11/17 MFL Super Bowl = Finals Night!

Tonight, November 17, was the Philly Pinoy Mixed Fall League (MFL) 2013 Finals Night: our very own SUPER BOWL! 

We came as early as 6 pm with lots of food to share, in typical Pinoy fashion.  Busog sa sarap!  May pila pa sa kutsinta!  The generosity of the Philly Pinoy community and of the Downingtown Palace bowling crowd was heart-warmingly apparent, as Philly Pinoy accepted monetary donations for the Philippine Super Typhoon Haiyun/Yolanda victims.  Donors received native Filipino bracelets.  Most of the leaguers came decked in Filipino shirts: what an excellent display of solidarity! 

The lanes assignments for tonight were as follows:

		Lane Assignment
Week	Date	11 and 12	13 and 14	15 and 16	17 and 18	19 and 20
Finals	17-Nov-2013	FINALS / POSITION ROUND
		2 vs 6 BALUT vs GOTO	4 vs 5 TAPSILOG vs MONAY	7 vs 3 DAING vs KROPEK	9 vs 8 PISBOL vs ADOBO	1 vs 10 LAPU-LAPU vs SISIG
		9th vs 10th	5th vs 6th	1st vs 2nd	3rd vs 4th	7th vs 8th
Team #	Team Name	Team Members
1	LAPU-LAPU	Mitchie, Dennis, Ed
2	BALUT	Jing, Edmer, Lowen
3	KROPEK	Alice, Roy, JP
4	TAPSILOG	Angie, Desi, Ivan
5	MONAY	Chelo, Art, Edwin
6	GOTO	Eden, Joel C, Ryan
7	DAING	Lanie, Joel D, Jay
8	ADOBO	Grace, Blue, Lino
9	PISBOL	Sansu, Paolo, Atit
10	SISIG	Lolet, Romy, James

Since we were having so much fun eating the delicious food, we started late after 7 pm. 

Team BALUT with Lowen, Edmer and me were up against Team GOTO with Eden, Ryan and my GoPapa Joel on lanes 11 and 12.  Edmer and I came out with all guns firing in Game 1, getting a win for Team BALUT as Lowen, Eden, Ryan and Joel all played below their averages.  Go BALUT!

Joel and I both struggled the rest of the night, which allowed our team mates to step up and show their mettle.  Game 2 had all our team mates playing above their averages, but with Edmer continuing to have a hot hand and scoring a 211, and Lowen scoring a whopping 143 (I Love You, daw!), Team BALUT wins another game, even with Eden scoring a 140 and Ryan returning the greeting with his own 143 score (can you feel the love?).

I was stuck in Splitsville throughout the second and third game, and could not even convert my spares.  Thank goodness Edmer and Lowen continued to play well, with Edmer scoring three strikes in the 10th frame, getting a 179 average for the night!  But with Eden and Ryan bowling up a storm and scoring 143 and 142 respectively, it came down to Joel and me to settle the score.  Pinagbigyan ko daw si Joel (hindi, ah...), nakuha daw ako sa kindat, as my spare ball went straight to the gutter and Joel kept throwing strikes!  Game 3 goes to Team GOTO, naka-isa!  So with Team BALUT winning 3-1, our team rankings in the bottom stand as they were, with Team BALUT in 9th place and Team GOTO in 10th place.  Great match!

Most other teams kept their pre-finals standings with the exception of 7th and 8th teams, which switched standings, with Team SISIG sweeping Team LAPU-LAPU and taking over the 7th place slot. 

The ADOBO vs PISBOL 3rd vs 4th place match ended last, so exciting!  Team ADOBO had already won Games 1 and 2, so every pin counted as they battled for the 3rd place slot in the last game.  It came down to the last frame with Blue and Paolo facing off against each other.  In the end, the teams split points as Paolo dug in and threw strike after strike, allowing Team PISBOL to take Game 3 and total pins, and hold on to the #3 slot!  Wow! 

Just like Teams PISBOL and ADOBO, Teams TAPSILOG and MONAY (ranked 5th and 6th), split points and kept their pre-finals rankings.  This was a nail biting match-up in its own right, with Games 1 and 3 decided by a mere 4 pins!  Hanep!

