Post by WineUdotKing on Jan 19, 2007 15:18:32 GMT -5
Legally blind bowler achieves 300 game
Jerry Black can't see the pins, but still topples them
By BILL BIGHAUS
Of The Billings Gazette Staff
Jerry Black can't drive because he's legally blind, so to get to his bowling league one Thursday night in late October he did what he usually does: Hop a ride on a couple of city buses and walk the remaining four blocks to Sunset Bowl.
Shortly after arriving, though, the 49-year-old Billings man did something truly extraordinary - he rolled a perfect 300 game.
"I didn't really think it would ever happen," said Black, whose 300 was 121 pins over his average. "It's like something you don't really expect."
Especially when you consider that Black's vision is impaired to the point he can't see anything when he looks straight ahead.
He was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease, a degenerative eye condition, in his early 20s. That extremely rare disorder caused the rapid loss of the central vision in both of his eyes.
"It's just like a giant blind spot," he said.
He has overcome his disability so well, though, it's hard to tell by watching him bowl that the pins are just a white blur in the distance to him.
And those pins just keep crashing despite the fact Black's partial blindness prevents him from reading his own score on the overhead scoreboard. He also can't see the faces of his teammates from more than three feet away in the dimly-lit bowling center, but he can tell them apart by their build and the way they walk and talk.
"I've got decent peripheral vision but I've got no center vision," he said. "So everything I do is with my peripheral vision."
Black, a right-hander and captain of The Pretenders team, certainly made excellent use of the vision he does have that Thursday night at Sunset while bowling on lanes 11 and 12 in the Federal league.
"I can't really see my spots up there (on the lane), but I know the lane is only so wide," he said. "I can see the gutters, of course. It's kind of like I'm throwing toward a certain area. You just know that a certain area is there for a certain pin, so that's kind of what I throw at."
After opening with a 165 game, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Black, armed with his 15-pound Brunswick Zone ball, strung 12 strikes together to really distinguish himself in his second game.
"I started feeling good and just found my shot," he recalled. "I relaxed and (the pins) started falling. I didn't get really nervous until probably the eighth frame."
Black, who was taught to bowl by his mother Bille and has been enjoying the sport for 44 years, said he found a reliable mark on the lanes - between the fifth and 10th board - and just consistently hit it. He has a smooth approach, with moderate hook on his ball.
He said he can't see clearly more than 10 feet down the lanes. Sometimes he'll have trouble distinguishing what pins are still standing on his second ball, so he'll ask his teammates for assistance so he can adjust his aim. They'll also tell him if one pin is lined up directly behind another.
But Black, whose previous high game was a 279, didn't need any help en route to his 300.
"My shot was there that night, at least for that period of time," he said. "It's not that often I can throw that many balls in the pocket. They were all in the pocket until the last one. I went Brooklyn (and hit high in the pocket)."
As the strikes mounted during his remarkable game, so did the attention and Black's level of nervousness.
"My hands were sweating so bad I couldn't dry my hand off. I was just praying the ball wouldn't go in the gutter," he said. "My friends quit talking to me after about the seventh frame. It was all quiet down on that end of the lanes. I guess I didn't really notice that everybody was watching."
When all of the pins toppled for the 12th time "all of my friends were up at the approach jumping up and down," said Black. "People were yelling stuff around me."
As for his own reaction: "It was a huge relief," he said. "My hands were shaking."
His longtime teammate, Ping Stiffarm, was out of town that week and missed Black's monumental 300.
"I didn't see it. He didn't either," said Stiffarm, while poking a little fun at his teammate. "I was really surprised he didn't call me. That's kind of the way he is."
Stargardt's disease, which is usually inherited, is a type of macular degeneration.
"It hits when you're younger and it runs its course fairly quickly," said Black, who wears glasses to enhance his peripheral view. "I went from 20-20 corrected to 20-200 in a matter of about six months."
His vision is now 20-300, and the retina damage he has suffered is irreversible.
"There's only like 25,000 cases in the United States," he said of Stargardt's. "Basically it's not cost-effective for them to work on a cure because there are not enough cases."
It's the competition that keeps Black coming to the bowling center.
"There are not many other things you can do when you've got bad eyes," he said. "I bowl and I golf."
Black, whose bowling average has climbed to 185 since the 300 game and also plays to an 18 handicap in golf, works as a contracting officer for Indian Health Service in Billings. The South Dakota native, who was born in Pine Ridge and is a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe, has lived and bowled here since 1996.
"I don't consider it a real handicap anymore," he said of dealing with his blindness on the lanes. "It's more of an inconvenience than anything else."
At work, his computer has magnifying software to enlarge the words on his screen. His office also has a closed-circuit TV system with a magnifying camera to help him read printed material.
Away from the office and bowling center, Black uses binoculars to watch his 16-year-old daughter Alex, a sophomore, play varsity basketball for Billings West.
Ryan Macdonald, 26, works and bowls with Black - and was there jumping, yelling and celebrating the night of the 300.
"When you see Jerry bowl and golf, you forget that he's (nearly) blind," said Macdonald. "I'm reminded every day at work because he has a lot of equipment that helps him read a document. It hits home that what he did (in rolling a 300) is really incredible."
Black received $300 from Sunset Bowl for his perfect game and a special ring from the United States Bowling Congress. There are over 3,000 league bowlers in Billings this season - and just six have 300s.
"It's just like a dream," Black said of his. "If you bowl or do any sport you always want to have perfection for even one time. Basically what happened was for one night and one game I was perfect.
"I was kind of scared to go to sleep that night because I felt like I was going to wake up and it was all going to be a dream and it didn't really happen."
