Phantoms Phan Club's "Meet and Greet"

Note: I edited the October 10 post to include a full game recap. If you haven't seen the updated version of that post, please do check it out.

The Phan Club -- actually, "Philadelphia Phantoms Phan Club", or PPPC for short -- had our Meet and Greet with the team this afternoon. For the past several years, we've had bowling parties where players from the team sit at lanes with fans and we bowl.

Well, I don't always bowl -- I discovered the hard way a few years ago that if I interpret (sign language) in the morning and bowl that same afternoon, the strength in my hands, which is limited on a good day thanks to carpal tunnel syndrome issues, generally gives out after about five or six frames. Then embarrassing things happen like, oh, dropping the bowling ball because my fingers literally can't hold onto it anymore. Yikes... so if the Meet and Greet is scheduled on the same day as I interpret, I don't bowl. And as for today, well -- even if I hadn't interpreted this morning, which I did, I'm still walking with a cane post-surgery and my knee's not recovered enough for me to entertain thoughts of bowling.

In any case, I did attend the event, and I had a nice time even without bowling. Sean Curry and Tim Ramholt, both of whom are new to the team this year, were at our lane. They're really nice guys. They, the other two fans at the lane, and I wound up discussing bowling (oddly enough, ;) ). Ramholt said that he was used to ten-pin bowling. That's not something I've seen before, so I asked him what the difference is. He said that the ball is smaller and between shots of the frame, they don't clear the fallen pins away. In other words, if you're trying to make a spare, not only do you have to hit the remaining pins, but you have to do so with the pins you already knocked down all lying there. Very interesting. Now I'm going to have to look this up on Google and see if there's anywhere around here to try this kind of bowling.

Or I might have to make a pilgrimage to Canada to find it. Imagine that encounter with their border guards at the airport.

"Reason for entering the country?"

"There's this game called ten-pin bowling that I'd like to try, and I can't find it at home." Think the border patrol will buy that? :)

ANYway... one thing that was disappointing to find out today was that Powe got hurt last night. I don't think there are concrete answers yet regarding just HOW hurt is "hurt", and if there are, nobody's saying. So I'll hope for the best, and say a prayer that he's not too badly dented and will be back in the lineup soon.

That's all for now!