As most of you locals out there already know Jay Lanes Bowling Alley in Douglasville, PA went up in smoke early Saturday Morning. Over 100 firefighters fought the two alarm blaze which has caused an estimated damage of $850,000, and will more in likely go up as the days progress. Most of the Bowling Alley is destroyed.
Now I want to bring up another side of this that won’t be reported. Both Jim Reitnour another blogger with the Berks Blog Network, and myself both knew the owner Ed Satkowski pretty well from both of us competing there for several years, and from what I have been hearing at Berks Lanes today about the gossip of Ed burning down the place to cover his losses kind of shocked me.
Now let’s come clean. Jim and I can both tell you that Ed has been running in red ink with the business for at least 5 years now. The Bar & Grill Flyns Inn made very little of no money there either. Now a ton of factors were the cause of this ranging from Douglas Township, and Berks County taxing Ed into submission, and the fact that the former Pottstown Bowling Association having a close connection with Albert Blough who owns CHB Sports which includes Limerick Bowl, and Berks Lanes were trying to destroy him there. Limerick and Jay Lanes were bitter rivals in the business.
This whole issue brought me to a conversation that Jim Reitnour, and I had with Ed about two years ago about the future of Jay Lanes. Ed seemed more and more stressed about the amusement tax being put on him harder and harder where his open bowling rates were getting hard to compete with Blough, and said he would more in likely have to call it quits in a couple of years. This was two years ago almost to the day when we had this discussion.
August 14, 2006 at 12:38 am
Berks isn’t that dry outside, they just don’t strip their lanes, and their oil doesn’t move that much. It makes for easy scoring as long as you can stay consistent with your shot.
August 15, 2006 at 9:19 pm
I have been a head mechanic in this business for 15 years. Please don’t overly flatter yourself by thinking you have ANY clue as to what lane conditions are, or even what it takes to make them change. Just stick to your EASY ASS conditions and shut up. I can promise you Chris, without us, you wouldn’t score.
August 16, 2006 at 10:32 am
Why the hate? I made a simple comment. Where do you bowl?
August 16, 2006 at 10:32 am
oh, and work
August 16, 2006 at 10:07 pm
All it would take is changing the minimum required units of oil from 3 to 5, or even 8. That would stop these coast to coast hollywood Berks Lanes type hooks that people rely on. I remember when I was learning to bowl as a kid I was told to dig my own line, and not beg.
Now there are days I think Berks just puts down nothing on the outside period, and are just good at hiding it from USBC.
I remember when I worked at Hiester Lanes years ago when they still had bowlers, Bill Limpus would only put down 15 units in the middle, and leave the outsides bone dry, or god forbid Steve Gerringer (forgive me if i mispelled that), and Ken Pugh would start thowing a fit about not scoring high enough.
John Delp is a prime example of this. He can kick ass on the local level, but when he went PBA he had his ass handed to him.
Just my thoughts.
August 16, 2006 at 10:56 pm
Chris, where I bowled (just this summer) was jay lanes. And I mean no hate. I’m just tired of the “average” league bowlers continous complaints about something they know ABSOLOUTLY nothing about. And Matt, if 5 to 8 units of oil were applied to the outs (1 to 5,6,or even 7) corner pin carry would go completely bye-bye. You must remember that this is a game of angles. But on top of that… the ball has to hit. 8 units would work on a pattern of only about say… 28 feet. Right handers on a 5 board yank would have the ball in the left ditch at 40 feet. It just doesn’t work that way. Even with over 50 units crossing 15 to 15. And with balls nowadys that you don’t even have to open the box, they just hook out of it on their own and hook onto the drillpress, that just makes it even more complicated. Chris… as for where I work… I’m in Delaware county.
August 16, 2006 at 11:26 pm
I don’t bowl at Berks but signed up for a league there this fall so I didn’t just bowl at one house.
His name is Gehringer and he’s a great bowler. Pretty nice guy too. He’s a state HOFer too, so I’d say he’s pretty good.
August 17, 2006 at 12:49 pm
What I’m getting tired of is the cupcake conditions that seem to dominate all the houses in the area. As a league secretary, and carrying a 210 average. My complaint is more that there isn’t ENOUGH oil on the lanes.
If the Primadonnas at Berks, Jay, Rama, Limerick, etc. think they are that good, they why on earth don’t they move up to at least a sport shot. Better yet, how about a flat pattern like they faced in the US Open. I’d rather average 190 in a sport league than average 220 in a house league.
That brings me to the other issue. No house around here will EVER put down those kind of shots unless it is for a tournament. I’ve asked a couple of houses to create a PBA shot league. Not a single one of them would even bother (some lame excuse about the licensing requirements). I would be willing to wager that such a league would be a good drawing point for the 1st house that does it.
August 17, 2006 at 1:55 pm
I know guys that bowl can be very nice away from the lanes, but when they bowl they can be utter assholes. I’d give a list, but it would be too long to fit on this site.
August 17, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Well, I know a lot of bowlers who would probably quit if the lanes got tougher, and people who complain about BOR that have gone to Berks and have taken their money with them. I’d wager a lot of money would be lost in what is already a declining sport(league bowling).
August 17, 2006 at 3:01 pm
add: So I wouldn’t blame the houses, it’s the bowlers’ mentality.
August 17, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Where do you bowl Matt?
August 17, 2006 at 5:10 pm
I bowl Saturdays at Berks, and Jay sometimes during the winter, and might bowl at BOR this year, but I’m not sure yet.