Talk Bronx New York

 

As the Yankees prepared to take on the Angels, high school bowlers, some in homemade uniforms, battled at Ball Park Lanes in the Bronx

 

Two teammates shared a pair of headphones as they lustily sang along to Jay-Z’s newest anthem. Another group tried not to get caught sizing up the competition, while a few others flirted with girls who came to watch the Friday night showdown in the Bronx.

No, not the Yankees game — that was later, and across the street. This was a public school bowling match, six high schools battling across 15 lanes in a bowling alley that has seen Yankees dynasties rise and fall like so many clusters of bowling pins.

As the high-schoolers laced up their red-and-blue shoes, the Yankees prepared a block away for the opening of the American League Championship Series — perhaps the biggest game the storied franchise has played since 2004. The Yankees contest added extra sizzle to the midseason bowling match.
“It’s exciting,” said Jose Suncar, coach of the A. Philip Randolph Campus High School team. “We should be ready to compete, just like the Yankees and Angels — no matter the weather.”

Downstairs at Ball Park Lanes, a different kind of excitement was building by late afternoon as waiters wiped down the bar and the first fans of the evening pushed through the door, trickles before the flood

The bowling alley is a Bronx institution that may not be quite as beloved as the boys in pinstripes, but, some years at least, it feels more reliable. Dan Pedraza, a school social worker, plays here every Friday with teachers from Public School 126 in Highbridge. Jerry Eng comes here twice a week with his Bronx High School of Science team. And before most Yankees games, Steve Ring comes here with his brother Don for a beer, or several.

Ball Park Lanes opened 50 years ago, said its owner, George Diamontis, who has run the business for 32 of them. This year, he said, has been one of the worst. The bowling alley faces the old Yankee Stadium — a prime spot that for decades guaranteed steady business. But with the Yankees moving to their new home across the street, Mr. Diamontis said, “it’s been not so good, not so good.”

The bowling alley’s fortunes are twinned with those of the Yankees, he explained. When the team plays deep into October, so do his customers. When they do not, these Bronx streets can get pretty quiet.

“I like the Yankees to win,” he said. “It’s good for the business; it’s good for the city.”

Upstairs at the bowling alley, members of Mr. Eng Bronx Science team were defending their undefeated record. They could be called the Yankees of their division, and representatives of the other schools in the room conceded that they were the favorite again this year.

But the Bronx is not known as a bowling powerhouse.

In Staten Island, many high school players bring their own balls and shoes, Bronx coaches said, and even the reserves are said to bowl more strikes than not.

Here, in the poorest urban county in the nation, the South Bronx High School team did not even have jerseys for the match Friday. The players wore gold T-shirts, each one decorated differently with black marker.

“Most of the kids have never bowled before,” said Randy Cantor, coach of the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics bowling team. “This is just something to go to after school.”

That does not mean the games are not intense. Edrianny Rodriguez, a Manhattan Center junior, whooped after bowling a strike, and with her arms crossed into an X, bumped forearms with each of her teammates.

Another Manhattan Center bowler, Christopher Sierra, 17, rolled a 228 out of a possible 300 — the best score of his career, which began four months ago.

“I’m a Yankee fan, and I’m trying to give them a boost,” he said. “If I bowl good, they’ll play good.”

As the high school games wound down, the bar downstairs heated up. By 6 p.m., the room was filled with a heady mix of playoff buzz and $5 Miller Genuine Draft. The crowd wore vintage jerseys, as if to summon benevolent ghosts, and contemporary ones, to lend support to unproven stars. Or, like Freddy Tonelli, they wore a Fu Manchu down to the sternum.

“I’ve had it for 14 years,” Mr. Tonelli said of his braided mustache. He said an out-of-town TV news channel offered him $5,000 to shave on camera during the Yankees’ last playoff run, but he turned it down. If it offered again? “No way.”

As for the undefeated Bronx Science Bombers? They lost to A. Philip Randolph.

Selman Mujovic, a Bronx Science bowler, was asked if the defeat boded ill for the Yankees’ World Series hopes.

“Let’s hope not,” he said.

SOURCE

Tags: American League Championship Series, Ball Park Lanes, bowling, Bronx Education, Bronx High School of Science, Bronx News, Bronx People, Events In The Bronx, Highbridge, Manhattan Center, schools, South Bronx, Sports, The Bronx, Yankee Stadium

Related posts

• And what a year it was The Bronx saw its share of high drama, low comedy in 2008 (0)
• Still Dreaming the Dream (0)
• What accounts for Bronx schools’ lack of success in bowling alley? (0)
• Faces in the Rubble (0)
• A Game of Inches (0)

 

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post