PBA Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech
From the bottom of my heart I’d like to thank the PBA for inducting me into its Hall of Fame. I’m honored and deeply touched.
Bowling has been an important part of my life since I was a kid growing up in Yonkers, New York. It started for me at about the age of 9, the same age as my son Max is now. Max is here with me tonight, but he’s a bit shy so please don’t clap too loud!
It all started with bowling birthday parties, same as it does for many kids. No bumpers back then — a gutter ball was a gutter ball.
Lincoln Park Lanes in Yonkers was my home alley. It also became kind of my home away from home — I bowled in a Saturday league there for about 5 years. Lincoln Park was about a mile from my house. The boys I bowled with weren’t my neighbors or friends, just a group of kids who all shared a love of bowling. My team was called “On The Money.” Sometimes we were, sometimes we weren’t.
As I recall, we won the league championship once or twice. I wasn’t the best bowler on the team — that was a kid called Tommy who was about 2 years older. Sadly, it wasn’t tonight’s Tommy (PBA Hall of Fame 2020 Inductee Tommy Jones). If it had been, we would have won every year!
When I was about 14 I got my first ball and my first pair of bowling shoes — the lovely ones I’m wearing tonight. They may have…