Team DAING left no doubt with respect to who is #1, yebah!  Our Super Bowl league champions showed their mettle by sweeping their opponents, Team KROPEK/KILAWIN.  No mercy!  What a performance!

I wanted to mention the outstanding individual performances for tonight based on the league sheets:

• Our 200 clubbers are Edmer-BALUT (211), Desi-TAPSILOG (202), Paolo-PISBOL (211), Lino-ADOBO (201), James-SISIG (201) and Romy-SISIG (210).
• We have a handful of outstanding super star players who turned pro with all three games above their averages tonight.  First is Grace of Team ADOBO, with scores of 166, 143 and 146 for average of 151 tonight (came in with 128 average, hanep!).  Next is Edwin of Team MONAY, with scores of 145, 193 and 153 for 153 average for tonight against 142 average coming in.  Also from Team MONAY is BowlStar Chelo Babe, with scores of 155, 169 and 138 for an average tonight of 154 (had 132 average coming in).  And topping this list is Desi of Team TAPSILOG, with scores of 202, 182 and 171, all scores 20+ pins above his 150 average coming in, with an average tonight of 185 and a 555 series.  Way to go, our Super Stars, galing galing!
• Our shining stars with games 20 or more pins above their averages are Lolet-SISIG (143 AND 125!!!), James-SISIG (176, in addition to his 203) Lowen-BALUT (143), Lanie-DAING (152), Sansu-PISBOL (136), Atit-PISBOL (170), Mitchie-LAPULAPU (181) and (hahabol pa) Jing-BALUT (188).

CONGRATULATIONS to all our players!  The final league standings and the cash prizes awarded tonight are listed below.  All the players received a participant medal.  The players in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams received corresponding gold, silver and bronze medals.  We also awarded special "You Make A Difference" medals to our 50/50 raffle queen Alice Mercado, our raffle helper String/Chona Aquino, and our official photographer May Libo-on.

FIRST PRIZE	300		DAING
SECOND PRIZE	150		KROPEK
THIRD PRIZE	90		PISBOL
4th	60		ADOBO
5th	60		TAPSILOG
6th	60		MONAY
7th	60		SISIG
8th	60		LAPU-LAPU
9th	60		BALUT
10th	60		GOTO
TOTAL TEAM $$$	960
male high average	25		Romy 193
male high average	25		Paolo 190
female high average	25		Jing 154
male handicap series	20		Joel D 727
male handicap series	20		Art 713
female handicap series	20		Lanie 680
male handicap game	20		Desi 284
male handicap game	20		Roy 266
female handicap game	20		Alice 259
male scratch  series	20		Joel C 600
male scratch series	20		Blue 566
female scratch series	20		Mitchie 508
male scratch game	20		Dennis 223
male scratch game	20		Francis 214
female scratch game	20		Angie 189
TOTAL IND $$$	315

All 30 of our MFL players got a special surprise treat c/o Eden Medical Spa and Philly Pinoy President Mitchie when we were all given $100 gift certificates, which can be used for spa services = wow, pampaganda!  THANK YOU very much!

We also raffled off two additional $100 gift certificates from Eden Medical Spa for our non-player attendees.  Our two winners were Joy Quimbo and Lito Lizardo.  CONGRATULATIONS!  Talagang inyong inyo ang mga premyo na ito!

So as our beloved Mixed Fall League 2013 fades into memory, let me acknowledge all our MFL participants, the Philly Pinoy Bowling Committee (Romy, Angie, Blue, Edmer, Dennis, Desi, Jay and Mitchie), the Philly Pinoy Officers, and the folks at the Bowling Palace (League Coordinator Bob, League Scoring Contact Jane, and Mary who ably helped us from the front desk every league night) who made it all possible.  Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat!

We were so happy to see how happy all our players were tonight: success!  My GoPapa Joel and I, your MFL 2013 co-chairs, put up a good show: we make an awful good pair/team, naks!  JC Squared is already dreaming and scheming about the 2014 MFL.  Maybe next year, we will not be battling for the bottom spot...sana nga.... 

So till next year, see yah all at the lanes: Bowl, Baby, BOWL!!! 

Magandang gabi sa inyong lahat!

