Steve DiBernardo bowls a 300 at Spin Alley during Monday night Trio's League

Steve DiBernardo bowls at Spin Alley
Photo by Marci Hanberg

What goes on in the mind of a bowler bowling a perfect game? Steve DiBernardo is that bowler and he shares his game thinking

By Steve DiBernardo at Spin Alley in Shoreline

On the approach, we all have thoughts in the playground of our minds. During the 10th frame of a game two, it was my knees doing all the thinking and they began shaking.  All I had to do was roll one more ball, one more time, for a 12th strike.  300.  A perfect game.  A dream.

Some might say, it was the penny I found at the back of lane 10, before the game.  Heads up, 1964, a lucky find as lore describes.  It occurred to me that 1964 was the year I celebrated my 12th birthday.  Hmm... 12 strikes?

One of the many thoughts that were shaking in my knees as I stood at the approach on lane 10 to let that 12th shot roll away from my fingers.  I looked down at my knees and said out loud, "Stop it".  Then, I listened to the silence of an amazingly quiet bowling alley..  "What's the worst that can happen?  297, 298, 299?

In the end, I had to make the shot, let it go.  The pins fell, the score was perfection.