Pin stuck in ball return. Unusual? I say YES!

[panbanger]

Sunday at league the teams playing to the right of us stopped getting their balls back. Alley employees check the ball return, pull the panel off the floor directly behind it - no dice. They start pulling the ball return covers off one by one, and about halfway down the lane there is the culprit - a bowling pin! The pin managed to get caught up in the ball return mechanism and made its way halfway down the alley before finally stopping.

I thought to myself "well there's something I've never seen before". So there is my amazing story.

What's something you've seen that made you think the same?

[e-tank]

that actually happened at my alley a few weeks ago during cosmic bowling lol

And for me it was seeing a drunk guy basically do a machuga flop onto the lane. Idk why his friends let him keep bowling cuz he was obviously smashed but i got laughs at his expense haha

[ecub]

That happened at well during our Men's league.

[panbanger]

And here I thought I was seeing something rare! Interesting.

A few weeks back one of a guy's grips came loose about halfway down the lane and it flew maybe 4 lanes over and landed in the gutter. That was pretty cool to see.

[swingset]

A few years ago we were throwing some practice after league, and some open bowlers beside us was a big group. One of them was a girl who had never bowled before. The boyfriend is having her "mock" swing right next to the return. She whips her arm back and the ball comes flying off, sails backwards a good 10' and hits a bucket full of ice and beers right in the middle of the table, sending all of them scattering like pins...and everyone who's sitting there diving away from it, like bigger bowling pins.

Was pretty impressive. We had a good laugh...probably more than the bar maid that had to clean it up.

[J Anderson]

38 years of bowling and I've never seen a pin come part way back on the ball return. I've seen a grip fly out and land on the next lane, had a real good view as it was my ball. Haven't seen a Machuga flop in person, I did do an unintentional face plant on the lane when I forgot to switch the soles back to left handed on my SST8s after a couple of right handed practice games. I've seen plenty of balls get dropped on the back swing. I've seen bowlers hit the sweep because they didn't look at the rack before setting up and starting their approach. And I used to bowl at a center where some of the ball returns would send certain balls, mine was one of them, right off the rack and on toward the settee area.

[billf]

Twice this season I saw my team captain on Tuesdays shoot a spare and have both the pin and ball hit the back wall so hard that the pin came half way back up the alley and the ball all the way back to the seats.

Once I had a grip come out, go almost straight up. I saw it and caught it after the ball hit the pins all the while maintaining the finish position.

Saw a girl on the high school team leave AND convert the 5-7-10 in consecutive frames. After the second she turned and said, "I'm so tired of leaving that spare." That was at a state regional match.

[bowl1820]

Okay let's see:

1-I've seen the pin in the ball return before.

2-a Ball come back with a piece of a pin stuck in the thumbhole.

3-The mechanic who got his head caught in the pinsetter (it was turned off), when he pulled a stuck pin out and it grabbed his head.

4-a chair get threw down the lanes and a pair of shoes too.

5-the pinsetter set a full rack of pins in front of the sweeper and the pins get threw all the way down the lane and back to the approach.

6-a heart attack on the approach.

7- a guy come by and snort my talcum powder off the table.

8- the lane machine fall off into the pit. (that thing is as heavy as a chunk of lead! I helped them get it out.)

[jbeck]

This past Saturday I left a 5/10 split according to the scoreboard, but the 10 pin was launched into the right upper corner still visible. Not sure if they ever got it out of there.

[martinezsam2495]

The funniest story, that has happened to me in bowling, was when the pins had just reset, and it was my turn to throw the ball. I started my approach and cranked the ball at around 17 m.p.h. with a high rev rate, and the machine to pick up the pins came down for no reason! My ball kept going through, and hit the machine hard, the machine stopped, went up, behind the pins, and then sent them flying towards me. That was the first time I ever saw pins right in front of me. All of them slid down the lane. It was awesome, and it sucked. Awesome because that was the first time I've seen that, but crappy because it left my ball a "battle" scar. :/

[panbanger]

Once I had a grip come out, go almost straight up. I saw it and caught it after the ball hit the pins all the while maintaining the finish position.



http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4119/4876696414_d3f62d18be_z.jpg

[panbanger]

Okay let's see:

1-I've seen the pin in the ball return before.

2-a Ball come back with a piece of a pin stuck in the thumbhole.

3-The mechanic who got his head caught in the pinsetter (it was turned off), when he pulled a stuck pin out and it grabbed his head.

4-a chair get threw down the lanes and a pair of shoes too.

5-the pinsetter set a full rack of pins in front of the sweeper and the pins get threw all the way down the lane and back to the approach.

6-a heart attack on the approach.

7- a guy come by and snort my talcum powder off the table.

8- the lane machine fall off into the pit. (that thing is as heavy as a chunk of lead! I helped them get it out.)

numbers 2 and 7! wow! They're all pretty wild, but those are my favorites. Number 6 sucks though :-(

[J Anderson]

Okay let's see:


6-a heart attack on the approach.



This reminds me of one night when my dad and I got swept by a team that for whatever reason had never won more than a single game from us. As I went to shake hands with Daryl after the match, his eyes rolled up and he keeled over backwards. Of course I thought that Daryl was just goofing on us, pretending that the shock of beating us all three games was too much for him. Turned out that it was a grand mal seizure, and he started to recover shortly after the E.M.T.s arrived.

[ArtVandelay]

5-the pinsetter set a full rack of pins in front of the sweeper and the pins get threw all the way down the lane and back to the approach.


Cool topic!

I have to agree with bowl1820. I saw the exact same thing once. Every pin came flying back down the lane. Some fell off the deck entirely. It was impressive. It happened on the lane next to me, and my teammate turns to them and said, "tough leave... Better pick them, up!"

[e-tank]

Okay let's see:
4-a chair get threw down the lanes and a pair of shoes too.

8- the lane machine fall off into the pit. (that thing is as heavy as a chunk of lead! I helped them get it out.)

4 reminded me on the time a group of people were throwing beer onto the lane while cosmic bowling. That was also the same night were there was throw up everywhere in the bathrooms. sink, urinal, toilet, floor. you name it, it was there

for 8 during one of the senior leagues that bowls the same night as i do, this older man rolled a good shot down the lane and the arm came down before the ball go there and i assumed the machine was just malfunctioning but the entire arm ended up falling off. The guy just looked around seeing if anyone else saw what just happened

[bjeffe1234]

Wow! @3,4 & 7.

[ArtVandelay]

4 reminded me...

...of Bob Knight.