Medals awarded to MFL Participants and Winners

11/12 Bowling Songfest + Finals Reminders

I am sure my dear Philly Pinoy Mixed Fall League players can barely contain their excitement and anticipation over the upcoming MFL Finals this Sunday, November 17.  To help tide you over, or maybe build up more excitement for our Grand Finale this coming weekend, I have put together a Bowling Songfest four (4!) song extravaganza in this Pahabol Blog.  Sa totoo lang, it was hard to find the inspiration for the songs for Teams ADOBO, TAPSILOG and MONAY in the past few weeks.  Thank goodness the floodgates of inspiration opened yesterday evening and boom: here I am with a songfest for y'all! 

Let me start off with Team ADOBO, comprised of Grace Que, Lino Matamis and Blue Sapalaran.  Sorry, Grace and Lino, but the song ended up being all about Blue, who "rose from the dead" (sandbagger...) to play superbly against Team BALUT, proving yet again that Team BALUT brings out the best in their opponents (ibo-blog ko kasi)!  To the tune of Rico Puno's Kapalaran, here is Sapalaran (the Team ADOBO song):

 

O why is it like that

Why is life so am-payr (unfair)

Sometimes you're on top

But BALUT's always under

Sapalaran of Team ADOBO

He could not be found

But against us, he made hataw

We could not rebound

O bakit ba ganyan

Si Blue Sapalaran

BALUT ay binigo

ADOBO'y nagtagumpay

Di masisi ang iyong bola

Team BALUT naka-isa

Thank you sa one point na binigay!

O that brings back memories of a sea of pink, the Philly Pinoy MFL players on our Wear Pink day, and Blue and I facing off in the last frame of the last game as the whole league watched.  Blue has since continued his awesome play, scoring in the 200s = hey, that's the Blue I know!  Grace has also gotten better and better = her consistency with the 10-pin was uncanny on the evening of our match, but I was immensely proud of her when I saw her stringing strikes on Week 9, way to go!  Mang Lino, hang in there, you are capable of exploding with a 200 game.  Hataw, Team ADOBO!

The next number of our program is a song for Team TAPSILOG, which has Team BALUT's practice buddies: Desi Mercado, Ivan Masanga and Angie Sotomango.  Since Desi is a karaoke king, and I have heard him give a soulful, heartfelt rendition of this song, here is the Team TAPSILOG Song to the tune of Only You (naks!):

TAPSILOG (tapsilog tapsilog)

Ivan, Angie, Desi

TAPSILO-O-OG (tapsilog tapsilog)

Geriatric daw (sabi)

Just like BALUT, they have itlog

Their bowling balls are all bilog

Always in my blog

Our dear Team TAPSILOG (tapsilog tapsilog)

TA-HAP-SI-LO-HO-HOG (tapsilog tapsilog)

They practice hard and long

TAPSILO-O-OG (tapsilog tapsilog)

With focus they play strong

With them we practice every week

For bowling we are all sabik

Addict na addict

BALUT and TAPSILOG

Hmm, hard and long, ha...wah na 'ko say!  As true bowling buddies, I am sure we will all continue to practice and play together, regardess of what teams and leagues we play in in the coming months and years.  Kitakits sa bolingan, dear friends!

I have always loved the song Downtown which is the tune for the Team MONAY song.  Team MONAY has Chelo Compendio, Edwin Sanchez and Art Coronado.  We split two points each at our Week 9 matchup: hating kaibigan!  To the tune of Downtown (chorus), here is the Team MONAY Song:

MONAY!

Chelo, Art at Edwin

MONAY!

Nag-split tayo ng win

MONAY!

We enjoyed playing with you!

Sorry, so short and sweet is your song.  But this is because the rest of the song Downtown inspired the fourth non-team-related song in this Pahabol Blog Bowling Songfest.  Aptly entitled Bowling (but of course, ano pa?), here is song #4:

When you're alone

And life is making you lonely

You can always go

BOWLING

When you're unhappy

All the pins that go flying

Give you joy, I know

BOWLING

Just listen to the racket of

The people that are playing

Smell the stinky shoes and the

Cheese pizza that is burning

Don't blow your fuse....

