10/27 Team TAPSILOG vs. Team BALUT: Bowlcoholic Battle!

It is already Week 8 for the Philly Pinoy Mixed Fall League (MFL), the eighth of nine weeks of regulation play = the season is almost over!  This Sunday's marquee match-up between Team TAPSILOG and Team BALUT is a Battle of Bowlcoholics: we are the ones who time and time again meet up at the Palace for practice, chikahan and asaran.  Most of us are members of the Bowling Committee (Desi, Angie, Edmer and I).  In short, we are certified Bowlcoholics (not anonymous!  By the way, the word Bowlcoholics was coined by Raul Quimbo, and it is the name of their team in the Philly Pinoy Annual Winter League).  We are playing with friends, so even as we practiced on the lanes this past Wednesday night, we knew that tonight was going to be super FUN, regardless of who won.

Team TAPSILOG is composed of Angie Sotomango of the Sotomango bowling dynasty (and wife to my Bandidong BALUT teammate Edmer Sotomango), Ivan Masanga of Ka Ayban fame (and husband of Philly Pinoy Madam Prez Mitchie Masanga of Team LAPU-LAPU), and dancing Desi Mercado, hubby of our 50/50 raffle queen, Alice Mercado.  According to them, they are the Geriatric Team, coz they have the most "mature" make-up of players in the league.

Team TAPSILOG (L-R): IVAN Masanga, ANGIE Sotomango and DESI Mercado

Photo Courtesy of May Libo-on

Our talk on the lane was the memory of a "tutorial" that Angie had been giving Ivan on a previous Wednesday night practice session.  The topic was "mahaba at matigas" (long and hard) = hmmm....  Although the green mind immediately started sniggering (humagikgik!), the lesson really was "Habaan mo ang iyong release, at tigasan mo ang iyong braso habang binabato mo ang bola!" (Lengthen your release and keep your arm straight as you throw the ball!).  O say mo?  While you are at it, finger the ball.  In short, mahaba, matigas at may pitik pa!  Yebah, ang bastus (ng utak ko)!  Sorry, could not resist, this is irresistably good blog material!

The whole pit started out HOT, we were looking good with spares and strikes!  The battle was neck and neck.  It was the Sotomango Exhibition Show for a couple of frames, with Angie getting a 4,7,10-split, and Edmer getting a 1,2,4,10-split.  Wow...bow, mga kapatid, saludo kami sa inyong husay at kakanyahan.  But it was my BALUT teammate Lowen who was outbowling us all: my secret weapon, who is no longer a secret coz I keep broadcasting about him on this blog!  Hanep sa galing, he bowled a 162 game (40 pins above average), tinapatan ako (we had the same score)!  Naging cardio (as in cardiovascular exercise) na naman ang bowling sa kalulundag ko, galing-galing ni Pareng Lowen!  Edmer and Ivan were just warming up.  While Desi and Angie were above average, Lowen's outstanding performance was enough for Team BALUT to win the first game by 20 pins.  Looking good, my dear Team BALUT/SISIW, yebah!  But the scores were oh so close, we need to keep our focus!

Boy, was it hard to keep focus during the second game.  The energy dropped and the lanes were getting hard to read.  With my secret weapon Lowen lying low, his katapat Ivan bowling 20 pins above average, and the rest of us bowling close to our averages, Team TAPSILOG took the second game by about 20 pins.  One all, and it is anybody's to take!

Come the third game, Ivan was the one truly keeping it matigas, mahaba at may pitik pa = strike ng strike ng strike, yeah!  Angie was throwing her share of strikes, and Desi was dancing on the lanes, with his share of strikes: sayaw, Desi!  We were ALL dancing on the lanes between the 9th and 10th frames: Desi and I were dancing Body Language style (Frieda Fonda!), not sure I can describe Lowen's and Angie's styles..., Edmer was doing a moonwalk, hanep!  Party on lanes 17-18!  But oh the marks were not coming BALUT's way, such that I had 80 pins to make up by the time my 10th frame came up.  Ivan had pulled off an amazing and fantabulous 181 game = 40 pins above average, Ka Ayban!  So the night ended with three points going  to Team TAPSILOG, one point for Team BALUT.  Great game, my fellow Bowlcoholics!  Another epic and exciting battle in the annals of the MFL, which unfortunately did not bring victory to the beleaguered BALUT Bandits....

With Team SISIG sweeping Team GOTO in the next pit, I was fairly sure Team BALUT was in the bottom again.  But lo and behold, upon calculating handicap pin totals for the tied teams, we actually maintain our 9th place standing.  Here are the unofficial results (official results will be posted at the Palace website): 

Team #	TEAM	RANK	CURRENT			Wk 8
			win	loss		win	loss
7	DAING	1	21.5	10.5		1	3
3	KROPEK	2	20	12		4	0
4	TAPSILOG	3	19	13		3	1
9	PISBOL	4	19	13		0	4
8	ADOBO	5	17.5	14.5		2	2
1	LAPU-LAPU	6	17	15		2	2
5	MONAY	7	15	17		3	1
10	SISIG	8	12	20		4	0
2	BALUT	9	9.5	22.5		1	3
6	GOTO	10	9.5	22.5		0	4

Oh my poor Go Papa and me, our respective teams are at the bottom of our beloved league.  BUT it's not over yet!  Just one more week left in regulation play and it again promises to be VERY exciting with many potential spoilers and upsets.

Here are the outstanding and noteworthy performances of the night:

• Our 200 clubbers for tonight are Romy-SISIG (210, 233), Roy-KROPEK (204), Blue-ADOBO (220, 203), Art-MONAY (212), and our very first (and currently the only) female 200 clubber, Alice-KROPEK (213!!! yebah!).

• Bowlers who turned pro, bowling all games at and above average tonight (with their average for the night, and average going in) are Lolet-SISIG (132 average from 103), Angie-TAPSILOG (161 average from 145), Lanie-DAING (160 average from 126, wow!) and Jing-BALUT (164 from 153).  Lanie-DAING's performance (156, 166, 160 with 126 average) is especially noteworthy because all her games were at least 30 pins above her average.  You are a superstar pro-player, Lanie!  Super galing-galing!

• Our shining stars who bowled individual games 20+ pins above average are Ryan-GOTO (159!), Lolet-SISIG (162!!! 126!), James-SISIG (179!), Lowen-BALUT (162!), Ivan-TAPSILOG (168! 181!!!), Angie-TAPSILOG (166! 168!), JP-KROPEK (159! 160!), Ed-LAPULAPU (152!), Mitchie-LAPULAPU (173!), Dennis-LAPULAPU (181!), and Art-MONAY (212! 190!).

• Outstanding all night stellar performances by relentless, pulverizing teams were displayed by Team KROPEK/KILAWIN (Alice, Roy and JP) and Team SISIG (Lolet, Romy and James).  No mercy, they swept their opponents, hanep! 

Our winner of the 50/50 raffle tonight is (second time winner) Art Coronado of Team MONAY (money?), who won $45.  Thank you to Alice M for selling the raffle tickets this week.  Our pot is now at $236 with one more week to go, amazing. 

Next week is our Halloween Costume Party and last week in regulation play.  Can't believe it is down to one last try to change the rankings.  Let's make it another exciting night, folks, complete with costume! 

See y'all at the lanes!