 - 800s and has also missed narrowly throwing back to back 800s on 2 consecutive days as well as just missing several more 300s including a 299. Coached by Fred Borden and Randy Pedersen. Randy has never seen a 14 now 15 year old that good, but he never saw Richie Hornreich, and I did. In 1960, Richie at age 12, bowled a doubles match with a 16 year old against 2 guys in the navy, at Leemark lanes Brooklyn with a rubber ball, bowled 8 games with a low game of 258, including back to back games of 289 & 2- 279s with three games in the 260s. What ever happened to Richie, thats even a longer story, but in my opinion he was better than Roth, Lemongello, Petraglia, Schlegel, and the 2 hand cradle of Joe Berardi.
Women Bowlers In S. Florida Since my bowling days are over i coach quite a few bowlers , in the south florida, area, some of the notable women bowlers, have been sue neidig, 1 tour title, couple 300s and 800s and by the way my condolences to her on the passing of her husband john, a few months ago, laura colavito, formally from the tri state area , lefty 300 2 800s and wins in the fla queens, and other so fla tournaments , 220 avg , just voted into broward county hall of fame, and congrats to her, leslie boczar, also 218 avg 300 795 high set and also voted into broward county hall of fame, marcia kamrowski, winner of fla queens, several local tournaments 216 avg and recently finishing 2nd in super hoinke, for 40 large against the guys, and 801 in the queens as well as several 300s now in her rookie year on tour ,cashing her first stop and narrowly missing the next 2 out of three, good luck to her and shell be a fixture there in the next couple of years, also junior bowler shana hricko, who at 14 shot a 290 - 745, and upset her arch rival at the time in three different tournaments winning the mia herald jr bowler of the year, broward county top 8 girls and the fla state jr girls finishing 14 th in the country a couple of years ago ending the seemingly invincable amy dillons reign at that time, shana 205 avg at 14 has had knee problems and has been sidelined attending the univ of fla after transferring from fla state, and amy dillon another star of the future and one to be reckoned with in years to come although not a student of mine, now attending wichita state after transferring from univ of fla, she is 19 with 2 300s and 2 800s and better than 215 avg lenny
Rudy Rev- Early 90s - Florida It was early ninetys maybe 1990, rudy could give you the year better than i, but it was his first go round on the pba tour for him, and i met rudy, junior simmonelli, george sabatino, the ny connection. before the tour would start, there would be a tournament for 1200 bucks at don carters tamarac lanes, and a lot of the guys from the tour showed up to bowl, and at this time, it was probably the easiest house in the country. and in 10 games i would expect rudy to bowl maybe 3 300s, but that was not the case as rudy averaged only 230 and did not cash, but george shot 300, and i believe might have gotten a check. a local bowler named joey smith was averageing 260 plus for the first seven games and was eventually caught by david white of texas, who had been bowling the tour as well, others in the field included pete weber george pappas del ballard to name a few. towards the end of the competition , i notice the lanes breaking down and advised rudy, they, he and sabatino could get a match against joey smith and another local hot shot named bob vespi. and so after the 10 gamer the action begins. bowling on 5 and 6 the first game george struggles and rudy throws the last 7 , but they lose, the next game george bowls a little better but rudy throws the last nine, and vespi and smith quit. now jr simmonelli wants me to take him to the airport, to catch a 6 am flight to ny as he was broke and wanted to go back, and while that ride to the airport took place, rudy bowls ryan boyd on the other side of the house where there was more oil and sabatino bowls vespi, rudy throws back to back 300s and ryan quits, and sabatino beats vespi 4 straight and he quits. rudy wants to know whether or not there is any more action, and i said yes. rudy missed the rabbit squad that week on monday so we had all week to look for action. on monday night we go to boca raton, where the monday after league pot games take place,and rudy proceeds to win three straight, 20 a man 6 guys in the game. then one of the players tony ahladis says to rudy ill bowl you singles for 50 a game, rudy after bowling 258 258 257 in the pot game, bowls 258 267 and 279 throwing 32 out of 36 strikes possible and loses all three games to tony who shot 279 290 300, and they were both playin 20 to the gutter , tony using a green white dot. the next night the action is in miami and i get lost going to classic lanes as i had only been there once before, when we go to a gas station to ask for directions,we come upon a drug deal and rudy says lets get out of here and go home. as we are going home, we see the bowling alley and stop by to see if anyone was still around,and yes there was action there joey smith bowling someone and a couple of local bowlers hanging around, so i ask tony juliano if he wanted to bowl rudy and he agreed . they started on 33 and 34 and rudy flagged a 4 pin in the first followed by the next 5 using a plastic p 24 that he had just gotten from ernie off the tour truck, humming the 1/2 board lined up off the gutter which i neversaw rudy play before, and tony had the first 6 when he left the 3 6 10, rudy jumped him before he had a chance to make the spare threw a double messenger, for a 6 bagger, which promptly made tj miss all three pins, and rudy now confidently, takes it to the wall for a 279. tony says lets switch pairs to 1 and 2 and beats rudy with a 191 as the pair was pretty tough rudy bowling a 170 game. then rudy says lets switch the pair and throws the front 9 on five and six tony says lets switch again again rudy front 9 out of the wood on 7 and 8 , lets switch again , 9 and 10 again front nine for rudy and i ask rudy why he wouldnt shoot for the three hundred , he said he already had 4 this week, they switch again to 11 and 12 and again to 13 and 14, and i turned to rudy after 45 in a row match over, the only person that could beat, you here is not on this planet, only the man upstairs if he could carry as good as you lenny d
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