The lights may be on or off

The kids are running and screaming

But it's only two bucks!  So go 

BOWLING

Practice improves your game

BOWLING

Sober man o lasheng

BOWLING

There'll be friends waiting for you!

You will surely find good friends from the MFL at the lanes from here onward, so kitakits, hokay?  I heard that some of you were already suffering from withdrawal symptoms, since there was no league play this past weekend.  Two whole weeks nga naman with no MFL, ay caramba!   How will you survive for the next eight months until MFL returns in Fall 2014?  The answer is simple: GO BOWLING.  The 4th song is for you and says it all: go bowling, my dear friends.  Watch out for announcements on the Winter League: it should be another fun and exciting time for all, and another opportunity for us to GO BOWLING.

FINALS REMINDERS

Here is the list of reminders for this Sunday's MFL Finals at the Downingtown Palace.  Sorry if you already know some of this, I just need to make sure we all REALLY have the info and will actually remember the details.  Here goes:

• We will have potluck dinner starting at 6:00 pm.  Tables will be laid out in the dance floor.  Come hungry and prepared to sample some yummy dalisyusness (talap talap).
• Bowling fee of $15 is still due.  Bring cash or check made payable to "cash" or "Carmelinda Capucao" (ako yun, hokay?).
• We will have the awarding ceremony right after the games, so please plan accordingly, as we WILL be there well after 9 pm.  No frills, we will strive to move things along, so you can get your cold hard cash expeditiously.  But hey, it is still a celebration, right?  We'll party hardy!
• We will have a special surprise raffle, tickets will be distributed to all players for free.  We made an executive decision to not have a 50/50 raffle on Finals night.  If you would like to donate an additional special prize, please let me know via email or cell.

From the deep recesses of our hearts, we wish to thank y'all for being a part of this league.  We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed doing the behind-the-scenes stuff, and that the loving care we put into it was evident in the outcome, naks!  Until the Winter League, and until the MFL returns once again next year, BOWL ON!  Mabuhay ang Philly Pinoy!

TYPHOON YOLANDA RELIEF

Our hearts go out to our countrymen in the areas ravaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda.  Please continue to pray for our country, and please consider giving generously to relief efforts.  Click on this link to make a PayPal donation to the Philippine Red Cross.  God bless the Philippines and the Filipino people.

11/3 Howloween Battle: MONAY vs BALUT

November 3 was the Philly Pinoy Mixed Fall League Halloween Costume Party, or as our official photographer May Libo-on calls it, Howloween!  We came as witches, video game characters, super heroes, aliens, monsters, zombies, dogs and cats.  There was a lot of food, from Halloween cupcakes from the Libo-ons to a scrumptious birthday hoagie and pizza fest for our Veep Roy Compendio.  As always, it is a grand old time when the Philly Pinoy crowd comes together for a party.  And we have not even started talking about the BOWLING!

Philly Pinoy Howloween!

Photo Courtesy of May Libo-on

Edmer, Lowen and I in Team BALUT were up against Chelo, Edwin and Art of Team MONAY.  Chelo and I have been bowling together as teammates with Mitchie (of Team LAPU-LAPU) in a USBC-sanctioned all womens' league for the past two summers.  The three of us are the IncrediBOWLS in that league.  In the past Philly Pinoy Winter League, the three of us bowled with Liz and Chona/String as the BowlStars, and our adventures together are the content of the earlier half of this blog.  Now Art is a practice mate, a regular fixture in the Palace with his Bowlero teammates, Dennis-LAPULAPU and Desi-TAPSILOG.  I was hoping I could keep up with him as I can sometimes do during our practice sessions together, although I am very much aware of his ability to get hot and score consistently in the 200s.  Edwin is one of our new Philly Pinoy league players, but he is not new to bowling, and it is evident in his play.  Team BALUT was aware we needed to play at our peak: Team MONAY is dangerous when hot, capable of making us into a BALUT sandwich (talap, pero saklap).

Team MONAY (L-R): ART Coronado, CHELO Compendio and EDWIN Sanchez (Photo Courtesy of May Libo-on)

Thank the bowling gods I started out hot and was able to keep pace with Art, who came out with all guns firing, hitting strike after strike!  I was dressed like Super (Striker) Girl and felt like it.  Ably supported by Edmer who got his average (go, Super Mario!), Team BALUT won the first game by around 30 pins (so close!) and I was happy to bowl a 201 (200 clubber, baby!) trying so hard to keep up with Art and his 204 game.