Jerry Black can't see the pins, but still topples them
By BILL BIGHAUS
Of The Billings Gazette Staff
Jerry Black can't drive because he's legally blind, so to get to his bowling league one Thursday night in late October he did what he usually does: Hop a ride on a couple of city buses and walk the remaining four blocks to Sunset Bowl.
Shortly after arriving, though, the 49-year-old Billings man did something truly extraordinary - he rolled a perfect 300 game.
"I didn't really think it would ever happen," said Black, whose 300 was 121 pins over his average. "It's like something you don't really expect."
Especially when you consider that Black's vision is impaired to the point he can't see anything when he looks straight ahead.
He was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease, a degenerative eye condition, in his early 20s. That extremely rare disorder caused the rapid loss of the central vision in both of his eyes.
"It's just like a giant blind spot," he said.
He has overcome his disability so well, though, it's hard to tell by watching him bowl that the pins are just a white blur in the distance to him.
And those pins just keep crashing despite the fact Black's partial blindness prevents him from reading his own score on the overhead scoreboard. He also can't see the faces of his teammates from more than three feet away in the dimly-lit bowling center, but he can tell them apart by their build and the way they walk and talk.
"I've got decent peripheral vision but I've got no center vision," he said. "So everything I do is with my peripheral vision."
Black, a right-hander and captain of The Pretenders team, certainly made excellent use of the vision he does have that Thursday night at Sunset while bowling on lanes 11 and 12 in the Federal league.
"I can't really see my spots up there (on the lane), but I know the lane is only so wide," he said. "I can see the gutters, of course. It's kind of like I'm throwing toward a certain area. You just know that a certain area is there for a certain pin, so that's kind of what I throw at."
After opening with a 165 game, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Black, armed with his 15-pound Brunswick Zone ball, strung 12 strikes together to really distinguish himself in his second game.
"I started feeling good and just found my shot," he recalled. "I relaxed and (the pins) started falling. I didn't get really nervous until probably the eighth frame."
Black, who was taught to bowl by his mother Bille and has been enjoying the sport for 44 years, said he found a reliable mark on the lanes - between the fifth and 10th board - and just consistently hit it. He has a smooth approach, with moderate hook on his ball.
He said he can't see clearly more than 10 feet down the lanes. Sometimes he'll have trouble distinguishing what pins are still standing on his second ball, so he'll ask his teammates for assistance so he can adjust his aim. They'll also tell him if one pin is lined up directly behind another.
But Black, whose previous high game was a 279, didn't need any help en route to his 300.
"My shot was there that night, at least for that period of time," he said. "It's not that often I can throw that many balls in the pocket. They were all in the pocket until the last one. I went Brooklyn (and hit high in the pocket)."
As the strikes mounted during his remarkable game, so did the attention and Black's level of nervousness.
"My hands were sweating so bad I couldn't dry my hand off. I was just praying the ball wouldn't go in the gutter," he said. "My friends quit talking to me after about the seventh frame. It was all quiet down on that end of the lanes. I guess I didn't really notice that everybody was watching."
When all of the pins toppled for the 12th time "all of my friends were up at the approach jumping up and down," said Black. "People were yelling stuff around me."
As for his own reaction: "It was a huge relief," he said. "My hands were shaking."
His longtime teammate, Ping Stiffarm, was out of town that week and missed Black's monumental 300.
"I didn't see it. He didn't either," said Stiffarm, while poking a little fun at his teammate. "I was really surprised he didn't call me. That's kind of the way he is."
Stargardt's disease, which is usually inherited, is a type of macular degeneration.
"It hits when you're younger and it runs its course fairly quickly," said Black, who wears glasses to enhance his peripheral view. "I went from 20-20 corrected to 20-200 in a matter of about six months."
His vision is now 20-300, and the retina damage he has suffered is irreversible.
"There's only like 25,000 cases in the United States," he said of Stargardt's. "Basically it's not cost-effective for them to work on a cure because there are not enough cases."
It's the competition that keeps Black coming to the bowling center.
"There are not many other things you can do when you've got bad eyes," he said. "I bowl and I golf."
Black, whose bowling average has climbed to 185 since the 300 game and also plays to an 18 handicap in golf, works as a contracting officer for Indian Health Service in Billings. The South Dakota native, who was born in Pine Ridge and is a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe, has lived and bowled here since 1996.
"I don't consider it a real handicap anymore," he said of dealing with his blindness on the lanes. "It's more of an inconvenience than anything else."
At work, his computer has magnifying software to enlarge the words on his screen. His office also has a closed-circuit TV system with a magnifying camera to help him read printed material.
Away from the office and bowling center, Black uses binoculars to watch his 16-year-old daughter Alex, a sophomore, play varsity basketball for Billings West.
Ryan Macdonald, 26, works and bowls with Black - and was there jumping, yelling and celebrating the night of the 300.
"When you see Jerry bowl and golf, you forget that he's (nearly) blind," said Macdonald. "I'm reminded every day at work because he has a lot of equipment that helps him read a document. It hits home that what he did (in rolling a 300) is really incredible."
Black received $300 from Sunset Bowl for his perfect game and a special ring from the United States Bowling Congress. There are over 3,000 league bowlers in Billings this season - and just six have 300s.
"It's just like a dream," Black said of his. "If you bowl or do any sport you always want to have perfection for even one time. Basically what happened was for one night and one game I was perfect.
"I was kind of scared to go to sleep that night because I felt like I was going to wake up and it was all going to be a dream and it didn't really happen."
LOL