Bingo: Trying to be chance’s chosen one
February 28, 2002 — When Bernie Olejnik took his seat behind the Bingo King Autotronic 7600, everybody shut up. Many in the crowd of nearly 100 at the Gainesville Elks Lodge on Sunday had been waiting more than an hour for this moment — waiting patiently for that first bright numbered ball to separate itself [...]
Wiffle Ball: Putting the ‘wiff’ in Wiffle
July 3, 2001 — I believe Wiffle Ball players peak at the age of 12. After that, it’s all downhill.
Perhaps physics has something to do with it. The lighter the bat, the lighter [...]
Darts: Learning the laws of cricket
November 7, 2000 — From the moment I walked into Sweetwater Billiards in Duluth, Jonathan Forrester was all business.
He was sizing me up. He was [...]
Horseshoes: Love conquers all
October 17, 2000 — Horseshoes and hand grenades.
Marcellous Love knows about both.
The 55-year-old Gainesville man grew up poor in the hills of [...]
Miniature Golf: Putt-putt with the prep stars
August 8, 2000 — Good golfers generally aren’t good miniature golfers, somebody told me recently.
That person was wrong. And so was I, for assuming that the opposite also holds true: That awful [...]
Croquet: ‘This isn’t going to make sense initially’
May 2, 2000 — I just finished playing my first game of croquet, and my head hurts. No, I was not struck with a mallet or plunked with a ball. It’s just that [...]
Pocket Billiards: ‘He shoots. He chalks. He walks.’
December 7, 1999 — “You’re in pretty bad shape there,” Jim Jennings said to me matter-of-factly.
He was describing the predicament that lay before me on the green felt of his pool table.
He could [...]