The End of a Career

Call it Consistently Inconsistent, Men's F'ing Rea, MFR, MFR minus Judas, Middleton Forever Reigns, or The Well Hung Jury...the names have changed but the good times never did. And now the career (which started as two guys begging for two random teammates after the deadline for signing up) is now over. Daniel and I could have ended up with anyone from Bart Keyes to Brian Smith, but the two people daring enough to sign up were Abbie and Brodie. Friendships locked in forever, even though Abbie moved on to an estrogen-laced team and we added Kelley.

The semifinal opponent was The Blev Stube, and the game essentially was a mirror of last week for 18 frames. We won the first by a slim margin again (this time 11), and we were essentially up by 15 in the 8th when the foundation frame came up. They rocked it, we did not. It hurts when they string together 4 in a row and then a double in the last couple frames...but I'm sure Eckenrode knows how I feel lol. So no magical run to our first final. Before we shut the book on it, I kept track of how we did over time and it's interesting to see how much better we've gotten over time.

1L Fall Semester
Team Record: 11-10
Team Average: 438.6
Dave - 139
Brodie - 140
Abbie - 90
Daniel - 70
We were the #15 seed in a 16 team playoff, won the first round, lost in the quarterfinals (13-14)

1L Spring Semester
Team Record: 13-11
Team Average: 461.5
Dave - 140
Brodie - 143
Abbie - 98
Daniel - 80
We finished in 11th place, but missed the 16 team playoff because the league manager decided to stack the playoffs with the top 8 in the standings and the next 8 highest team averages (which we weren't good enough for)...the king of bowling league bullshit there. (13-11)

2L Fall Semester
Team Record: 13-8
Team Average: 488.1
Dave - 154
Brodie - 132
Abbie - 106
Daniel - 95
We finished as the #1 seed in an 8 team playoff. Lost in the quarterfinals. (14-10)

2L Spring Semester
Team Record: 17-7
Team Average: 473.7
Dave - 136
Brodie - 140
Kelley - 118
Daniel - 82
We finished as the #2 seed in a 16 team playoff. Won the first round, won quarterfinals, and lost in the semifinals (24-9). One note is that we went 22-2 against 8 opponents and 2-7 in three weeks against eventual champion Bill Browne's team...how painful.

3L Fall Semester
Team Record: 17-7
Team Average: 489.8
Dave - 145
Brodie - 142
Kelley - 110
Daniel - 93
We finished as the #4 seed in an 8 team playoff. Lost in the quarterfinals. (18-9)

3L Spring Semester
Team Record: 17.5-9.5
Team Average: 499.5
Dave - 147
Brodie - 145
Kelley - 114
Daniel - 95
We finished as the #6 seed in an 8 team playoff. Won the quarterfinals, lost the semis. (21.5-11.5)

So with the interesting setback of 2L Spring Semester (which was really our most dominant performance of a season), we improved the whole way. That's enough of the stats, and it's time to officially close the book. Grand total: 103.5-64.5. I'd call that a nice career friends, especially for a team that was made up by random chance!

Props
MFR, the designer line by Alan Michaels
Everson's sniping ability
The Sleeping Giant
Bullshit pin action
Long Sleeve
Middleton
Cane's Chicken Fingers
Awesome costumes
1 Tall Blue Moon, 1 Large Pepsi (or a Rum and Coke), and 1 order of Fries
And many other inside jokes to numerous to mention.

Slops
Inconsistency
Bill Browne's consistent 220 games against us
Plumber crack 1L-2L year
Pocket shot splits and Brodie's 10 pins left
The playoff system
The people who ran the league
Neck cramps
Inconsiderate opponents starting practice at 9:00 or before when hardly anybody shows up before 9:10-9:15
Lane 6, and every other lane which messed up constantly
Having to move on to a real adult league next year (well that's kind of a split decision actually)