Blind bowler gets perfect score

Dale Davis, 78, of Alta, Iowa, bowled a perfect 300 last weekend. He's legally blind. From the Storm Lake Times:

“It was quite a thrill,” Davis said of the achievement. “When I got to the tenth frame, I said ‘Lord, let me throw three more good balls..."

“I can’t see the lane or the pins and have a heck of a time finding my ball sometimes,” Davis said with a laugh of his bowling skills. “I can kinda see the dots on the floor to know where I start. After that, I rely on my hearing and other people to tell me what’s going on.”

When he doesn’t throw a strike, fellow bowlers like Century Lanes owner and good friend Clem Ledoux tell Davis what pins are still standing. The blind bowler then finds his bearings with the dots on the lane, approaches and hurls his next shot.

Link

[#1 posted by Daddyology, May 12, 2008 9:42 AM]

So, according to our national media, he's more qualified to be President than Obama ...

;-)

More seriously, though, that's truly amazing. I bowled for a long time (170 average over about six years -- not too shabby) and never even got close to 300 (260).

I tip my glasses to the guy.

[#2 posted by maxoid, May 12, 2008 10:45 AM]

that is just ten kinds of awesome

ten pins of awesome, even.

[#3 posted by shmengie, May 12, 2008 11:02 AM]

nobody likes a show off.

[#4 posted by ill lich, May 12, 2008 11:07 AM]

zen.

[#5 posted by Tenn, May 12, 2008 11:36 AM]

I need melon ballers to remove my eyes to improve my game. Oh, perhaps we should blind Obama too right? Then he'll be able to beat Clinton in the lanes (and the primaries!)

[#6 posted by JSG, May 12, 2008 11:57 AM]

Good for him, I wonder if a under inflated balloon bounced from the ceiling?

Does this mean that a blind man can bowl better than the two democratic candidates?

[#7 posted by MoshiLynne, May 12, 2008 12:53 PM]

Lolol, this reminds me of the "Stayin' Alive" video by Young @ Heart...

I saw it here before I came to boingboing though: http://www.dhadm.com/content/legally-blind-78-year-old-bowls-a-perfect-game/

Here is a link to where I found Young @ Heart:
http://xrl.us/bkf9i

[#8 posted by Art Carnage, May 12, 2008 1:54 PM]

How nice of his friends to, um, *tell* him he bowled a perfect game. I wonder what the score really was...

[#9 posted by Ricardo Christe, May 12, 2008 7:17 PM]

According to the news piece, Mr. Dale Davis "has amassed over 65 years of experience with the sport". Bowling practice is in many ways a repeat motion -- most playing time is spent adjusting that motion until getting the ball to strike perfectly, as often as possible.

Sixty-five years seems, to me at least, a quite believable time frame for a dedicated player to reach a point where he can "play it blind"...

Congrats to the veteran!

[#10 posted by EH, May 12, 2008 8:54 PM]

Art@8: Not only that, but it was actually his third one!