Baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks enjoyed the game so much that he was known for saying, "It's a great day for a ball game, let's play two!"
Mike Weems Jr. had a similar feeling about bowling perfect games on the night of Thursday, March 5 at Mountain Sun Lanes in Bellevue.
In Thursday Night Mixed league play Weems enjoyed his sixth sanctioned 300 game so much that he went out and threw back-to-back perfect games—24 consecutive strikes in all, for an 841 scratch series.
Weems, 31, with a high league average of 229 this year, came back from a bowling trip to Las Vegas with a head of steam. He threw a 241 in his first game, then 300 in his second game and 300 in the third and final game for his highest scratch series ever, 841.
"It's actually very rare to throw back-to-back 300 games," said Weems, who now has seven sanctioned 300 games, five coming since December 2007. Just this bowling season, Weems has thrown four 300s.
Weems said, "It's still pretty exciting. I would always say to bowl 300 you need a little luck."
The operator of The Drilling Room pro shop at the Bellevue alleys, Weems packed his eight or nine tournament balls and traveled with Mike Tackett and Arco's Eric Bywater to the U.S. Bowling Congress (USBC) Open national bowling tournament Feb. 28-March 3 at the Cashman Center in North Las Vegas.
He bowled for the 504th-place Snake River Bowl squad with Hailey resident Tackett, Steve Studer and Justin Studer of Rupert, and Tyson Hirsch of Burley. Weems did OK, with a 582 singles series with a high game of 213, plus 1216 doubles (high 234) and 1697 all-events.
While in Las Vegas, he played a couple of side tournaments, winning $260 in a pot for a 40-frame game. Weems also spent some time and did some video analysis of his delivery with Gold Level bowling coach Mike Jasnau of Utah. It helped.
Two days later he came back to his home house, Mountain Sun Lanes, and threw his 15-pound Storm Hyroad ball into the pocket with such consistency that Weems had two more 300s.
"Some of my friends called up and told me they've never had back-to-back 300s," he said.