I knew I could not keep it up, and sure enough, I struggled in Game 2.  Oh what a sight to see when each player of a given team finds their mojo and excels in a single game (even though it hurts coz it's against YOU)!  Team MONAY got hot hot HOT and played individual games that were at least 40 pins above their average = that's a whopping 120 pin advantage, equivalent to another player!  BowlStar Chelo bowled a 177, Art was still in the 200's with a 231, and Edwin had a 182 = concede, concede, Diyos na mahabagin!  We were behind by ~150 pins when I was getting ready to throw my last ball.  Amazing....bow.  Game 2 goes to Team MONAY.  Pero hindi pa tapos....

Sisipa pa ang SISIW sa loob ng BALUT!  With Bandidong BALUT Edmer bowling a fabulous 180 in the second game, with a whopping three strikes in the 10th frame, he was set to continue bowling in the groove in GAME 3.  And bowl up a storm he did!  My struggles ended in the third game as well, Super Striker Girl was back.  And to make it even better, my Secret Weapon with the Batman tail Lowen found his authentic swing.  So while Team MONAY continued to play well in the third game, Team BALUT gave them a good fight.  A close and exciting fight, but a good spirited fight that in the end, went to the ever hopeful and always optimistic though always downtrodden Team BALUT.  We all bowled above our averages: Edmer bowled a fantabulous 192, Lowen the Magnificent bowled a 140, and I had a 179.  Chelo had an incredibowl 148, Edwin struggled and logged in at 132, and Art was all in the 200's all night, with a 200 in the third game.  Yebah, my friends!  Two points a apiece for MONAY and BALUT.  It's a tie, and a match we are happy to share with such good friends and great competitors.

Dear Alice and Chona/String were there to handle the 50/50 raffle.  Chelo was the lucky winner of $46, biggest pot so far!  Team MONAY earned the distinction of being the only team with all three players as winners of the 50/50 raffle.  Art even won it twice.   They are truly in the MONAY! 

Since the blog is late, the official league standings are already posted on the Palace website.  It was such an exciting night with many, many outstanding performances = way to go, leaguers!  Week 9 outcomes and league standings from my tracking spreadsheet (which match the Palace info) are provided here:

Team #	TEAM	RANK	CURRENT			Wk 9
			win	loss		win	loss
7	DAING	1	25.5	10.5		4	0
3	KROPEK	2	23	13		3	1
9	PISBOL	3	22	14		3	1
8	ADOBO	4	21.5	14.5		4	0
4	TAPSILOG	5	20	16		1	3
5	MONAY	6	17	19		2	2
1	LAPU-LAPU	7	17	19		0	4
10	SISIG	8	12	24		0	4
2	BALUT	9	11.5	24.5		2	2
6	GOTO	10	10.5	25.5		1	3

So next weekend November 10 is a bye week, to allow folks to practice for the finals on November 17.  A few reminders about the finals:

• Bowling fee of $15 will still be due on day of the finals.
• We will have a potluck dinner, please bring something to share = tables will be set up on the dance floor as early as 6 pm so we can enjoy dinner before we play.  Pizza and soda will be provided.
• We will have the awarding of the cash prizes right after the finals (same night).  We are distributing the $282 earnings from 50/50 raffle to all players, such that each player will receive at least $20 (100% increase from original budget, yebah!).  In addition, we doubled the special individual prizes for male players, such that 50% of individuals will be receiving special prizes (10 male and 5 female).  O di ba?  Limpak limpak na salapi!

We will be sending out more email reminders and details about the finals in the days leading up to November 17.  I still owe you a pahabol blog, with songs for ADOBO, TAPSILOG and MONAY (hmm, masarap pagsamahin ah...).  We 're going out with a BANG, my dear MFL players!

Da-DAING ba ang KROPEK sa finals?  O dudurugin ba ng KROPEK ang DAING?  It's the super DEO battle, Alice vs Joel!  Naks, super galing nila, uy! Abangan, abangan, oks na oks, exciting! 

See y'all at the lanes...bowl, baby, bowl!