J. Darin Darst

A few of the guys from work went bowling last night to practice for our upcoming bowling league.

This is what my life has become -- poker on Monday, bowling on Wednesday, golf on Saturday. Old man sports. Not that I'm complaining, some of my friends aren't allowed out of the house more than once a week because their mommy (wife) won't let them play with their friends.

But its just funny to look back and see what I was doing Pre-Marriage/Child and Pre-Knee Problems. It was competitive men's softball Tuesday, sometimes Wednesday, basketball Friday and Sunday was either co-ed softball or men's flag football depending on the season. 

But no more, its poker, bowling and golf. Remember when you were like 17 and you thought golf was boring and only your grandfather played it? Same with bowling. Only losers watch bowling and the only time you went to the bowling alley was to kill time on a Friday night during high school -- shoot some pool, goof off with your buddies and throw the 8-pound ball as hard as you could and with more spin than your friend.

Now I'm in a bowling league with some guys from the office. Should be fun, I'm batting leadoff on the team, let's hope my 120 average is good enough to compete with the other late 30 beer drinking crowd.

On to some observations from last night.

- 14 year old girls dress like they are 25 and 55 year old women dress like they are 25. Scary. Who let's their 14 year old daughter dress like that to go bowling? You know the outfit I'm talking about. Note to my 2-year-old daughter. If you EVER dress like that, you are going to be locked in your room for months.

- You are really pushing the limits with your stomach with bowling alley food -- I went chicken wings last night. Not a great choice. A few weeks ago I went pizza. Again, anytime you leave the bowling alley with the thought of taking Pepto Bismol the second you get home, it's not a good thing.

- Is there anything else in non-professional sports as good as seeing all the pins come crashing down for a strike? I've played lots of sports throughout my life, but when that big "X" hits the scoreboard and you walk back to your seat, that's a pretty sweet feeling.

- To the people who have their 1-year-old sleeping in the stroller while you bowl is a little strange to me. Did you really need to come out and bowl that badly that night? Were you and hubby sitting at home saying, "I know little Johnny should be in bed by 8pm, but I REALLY have the urge to down some beers and bowl a 83 tonight." Unbelievable. Is there really any good time for a baby to be at the bowling alley?

- I'm all for music, while you are bowling, but the '80s slow love songs by Air Supply doesn't really get me pumped up to do my best.

Our league starts next week. All I can hope for at this point is to not finish last, not get sick off the food and not make a fool of myself. If I can avoid that, this is going to be fun.

I'm obsessed ... with bowl games.

I know, it's not healthy.

It definitely comes from my childhood where I used to set up four TVs in the living room on New Year's Day to watch all the games. Mom wasn't too happy when I took the TV out of her bedroom to watch four games at once.

Mom: "How can you watch four games at one time? You don't even know what's going on."

Me: "Sure I can, Georgia Tech is beating Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl! If they win, it's going to have to be a split national title!"

Mom: "Just make sure its back in my bedroom tonight so I can watch Rescue 911."

Ahh, Jan. 1, 1991. Memories.

Back to 2008.

I'm amazed to think what we've come to in this day and age is 34 bowl games. THIRTY-FOUR BOWLS?!?!? Do we really need that many?

Since when did bowl games become what everything else in society has become -- rewarding mediocrity. In the 1970s when I was in elementary school and we had a Field Day competition, the person that finished 4th got NOTHING. Top three get ribbons, the best were rewarded, the losers were not. That's how a compeititon works, you reward the people that succeed.

Now everybody wins. It's ok that little Curly Sue finished 43th out of 50 kids in her 3rd grade race. She gets a ribbon. Everybody wins! We wouldn't want you to go home and think you failed. You won! It's a great way to set up kids for life because that's how the real world works (being sarcastic). Just do an average job and get rewarded.

Now when Curly Sue goes to apply for a job at the local Panda Express in the mall when she's 16 and doesn't get it. Don't you think she's going to be a little confused because her whole life she's been never lost?

This is the same idiotic treatment we are getting from the so-called sport that I love -- college football.

Since when did we start rewarding teams for finishing .500? Are the NCAA and bowl officials worried that the players are going to feel bad when they go 6-6, while their friends went 8-3 are are playing in the Libery Bowl? It's called life college football, but I'm not surprised from a sport that continues to determine which two teams play for the championship by human voting and a computer ranking.

Way too many games. We could easily cut it down to 24. I know that won't make everybody happy, but we don't need Conference-USA getting six bids or the ACC getting nine, etc., etc. Let's make it so getting to a bowl is a tremendous accomplishment.

As for the actual games, look at some of the things