The Popcorn Stand: I could get bowled over with this idea

I like to bowl. I’m OK at it. Never have come close nor will I ever come close to bowling a 300 game. So I was really impressed to see what Ben Ketola was able to accomplish in Cortland, N.Y. He rolled a perfect game — in less than a minute and a half.

Ketola decided to see how fast he could bowl one game going from lane to lane. Never did he imagine he would roll 12 straight strikes for a perfect 300 score — in 86.9 seconds. And I think Ketola has come up with a new sport — speed bowling.

Bowling isn’t exactly considered one of the more exciting sports there is, but believe it or not — and I’m sure Millennials will find this hard to believe — at one time bowling was sort of a Saturday past time, right up there with watching college football and the NFL.

I could remember as a kid sitting in front of the TV and watching Chris Schenkel and Nelson Burton Jr. telling me about the strategy of picking up the whatever split while watching professional bowlers compete in the tournament of the week.

Of course it was a 90-minute show and there’s no way I would sit down for 90 minutes to watch a professional bowling tournament now.

But watching bowlers go from lane to lane trying to bowl one game as fast as they can, I could actually watch that. Even 86.9 seconds seems quite fast so let’s give the bowlers, let’s say, 2 minutes to finish their game and if they go over 2 minutes, then they get penalty points taken off their score.

It certainly wouldn’t be bowling for stallers.

You can watch Ketola’s perfect game here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bowler-rolls-perfect-game-so-fast-you-wont-believe-it_us_58fe2331e4b06b9cb918df6c?section=us_weird-news

— Charles Whisnand